All the homemade Christmas people over here please, lets share our ideas :) - THIRD EDITION :)

[theancientmarinator]

Phew! For a minute I thought the thread wouldn't accept my message because I just wasn't making enough stuff for Christmas this week. And then I realised it was because we had reached 1000 posts. Thought I'd lost you all!

We were all listing what we need to finish still. I'll be back tomorrow with mine - if I do it now I will dissolve in tears but tomorrow I will have had a night's sleep and a stiff drink. Not necessarily in that order, although....

zeeky I didn't like Lorraines bark either . And what did she look like when she took the drill to those cookies ?!

Zeeky did you layer dark and White choc ?

Silly I did a layer of dark choc and then a layer of white once the dark was set, then sprinkled the crushed candy canes on the wet white choc.

I've just uploaded some pics of my finished hampers (pre-cellophane wrapping)! I'm a little bit sad now that it's all finished. The planning and stress of it all is what makes Christmas for me!

As ever zeeky they look fab!! Even your lemon crud looks nice

I had forgotten about the lemon crud!

I give in - I've done the truffles (leastways, the ones for Christmas Day itself, the rest are in the freezer to be coated on Boxing Day) but I throw in the biscottum towel. Instead I've bought (and consumed - yum) boxes of stollen mini bites from Aldi on the recommendation of a foodie friend and bagged them up myself with cello and ribbons. Am turning into Kate Reddy...

I think we should all synchronise watches and agree to post on this thread at a set time on Boxing Day for a boasting session about how all our gifts went down

ooh yes, good idea marinator 4pm suit? - I've already given my placemats and coasters, bunting, table runner, wheat warmer, hankies, car roll, HappyLand roll and fudge. Fudge has gone down very, very well and nobody has looked at being given homemade things (although, to be fair, they were all very well prepped for it!) :)

Aldi stollen mini bites are delicious - I used to live five minutes from Aldi, I really miss it!

I'm still making stuff, but I have just been packing things up and here's what I have as gifts for my mum. It's actually on a tray not a hamper as I found a pretty one:

• apricot and apple chutney
• pickled plums with star anise
• lemon vodka
• membrillo
• walnut marzipan with lemon or orange, dipped in dark chocolate
• quince sweets

I'm making cranberry jelly and passionfruit curd at the moment, and I'm going to bake gingerbread biscuits tomorrow, and maybe some almond ones too if I feel like it.

I hope that'll be enough - it's not as much as some people but mum has no sweet tooth so a lot of the obvious ones like fudge wouldn't really please her (even the marzipan is quite tangy with the lemon zest, rather than sweet).

I'm just working out how to wrap everything up now!

This thread dropped off my active list I thought you'd all just gone quiet under the weight of wrapping paper/cellophane/homemade goodies :o

So I've ended up making (for presents for me to wrap):
Car rolls x3
Xmas tshirts x2
Crayon rolls x2
Xmas cake vodka
Mini xmas cake
Cherry fudge (more to do before I see most family on 28th!)
Lavender hand scrub x loads
Bandana bibs x3
Bunting
Felt robin xmas tree decorations
A family tree picture that I researched and framed as well

DD (4) has made and wrapped up a felt bag for her auntie, a picture of MIL's dog for her, and a picture of a dinosaur driving a tractor :o for her little brother.

I'm making orange and coffee creams tomorrow, possibly some peppermint creams too, but the recipe says they only last a week so can't do them sooner really.
Also got to knock up some more mini xmas cakes before the end of next week.

As well as that lot, I have made and sold:
Personalised pictures
Personalised xmas tshirts
Car rolls
Crayon rolls
A cover for a kenwood chef
Dolls bedding

Wow ladies well done ! DDs teacher looked a bit bemused at being given homemade fudge - but then noticed in the ingredients that it said Baileys so then she looked . Did anyone notice earlier in the week criticisms about homemade goods at Christmas ? Am making chocolate spread tomorrow for chocoholic DS . 4pm boxing day sounds good .

I didn't notice elf - where?

I am a bit nervous actually - I felt like I'd made loads of stuff, but far and away the most successful thing is for my dad, which isn't a bad thing in itself, except it was meant to be an extra because I wasn't at all sure it'd work, so now he has quite a lot and my mum, not so much.

I may brave the L'Occitane shop on Boxing Day before we drive up and pick her up something from there (she drools over it all but would never buy for herself).

Right Flubba 4pm boxing day it is! Anyone else?

I'm up for that

At 4pm Boxing Day I will be racing around my mother's kitchen like a mad thing doing turkey for dinner - but I will come read the thread later on and will spare a moment to think of you all. I bet your recipients will be thrillied.

Btw, thanks so much for the tip about doing gold on the chocolates - I've just done them and they look great (if I says so myself).

Aww, I'm almost looking forward to next year already.

Right ladies (and one gent that we know of) this is it, the Big One, go team Homemade, GO GO GO!!!

