home made christmas presents

[roundabout1]

I'm thinking of making presents for family & friends with my 5 yr dd. Any ideas, I like the thought of fudge & cookies but need something that I can make a few weeks in advance as am sure I will be busy doing other things come christmas eve! Any ideas most welcome

I have just made a "marvellous" piece of art for the grandparents that they will have to hang on their wall for ever

A3 canvas (half price in tesco last night)
Hand prints of DD1 DS1 DS2
Glitter sprinkled on whilst paint still wet
'Hello Granny Hello Grandpa' printed along the bottom in permanent pen by DD1 (7 yrs)

Actually looks very jolly & cute.

tea light holders, use an old CD for the base decorate with sparkly things and then glue on a tealight in the middle

Cranberry and Orange jelly in little jars. Mini Christmas cakes.

Cookie in a jar is what I'm doing this year for several friends. like this Am going to put a layer of M&Ms or smarties in the middle - looks really colourful.

I also have a brilliant oatmeal raisin recipe here but I add vanilla sugar in with the dry ingredients so they just add butter and egg.

Ikea do jars which are the perfect size for these and they're 99p. :)

My DS1 drew a really lovely picture of the four of us, and it was so good have decided to get him to draw pictures of the grandparents and then upload them onto mugs as Christmas presents.

Put 'em to work young I reckon.

Thsi year, we;re making sourdough decorations for DD's friends and cousins (last year we made pasta necklaces).
Will also be making gingerbread men / stars for her nursery friends and workers (last year we did chocolate truffles and year before that fudge).

Fudge, truffles and gingerbread men all keep for a while, so can be made a bit in advance

Was in John Lewis today. They had lots of gingerbread things - houses, snowflakes, men, advent calendars etc..... Also cornflake crispie houses. Nice looking bags with chocs in too. Thought we'd do some of those ideas here.

How about potpourri sachets? Being both 'consumable', and non edible, for people who are squeamish about eating kids cooking.

Get your Dd to pick fabrics and ribbons. You sew with a machine into a basic pouch. Get your dd to fill the pouch w. pot pourri and tie with a ribbon. Idea being that the person hangs it in their wardrobe to make their clothes smell nice.

In a similar vein, salt dough christmas decorations, which are good fun, but get a move on to give them time to dry.

In any case, keep it simpler than simple.

Meant SALT DOUGH, not sour dough as Sylvanian has reminded me in her post

Fridge magnets.
Small piece of thick card, covered by DC in what ever ( pics cut from mags/ stickers/ drawing/ photo) covered with sticky back plastic, glue a magnet or two ( depending on card weight) to the back.

Have you a tried and tested salt dough recipe?

I want to make some decorations, but keep finding different recipes. DC would be heartbroken if they didn't work!

We collected lovely pebbles on a beach walk earlier in the year. I have seriously scrubbed them and the plan is to paint them, varnish them and glue felt to the bottom of them - end result hopefully will be a paperweight!
Gingerbread, as others have said, keeps for ages, as does fudge.

salt dough - made my first today and it was very easy

450g plain flour; 350g salt; 350ml water

didn't add any extra water, started mixing together with spoon, adding water slowly, then bought together with hands. it made quite a bit so cut in half to knead in two pieces before rolling.

i've made about 50 3in diameter stars about 5mm deep from it. I also used a straw to make a hole to hang them.

i bought a can of gold spray from the 99p stores and have started spraying them.

bake at gas3 for 2hrs. though I did mine at about gas2 as is fan assisted.

gingerbread men are fun and easy but don't transport well :(

i found some really nice xmas card ideas that kids can do on this site, haven't explored it but maybe there are present ideas too?

www.kidscraftweekly.com/christmas_cards.html

I made a nice picture for my Mum from DD last year - got a frame from Ikea with 3 windows in it and cut out parts of pictures - that way I got all the best bits from DD's 'art'.
This year I've taken a lovely picture of an angel she drew and am having it printed on a couple of shopping bags for Grannies and on mugs for Grandads. A cheaper option would be to decorate some plain mugs or similar - but DD is only 3 and I'm not sure quite how well they would turn out! Maybe next year.

Usually lemon curd.

This year I'm making bags of toffee as well.

Marmalade? You can get a tin of soecially prepared oranges from Sainsbury's for £1.49 (Hartley's Ma Made). All you need to do is add sugar and follow the instructions on the tin. Makes quite a lot and looks like it was a real effort. Takes half an hour to cook and then put into some pretty jars.

specially

Thanks ladies for the ideas, have done artwork before but never thought of using a canvas.
Great ideas now just need to find the time to do it all!
Dandydan - have you got a tried & tested toffee recipe?

DS makes lovely little felt christmas tree decorations, and I also make little purses and bags, tea cosies, cafetiere cosies and little birs mobiles.

dltk-holidays.com/xmas/crafts.html

www.yellowmoon.org.uk/category.asp?cat_id=ARTSCHRI