'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 was looking to make a red onion chutney (as I love it!) does anyone have a tried and tested, tasty recipe?

red onion marmalade? pretty much the same thing I think?

Marking place!

I've already made my werthers vodka. I did chocolate slabs last year but I used thorntons choc and didn't temper it, and everything got an awful bloom, I couldn't give it as gifts. So don't make that mistake!

I've made wheat bags - those ones you microwave to make them lovely and warm. I bulk buy the wheat and lavender. You can also use rice, but I've found that wheat grains hold onto the heat longer.
This year I'm going to be making bath salts, but mostly for me

I made red tomato and apple chutney yesterday thinking, aha! First presents sorted. What I actually ended up with was 4lbs of acidic poison (sobs)

Undaunted, I am planning to head out and pick blackberries for blackberry chutney and sloes for the gin this weekend, the second one even I can't screw up, but fingers may have to be crossed for the first!

That chocolate bark sounds fantastic, how long before christmas did you make it? I would also agree that Delia's mincemeat is really good, I always use this and her christmas cake recipe - if even I can do it, anyone can!

blackberry season! thanks for the reminder!

badvoc I haven't done it before but I will be trying soon using a recipe on teachsoap.com/making-bath-bombs/

I am just waiting for the critical ingredients to arrive :)

I will be making smallish ones and giving them in pretty jars/kilner jars.

Hello all! I was addicted to the homemade thread last year! Made loads of hampers of homemade goodies last year but was slightly disappointed that they weren't better received (in-laws "forgot" to even open their hamper until a week after Christmas by which time the lovely truffles and lime curd that I'd lovingly made had spoiled - they'll be getting tat shop bought presents this year!)

Today I made crab apple (from the garden) and blackberry (from the hedges) jelly & can tell you it is totally delish!! I used the Hugh FW recipe in the Guardian that someone linked to earlier in the thread. Basically used 50:50 crabapples & blackberries. Used up all my crabapples but a friend has offered me some more, so might be tempted to make more.

I like the sound of the rhubarb schnapps/liqueur. I mad blackberry gin and vodka last year which down very well. Christmas Pud rum didn't go down quite as well, although DH loved it!

Peppermint bark was very easy to make & delicious. Used dark and white choc from Lidl and crushed some peppermint candy canes from Sainsburys, to scatter over.

Oreo truffles are another easy one, which I did for DS' teachers.

Thank you sage

What a fab thread! I'm due in November and hoping to get my presents organised before then :-) I made this last year for the SIL and it was deeelish!
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/68602/baileys-and-white-chocolate-fudge

Temper damsons look like a big sloe or a small plum.
Mrs H they are in The Gorbals Rose Garden, Old Rutherglen Road, just round the corner from Gorbals Leisure Centre. It's a quiet little park with about 75 fruit trees over to the left - you can't miss them. They are loaded with fruit at the moment. There are also [lowers voice and glances over shoulder] sweet chestnuts! I am thinking of trying to make marron glace when they are ripe in October and Pam Corbin's River Cottage Preserves has a chestnut jam recipe that looks lovely.
Since you are obviously in the west end like me I will also tell you that there are three crab apple trees on the road at the back of Partick Station (Beith Street - the one parallel to Dumbarton Road) which will help to make lovely jelly with your brambles! I currently drive around like a woman possessed, looking for a flash of fruit every time I pass any trees. I reckon sugar is cheap, so if the fruit is free that's jam/jelly/chutney for us for the next year and something to put in hampers at christmas for just a few pounds.

Musthave is dead right about that fudge - absolutely delicious! I put cranberries in last year to make it extra festive.

Sigh... I love the homemade Christmas thread

Love the sound of the Rhubarb liqueur - anyone got a recipe for a DIY version? I have lots from the allotment and am always looking for creative ways to use it....never thought of creating a tipple......yum .

Not read all these ideas but picked up today some nice enough mugs from Tesco today in the sale for 25p each. Am thinking DD and I will make some festively shaped biscuits and put them in a clear pretty food display type bag (have some already from lakeland) with a nice ribbon to tie it up and put the biccies inside the mug

putthecrispsdown what circular frames do you get for your cross stitch hangings?

Love the idea of food and a handmade decoration and a cushion. What do you put it all in tho?
I am going to sew some aprons for mums/grannies using my cheap tesco apron as a template then posh them up with ribbons or corsage type bits

Zeeky- how rude, they could at least have pretended they like it! It feels more hurtful to have handmade stuff rejected than shop bought I think, I do worry that I am possibly not making the things people will like, especially for those I don't see very often.

Sybil - about the chocolate bark, I made mine about a week before Christmas, we used dried cranberries, broken brazil nuts, hundreds and thousands and silver balls to decorate, pieces placed in clear cellophane bags and tied with curly silver ribbon, looked very festive. You could make it sooner, but it was easy to do and not so easy to store so we left it late, the DCs really enjoyed helping. I popped it in the freezer for 20 mins to get it set very hard before breaking it up to look really jagged. I think we might do this for their teachers this year.

Thanks for that Whoknows, it sounds great so I am definitely planning on making some.

You can tell more and more people are home-making this year, when I went to pick sloes the hedgerow had been practically stripped! Luckily we managed to get enough to make our litre of gin but it took ages compared to previous years.

I love this thread. LOVE it.

The blackberries are over here in London (anyone who disagrees, tell me where to find some!) but I bought some from the shops and made blackberry brandy.

And I'm going to make Nigella's chilli jam too ;-)

And that yummy lemon and honey (and ginger) tea/goop thing!

Does anyone know if you can buy sloes? I have been all over the place and can't find any on the hedgerows. I'm in county durham if anyone can point me to any, or if not then will I be able to get them in a supermarket?

ShoopShoop, the recepie I'm going to use for the rhubarb schnapps is

75cl vodka (cheap)
1 kg trimmed rhubarb
300g granulated sugar
50g preserved ginger (optional)

Add all ingredients to a sterilised jar, stand in a cool, dark room for 6 weeks. Shake reguarly, strain and decant into sterile bottles.

It will be my first attempt so if anyone has a better method please correct me!

I really want to make sloe gin though, so hopefully someone can help me find them!

The baileys fudge mentioned above - how many little celophane bags could I make with that recepie?

This is my first home made christmas, so thank you all for the wonderful ideas, you are all so clever. I'm also going to make some of the brownie mix jars and try the lavender wands and the christamas pud vodka too.

Purplehonesty, I'm going to buy some plain brown paper bags in different sizes and decorate them with DD (two in one, home made present and craft activity for a rainy day). I will put the gifts in those. I'm only making one or two things for each person so I think that will be fine.

If I were making several things for each person then I would try and find some wicker type baskets and make a hamper and wrap in cellophane. I haven't priced those though, so that might be an expensive way to do it.

Thank you ancient! I'm not west end, in fact I'm not too far from the gorbals..I know what I'm doing this weekend!

I have two huge bags of apples and a freezer bag of slows to turn into jelly, chutney, apple puree, apple pie filling this weekend, Woohoo!

Oreo I don't know if you can buy sloes, try googling it?

Made my rhubarb liqueur today! Am thinking of making my own essential oil with lavender from the garden and using it to make soaps etc. Our lemon balm has gone mad, does anyone know of anything I can do with it as it smells lovely?

I think sloes like chalk.