'Make your own' Christmas

[Doodlekitty]

Ok, ok, I KNOW its only June. But I'm due to give birth late October and as it's my first and I have no idea what to expect I want to be all sorted for christmas by the time baby gets here. I'm also going to have no money when I'm on Mat leave so want stuff bought while I'm working but also want to spend as little as possible.

Last year I made Christmas pudding rum for my FIL who has never shut up about it since ( I used this recipe, www.wikihow.com/Make-Christmas-Pudding-Flavoured-Vodka but rum instead of vodka, if anyone is interested)

I think I made it in about November last time, but I'm thinking, if I made it in July then it will just be more yummy wont it, as it just has longer to infuse. also, last year when i told MIL I binned the fruit I used she was horrified, so I'm thinking i might put this in a jar for her (obviously with another present) as she said it would be lovely with ice cream. What do you guys think?

I usually make my christmas cakes in september.
I havent yet started my chutneys and it does feel a bit late. Fruit and veg is not as plentiful this year, due to the weather and so i may end up buying a lot more than i usally do as my neighbours wont have any spare.

Love the idea of the lavender bags, think I'll be trying that.

I'm puting together a bit of a smellys box fo some of the in laws and was going to get body shop stuff because i have some discount vouchers but if anyone has any details of how to make these scrubs and stuff that would he nice.

I'm addicted to this thread already!

Wow I love this thread. There are definitely some ideas I can use on here. I'm not arty AT ALL but I'm a decent baker. Love the idea of jars ready to bake, a lot of my family love baking.

I can recommend Mamade (available in supermarkets by the marmalade, £2-ish) for making your own marmalade, I used it last year adding a bit of brandy to posh it up a bit and my dad said it was the best marmalade he'd ever had.

I've got my can of mamade at the ready - planning to add edible gold stars to make Glamalade, and strawberry jam with glitter - Strawberry Glam!

Marking place.

I made nigellas chilli jam two years ago and it was nice but didnt set properly so I want to have another go this year. Have also made truffles, fudge and spiced apple chutney.

This is also the first year I will be cooking christmas dinner at home :)

Some great ideas on here.

I made these last year: [[http://www.squawkfox.com/2010/06/24/pie-in-a-jar/
pies in jars]]
I also made individual brownies in small square wrappers.
Um...oh, I bought a wholesale bag of bath fizzers, found some cheap glasses with reindeer on them and filled them with the fizzers then wrapped in cellophane and tied some ribbon round the top.

I just found this recipe for coconut ice and thought it would be nice in little bags.

goodfoodchannel.co.uk/recipe/536820/coconut-ice/

Count me in! Great tips so far. This week I bagged a few great bargains using my Clubcard vouchers on Tesco Direct. It's double the value at the mo. The Toys dept isn't one of the participating departments but online there are quite a lot of toys to be had so I've managed to get about £100-worth of gifts for all my nieces for less than ten pounds! Am so pleased! I did this last year too, saved all my vouchers for a whole year and got really nice gifts for all the kids in the family which otherwise Id never have been able to afford.
On a different note, I had an idea to make little personalized aprons with names sewn on, buying plain aprons from the market and getting nice offcuts for the letters. Good idea or not??

Those aprons sound nice. I could do those for my niece and nephew. I wonder if ebay would have any plain aprons?

I've made rhubarb and ginger jam to give to teachers, and I'm going to make chutney too, although not sure what kind yet.

I bought some Kilner style jars from the pound shop so will make fudge or biscuits closer to the time to put in them. I'm quite to be so excited about Christmas already!

Good idea Unfortunately re eBay! Shall have a look. Whitamakafullo Im exactly the same as you, I start thinking about Christmas around this time every year cos I just love it!!!

The X- Factor has started so it's clearly nearly Christmas! Bought 'The Ultimate Festive Feast' from Tesco reduced from £12.99 to £3 today, there's a Mary Berry Christmas Chutney recipe that looks lovely.

Our baby is due in November and I figure framed photos of the baby will go down well!

some lovely ideas here - I have a tub of rhubarb I just picked from the garden, so rhubarb schnapps will be made! planning some chutney too, and maybe marmalade. I have some sloe gin left from last year too, so will bottle some of that.

does anyone fancy sharing christmas/preserves pinterest boards?

I bottled up a first batch of rhubarb liqueur (well, rhubarb, sugar and ginger sat in cheapo vodka for 6 weeks - is that schnapps?) the other night as a thank you present. DH and I taste-tested it and it was YUM!! So I will put a second batch down this week as we still have a good lot of rhubarb coming in the garden.

The fruit harvest has been miserable though, so I don't have the same amount of jam opportunities as usual. But I suspect I will be making green tomato chutney this year (haven't had that since 2007!!) due to lack of sun.

And I want to dry some parsley in the next week or so, for our use and hopefully get a little bottle for popping into a hamper (I already have oregano and rosemary done). No hope of my thyme getting large enough this year for drying.

I'd love to share preserves pinterest boards...I just don't have one to share back!! I'll get onto it!

:o at MrsHende you'l be hooked in no time!

I made some grape jelly on saturday, which will be paired with a nice jar of peanut butter for america loving friends :)

making some red pepper relish today, and contemplating some salsa too.

Made some spiced apple chutney last night - made the house smell all Christmassy.

I even played some Christmas music

Marking my place on this thread asI plan to make presents for everyone this year. I have never done this before so looking for lots of ideas.

Hello! Marking my place too. Does anyone have a good recipe for chilli jam? (DH loooooooves it...)

I use Nigella's chilli jam recipe:
www.nigella.com/recipes/view/chilli-jam-2692

If you join pinterest, they have lovely ideas for all sorts of gift crafts

I used Nigella's recipe too, and it was good. Could take a bit more chilli, I thought. I had some today, actually.

Can i ask how far in advance can you make the chilli jam? I am trying to do as much as possible in advance