WIBU to give baked goods as Christmas prezzies??

[PancakesOnATuesday]

I have a large family and often struggle to think what to buy them all, I like to bake and although I'm not a professional baker I do feel confident the things would come out nice. Things like chocolates and truffles, gingerbread men I can decorate with the little ones.
OH thinks that people might not like it knowing it's not store brought and might prefer a box of celebrations instead.
I've never received any home baked stuff as gifts so I don't know if it's a good idea or not.
My question really is would you prefer a store brought box of chocolates, over something maybe not as perfect but still nice??
I know it's only November btw I just get way to excited then an adult probably should over Christmas
Thanks for any replies xx

I'd be pleased to receive a well packaged home made gift from someone I knew to be clean with a clean kitchen. Longer the shelf life the better. And nothing that needs to go in the fridge, there's never the space at Christmas.

DH won't even eat anything made by our own child, no way he'd have something made by someone else's.

I'd rather receive something beautifully and thoughtfully made, than something from a shop!

I'm afraid I'm not a fan of 'home made' baked goods unless I know the person very well and have been in their kitchen!
As it's your family this may not be a problem though?

everyone goes mad for my macaroon

I don't really get the whole refusal to eat homemade presents things? Do you never go for dinner round at anyone elses house unless they are displaying their food hygiene certificate? Never eat cakes at work that someone has made at home and brought in? What do you think is going to happen?

If you are going to go to the effort of making it, then it seems a shame for the packaging to be done by the children. Unless they are your children, their creations are generally not that adorable

And if the packaging had been done by the little ones I would be concerned that they had 'helped' make the food too (even if there was a disclaimer )

Otherwise you get potentially lovely homemade food in packaging that just makes you wonder if you want to eat it!

Brownies are good as a home-baked gift as they keep well and most people like them. You can freeze them too. Plus they are easy to make in a big batch.
I wouldn't want gingerbread personally as it quickly gets a bit stale, and a lot of people don't actually like it! Also, being really honest here, like some other posters here I'm not keen on receiving edible things made or decorated by somebody else's kids as I always have that sneaking suspicion that they might have been licked or dribbled on or something... (sorry!)

I would prefer not - sorry.

Another problem I've realised from reading other posts (sorry!) is that you really need to know your audience.

For example I hate macaroons, gingerbread anything, chutney and jam with bits in would make me gag.

I'm also aware of the fact that my brother (who I'm actually very close to) wouldn't know that.

I do understand not eating stuff made by kids a bit more, although im a teacher and in particularly desperate times when im having a horrific day and am in need of a sugar rush, I have been known to scoff cakes made by a child even if they look well dodgy!

I think it's really thoughtful!
My SIL makes cranberry vodka as adult gifts every year, it started after getting carried away on Pinterest one year, now we get a get a updates on readiness

If it was jam tarts & lemon curd tarts like my late mum used to make then absolutely!

I'm crap at pastry & hers was always wonderful.

If it's stuff that people would make/bake/buy themselves though, seems pointless.

Depends, if someone made be brownies I would ditch the Christmas dinner for them! Haha! But yes I wonder about how long things are good for when it's homemade, although I do appreciate the sentiment.

I think personal and home-made gifts are much more charming especially at Christmas, and even more so if your DC can have a hand in it such as decorating the gingerbread.
But I'm quite anti the commercialisation and general out of handness of Christmas, so that's a factor for me too.
I might stock up on my friend's jams and chutneys, and give along with a candle, a book, and a game. That's a plan I thought of the other day.
Generally too I'm hoping to enjoy the pleasures of the season and not all about the pressies though I have yet to convince DS on that!

Livia fair enough, just trying to think how they could 'help' without getting into the food!

I make hampers for family and friends and occasionally take orders for their family and friends for the next year. All goods are packaged suitably and labelled with printed labels saying hamdmade for you at xxxx farm on top of the item then on the underside the ingredients are printed and any allergens (e.g. Celery) in bold. The ingredients are printed in small types but legible and once set up it takes no time to cut them out and stick on. I'm not a professional baker but do supply veg to the processing market so work with the food hygiene industry in other areas

I think you know your family and if you think they'll like it then go for it.

I've been getting 'orders' from people about what they want in their christmas hampers. I started by giving people blackcurrant jam one year when I was absolutely skint (blackcurrants from my Nana's garden, new jars cheap from a closing down farm shop and some ribbon).

I do think jams and chutneys are a better option than homebaking though. I make some sweets to go in mind (coconut ice, tablet) but not too much as people have so many already.

Also if you see people before Christmas and they know what is coming that can help also. I meet with 3 cousins on Christmas Eve and they've all made sure that Cranberry Sauce will be part of their bag so they know they don't have to buy any!

When I was growing up, we had a elderly iesh neighbour. She was lovely but she wasalways locking herself out or something was stuck. Simple things we could help out with.

Every Christmas she would come round with the most enormously tall and delicious sponge cake (Mum told her she didn't like fruit cake) with some sort of marmalade buttercream. One year she came round with a box of biscuits and said I thought I buy these as you must be fed up with my cakes. We were gutted.

Love the idea of the vodka updates

Rugger

Totally understand but it would put a lot of people off - probably better for the children not to help if at all possible - home made can still look nice if it's a gift 🎁

I do homemade gifts for family as a supplement to their presents - always something with a long shelf life - e.g. fudge - packaged nicely, and the DC don't get within sniffing distance while it's being made or packaged. I'm pretty good at baking, if I want to blow my own trumpet, my food hygiene is up to scratch, and my family know that.

However I wouldn't give a homemade food gift to someone who doesn't know me well - they don't know how hygienic my kitchen is, or that I've definitely kept the kids away from it, and I wouldn't want to put them in a position where they think I'm imposing my baking on them and they won't eat it for fear of bugs/hairs.

I would throw out anything that children had a hand in making, tbh. Unless it was my own and I could monitor the hand washing, etc.

Personally, hand made gifts are a bit self-indulgent (for the giver). I'd rather get book vouchers!

But not everyone thinks that, of course.

I have in the past done homemade gifts of chutney, jam, chocolate truffles and Florentines. I've not given them as the main present, more as an add on, and they've been really well received. Last year for a couple of Secret Santas, as well as the shop bought present I put together a Christmas gift box (specifically for food, really reasonable from eBay) filled with home made brownie bites. People loved them!

I would obviously thank you for your gift and for thinking of me and would appreciate the gesture.

Whether it got eaten or not would depend on shelf life, what else we had in (eg if we had a gingerbread house, gingerbread men would probably languish until soggy), we have gazillions of chocolates at Christmas so probably wouldn't be appreciated so much and of course whether I liked it.

I'd love a nice chutney though.

And alcohol gifts. We've given out Atholl Brose as gifts before which was well received.

Sounds lovely... Yes please

I've made and given booze in past (bought beautiful bottles). I've tried limoncello, slow gin, raspberry gin, blackcurrant brandy (the latter went down very well).