Home made xmas?

[batmanladybird]

Looking for inexpensive ideas

For what things?

Decorations?
Presents?
Food?

Table centre piece made with evergreens, holly and ivy grown in your own garden if you can.

Ask around on Freecycle to see if anyone wants to swap or donate decorations in the run up to Xmas.

Make gift tags out of last year's xmas cards

Save paper bags from supermarkets or online shopping for wrapping gifts, if you have kids get them to decorate with snowflakes cut out from squares of white paper or draw Christmassy pictures on them.

Make your own mince pies (you can freeze them, defrost small quantities and warm in the oven when guests turn up)

Make your own mulled wine.

Make gingerbread snowmen. And/or note you can freeze gingerbread dough for a month, so make a load and divide into small balls then if you know someone is visiting with kids, you can defrost some dough and they will love rolling it out, cooking it, icing it and taking it home.

Ooh these are all good
Presents I meant but this is great

I love receiving home made Jam or chutney. A homemade Xmas cake or pudding would be amazing too.

There are loads of threads about home made Christmas gifts and the general consensus is that people would rather you didn’t. It’s not that cheap, it’s not generally what people want.

@MissyB1

I love receiving home made Jam or chutney. A homemade Xmas cake or pudding would be amazing too.

Amy recipes for these?!

Please, please read the many threads to see a honest view from hundreds of people (as opposed to friends who won't say anything out of politeness) about home made gifts.

Home make for yourself by all means. I do my own table centerpiece from greenery in the garden, you can get DC to do paperchains for their rooms, it can feel lovely and traditional that way. On behalf of so many, please keep your home made stuff within your home

@Window1 sadly no I like getting them but can’t make them!

I’m in the minority - I love home made gifts. I get cake, cordial, floral centrepieces every year and I’d be (quietly) disappointed if they stopped. My uncle, who made plum puddings for everyone passed away a couple of years ago and he’s fondly remembered every year, particularly as his secret recipe went with him!
We have received knitted clothes for the dc and for dolls.

Ime homemade is expensive when you add in the cost of packaging, particularly now that cellophane bags with ribbons have fallen firmly out of favour!

It can be stressful too if you spend your Christmas budget on ingredients or craft supplies and something goes wrong! And nowadays very few things can be made more cheaply than bought.

Homemade gifts can be perceived as cheap too. It was only when I made my first pudding last year that I appreciated the cost of it.

I flipping love homemade gifts. My Mum knits, sews and bakes every year and friends make chutneys and jams for us. My friend made a hoe for me last year with a beautiful walnut handle and another friend wove a basket for me which is stunning.

You know your friends and family and if they would like homemade gifts. Some of us love them.

I wish people would stop speaking for everyone and saying homemade gifts are not appreciated! Some of us appreciate them very much!

@MissyB1

I wish people would stop speaking for everyone and saying homemade gifts are not appreciated! Some of us appreciate them very much!

And also it seems very entitled not to be grateful for a gift someone has made for you, as though you "deserve" something different.

@PersonaNonGarter

There are loads of threads about home made Christmas gifts and the general consensus is that people would rather you didn’t. It’s not that cheap, it’s not generally what people want.

Crikey, speak for yourself

I think homemade gifts are okay if you’ve got a genuine skill that you can share. So, with the example above, very few people can whittle a hoe. Its the skittles in gin, ‘hot chocolate’ kits and other stuff that involves no talent that hardly anyone wants.

Sloe gin, this is the time of year for it.
Pick a load of sloes in a park or field wherever has then near you.
Google a recipe, it's basically a load of sugar, sloes and gin and then leave till Christmas.
Delicious with just sparkling water and can be used as a base for cocktails.
If you want to make it fancy you could get bottles with stoppers and tie ribbon or get chains for the neck.

Once I received homemade cleaning products in glass bottles for Christmas from a friend. I really appreciated those.

Bulk buy spices from a wholesaler or Asian store and make up mulled wine pouches in little circles of fabric tied with butcher's twine.

Dry herbs now - rosemary, bay leaves, thyme etc are good - and give in glass jars. Which you might have saved once used the contents or find in charity shops, or buy if necessary.

Make vanilla sugar - poke vanilla pods into castor sugar - which just takes time but is great for bakers.

HM limoncello is also lovely and takes about 30 minutes work initially to peel lemons, add sugar to peels, (I also juice the lemons and add that, but then need to filter the bits out through a coffee filter at bottling point), and a bottle or 2 of vodka - shake once a week for 12-14 weeks, take out peels and put into nice bottles.

Sometimes though, I think the cost of the materials and ingredients often comes to so much, it would actually be cheaper to just buy a gift

I think homemade ‘consumables’ are different to the sort of pointless ‘knick knack’ type stuff and can be nice.
Although agree not always cheaper.

Although think that something genuinely made by the giver that took time and effort and is of a good standard and useful eg. knitted socks is a million miles away from the homemade crappy gifts that many people try and sell on Facebook at a huge mark up such as those frames with pebbles, scrabble tiles, or Lego superhero’s in.

Sloe gin is similar except using whole sloes, sugar and gin, and generally ignore for 12-14 weeks apart from weekly shake.

I've made rosemary salt (nice for Italian cooking) by putting (lots of) sprigs into salt for a few weeks.

And also flavoured oils with garlic, rosemary, basil, chilli etc (just 1 per oil) - usually involves gently heating to release the flavour and then leaving to
Infuse in.

Apples and blackberries are coming into season for jams/chutnies etc, plums are good now, and there might be other gluts like late season tomatoes etc to preserve in various ways. (I do tomatoes by semi drying at low heat in the oven and preserving in olive oil, DM makes ketchup).

If you are able to buy spices in bulk, making HM mixes can be good - rubs for meat, potato wedges seasoning, curry or tagine or fajita blends etc. Which you could present in glass jars to take out in spoonfuls or individually portioned in paper bags (but jars, which you've used and emptied, washed and presented with a nice label, would be cheaper).

Definitely. Found this out to my cost a few years ago!

I love things like homemade jam and chutney and biscuits ! Not as keen on little lavender bags and that kind of thing, so it does depend on what the gift is. Consumables are great because they don’t create more clutter and who doesn’t like a lovely chutney or jam in a glass jar?

Argh was meant to have a quote of the post that said it costs more than just buying a present!

Tricky one, we have a relative that makes amazing biscotti so always look forward to a batch of those but we don't drink much so all the bottles of X or Y gin have to find a new home... Likewise I know which relatives enjoy my piccalilli as they send the jars back clean for refills 😂 so when I do a batch I also put some aside for their Christmas box.

I'd love homemade truffles or similar edibles but it's the booze that goes nowhere here. Oh I do make door wreaths for a couple of older relatives that like them but begrudge (fair enough) the price they have to pay for them at the places they can get to to pick one up.

Oh my brother made a ginger syrup for us last year. That was incredible. I highly recommend it. We put it in puddings and coffee and on yoghurt. It didn't last long!