Merry Christmas Team Homemade !

Goodness, after months of making homemade stocking-fillers it was all over in a flash! The most successful one was a lump of sanded wood with holes drilled through and a packet of fuzzy pipecleaners for a quid - the toddler has spent hours poking the pipe-cleaners through the holes in a state of deep concentration. Makes me wonder why I bothered with the more tricky stuff! However, his crayon roll was also a big hit - it scored double points because he loved both taking the crayons out and then putting them back in again and, eventually, actually scribbling in his personalised notebook. The little bag I made him out of a pair of old jeans also went down very well and I am looking forward to him always having a little busy bag of stuff to do whenever we go out anywhere now - I may finally be able to pass myself off in public as a competent mother. Big brother (8y) was absolutely delighted with the homemade parts of his stocking toys - especially the monster beanbags I had made him. The surprise big hit was his secret book box, which was filled with an assortment of sweets from Aldi. In fact, Aldi and Julian Graves old-fashioned sweets were a last minute easy make that has gone down very well - I downloaded some lovely free labels from Pinterest and put them on cheap storage jars from Asda filled with mixed sweets for the various 'small gifts' that invariably take me by surprise each year. They looked very cheerful with their labels and I will definitely do the same again next year because it only took about ten minutes to make half a dozen gifts that all seemed to be very well received. Homemade truffles with labels from Pinterest looked lovely too - I have given lots of these away in various guises (hampers with nice coffees and stollen bites; a mug filled with sachets of instant latte and truffles for DS1's teacher; cute Emma Ball Teatime tins (£2 each from TK Maxx) and nice tea) Someone very early on in this thread said the key thing with homemade gifts was presentation and having seen how good fairly simple edible gifts look wrapped and labelled nicely I whole-heartedly agree. Hope they taste as good as they look! Big family gathering tomorrow and that's when I will find out how the chocolate pizzas went down.

So how has everyone else got on and are you all exhausted after months of making or ready to start on new projects in 2012?

ancient I am so tired ! Well done on all your thought and effort with your presents !
Do you think homemade gifts go down better than bought ones ? It seems to me that people have loved the thought and time that has gone into my homemade gifts. However I do need to start earlier next year as I am sooo tired .

I definitely think I will make truffles next year . I have found a good recipe for Tia Maria truffles that won't be too sickly as they are blended with honey not cream or butter.

ancient what have you put on your choc pizzas ?

LRD have you put edible gold on your chocs ?

Sorry, got sidetracked with Shrek 2

ILs have now gone home (secret non-Christmas-spirited- emoticon) - but they loved their presents - FIL's kindle cover went down really well, as did MIL's lavender wheat warmer and handmade sugarscrub. Also loved their fudge (a lot! especially the choc one with nuts in), DDs loved their personalised aprons and their crayon rolls. The Boy's a bit too young to appreciate his car roll, but everyone else was suitably approving.
DH is very nice about his "I'm The Daddy" t-shirt with the girls' drawings on and baby's handprint, and parents have been really pleased with their chutneys and mustard, and also their table runner, hankies and wheat warmer.

Really pleased so far - and big test is all my nieces and nephew, and sisters on 28th. I think the general consensus is that they really appreciated the effort and time I'd put into it (I imagine this is especially true of adults who don't really need yet another book, CD or jumper, but do appreciate the 'token' gesture of handmade things...)

Hooray Flubba I knew DH would love the t shirt ! You are right - I really don't think people miss accumulating 'stuff' they dont want or need .

Finally uploaded some picks to my profile. If only I had thought of that before I started wrapping them...

Silly the choc pizzas were made from a base of Co-op crispy milk chocolate topped with freeze-dried strawberries and drizzled with G&B's white choc then sprinkled with jelly beans, chocolate raisins and julian grave's fruity and marshmallow coconut 'mushrooms'. The label was done in Word and printed onto A4 adhesive sheets. I used paper cake-tin liners as moulds and gave up on wedges because it looked good whole. I will definitely make them again with DS1 because they were very very easy! (unless all the nieces and nephews tomorrow turn their noses up at them...)

Am off to drool at thought of truffles containing honey. I made chilli choc, marmalade, bramble gin, cappuccino and plain choc truffles and thought that if I even saw another one I would hurl but Silly's tia maria ones have set me thinking...

We did well, didn't we? I didn't get through even half of what I originally (and naively) planned but now that it's all done, I am a bit chuffed that I did anything at all.

PS I like the Daddy T Flubba! My two shamelessly pinched the back-massaging toy car track t-shirt off Pinterest and made it to go with PJ trousers for their Dad. Didn't have the heart to tell them he never, ever wears PJ's. Next year will try to steer them more in the direction of a t-shirt than PJ's.

love your monster bean bags ancient

My tongue is furry and I'm buzzing a bit. possibly had a bit too much choc fudge