What are you making this year?

[BloodyBollockingHell]

Yes I know some people despise homemade stuff but I like it and so do the people I give stuff to.
I usually do hampers of stuff for the many aunts/secret Santa/neighbours/acquaintances type token pressies. I’ve done candles, bath stuff, knitting, socks, hats, jam/goody things.
What shall I make this year?

Can never go wrong with chutney in my opinion. I'm making a Christmas cake for each of my family as I expect we are going to be apart for the first time in 16 years. For my DD's I'll make hampers if they are staying at university

@BloodyBollockingHell Homemade gifts always go down well with my lot too! Various flavours of slow cooker fudge have always been a huge hit!

I can't bake otherwise I'd be making biscuits and cakes all around!
My aim one year is to make chutney, jam and truffles however, the best I can do is crochet & cross stitch.

I'm making a bookmark for my friend, a little toy penguin for nephew, I've already made a matching snowman for niece. Older nephew will have a Nintendo Switch crocheted - to hold his switch in when not using it, and I have made 2 Christmas cushions (one for mum, one for sister / aunt, I haven't decided).

If I have time I also want to make a crochet Christmas tree for MIL as she doesn't put a tree up and we have a jokey bicker about her grinchiness every year

I'm currently sewing a fabric book for a friend's youngest dd. Usually make something for her big sister & my other friend's dd too, I'm lacking inspiration for the older two so far this year though

I love homemade gifts of consumables (so jam or bath products). One of my magazines had great suggestions last year. One of those was for a homemade sewing kit, which I’d love to receive. I’ll see if I still have the picture

@lucysmam that sounds lovely. I would have loved that when my DCs were little

I love homemade gifts especially food but no one in my family does it and I think if I gifted them home made they would not use it (apart fr9m cake maybe).

I was hoping to get away without making anything this year but PILs have requested no gifts except from the dc, which is usually some sweets and biscuits. They have been very generous to us financially so dh is planning on a hamper of homemade treats. He always works all hours in December so that will fall to me and I was looking forward to reducing faff in Christmas week. Any ideas what we could make a bit in advance that won’t go off?

@thelegohooverer biscotti keeps for up to 3 weeks in an airtight container, and is relatively simple to make.

Another option is making the dough for cookies etc over time, freezing it, and then having one day just before you're due to see them where you defrost and bake it all?

I make a stollen every year, last year's ended up twice the size of normal one despite using the same recipe. I usually make fudge, last year it was rum and raisin and cherry. I'm going to try the slow cooker fudge for DS ' birthday, and of next month. I also made bacon and chilli jam one year, It didn't really taste of bacon at all.

Any ideas what we could make a bit in advance that won’t go off?
Cookies in a jar spring to mind. You layer all the dry ingredients in a pretty jar and put the instructions on a little label that you tie to the top with string or ribbon. Then the recipient does the hard part

Thanks for the suggestions.

This year, I am doing lots:
Sewing - cushion covers, placemats sets, napkins, felt food
Knitting - a lap blanket (finally finished after at least 4 years on the needles!), scarves
Cross-stitching - various small pictures on bookmarks

Food:
I didn't manage to dry any herbs yet, but hoping to do rosemary shortly
No chutney this year or jam, but I did make mince meat that is potted up already (it had been maturing for 9 months in a large jar)
I might yet make a batch of Limoncello (and sloe gin if I get sloes), thinking about Christmas Pudding vodka too
I have made my own Christmas cake this year, and made 3 small ones with the rest of the mixture, that are going into hampers for others we won't see.

I will probably make some cookies, chocolate covered orange peel, chocolate truffles and other chocs in moulds, peppermint creams etc - all close to the day. (For those hampers).

I've done "Reindeer Poop" (chocolate covered raisins) and "Snowman Soup" (hot choc with a candy cane, mini marshmallows and a Snowman choc figure) on different years before, into little treat bags, for DD's class in school (her birthday treat, as her birthday is over Christmas break) - they were very well received (and a lot less work than the year I turned 2 finger KitKats into Snowmen and Santa's for them all.....). There are free printable toppers on the internet for both poop and soup that you can print off and stick to the bag.

I freeze cookie dough, as DD makes cookies for Santa on 24th and we don't always have time to start from flour, eggs and sugar......they always work very well from freezer. It's a "slice off rounds from the log" type dough, rather than "roll out and stamp the shapes" type.

@BiddyPop are the bookmarks kits or your own design?

Hi Lucysman, they're not kits exactly, I had a long length of the right kind of narrow aida, and a few narrow patterns from the internet, magazines and bigger patterns that I am using. All gathered over years.

I did buy a "Gingerbread baking" bookmark kit, which has all the right threads etc, but as much for the pattern as the ingredients IYKWIM. I haven't opened that yet though, as I needed to finish off the last (caravan) and current (oil lamp) and next (pretty flower) before doing baking images (and I won't be doing them all on 1 bookmark as designed - each mark is getting 1 nice image as I have 12 to do to cover all my and DH's DSiblings and D-SibsIL…). 1 magazine does an interesting 50 small patterns on a theme thing, and I got a number of good ones from that (1 was based on motoring, so I got various toolkits, tyres, etc from that for a few more masculine ones!).