Home made Gift Ideas!

[Christmasthatcutsit]

I need help with home made gift ideas for adults and kids. I'm running out of money and only have about £30-50 to spend on my, dad, grandad, brother, sister and nephew. all adults except nephew who is 10. oh god and bil x3 (so a shared constable would be best)
I can sew (hand only) and knit and have made jam previously.
Baking is fine too but how to present it? I've looked at origami paper folding, sure I can manage a little box.

It's all family so 🤷
Give me ideas. I've asked the AIBU gods but I forgot about the Christmas board 🎄

Anything easy to make or home made you've given or received or would like to receive? Let me know! please begging

i'm running out of money and only have about £30-50 to spend on my, dad, grandad, brother, sister and nephew. all adults except nephew who is 10.

Could you have a chat with them about the lack of money and discuss stopping the gifts for adults? They may be relieved you've bought it up, especially with the costs of so many other things rising. It seems ridiculous to me to spend so much time and money on something they may not even like, just because they're family. Surely spending time together is more important than a gift you can't afford to give?

Sometimes handmade is not cheaper so you may need to be mindful over costs. The adults in our family moved to homemade gifts about 6 years ago as a bit of fun and something different. Ones that have gone down well are chilli jam, fudge, sloe gin, microwave hand warmers, chutney, ginger beer and bread mix(famous five kit) Christmas bunting, knitted hats. Generally food has been more popular than crafts!

Home made cooked treats as mentioned above are a good idea. One year I made fudge and put it in lovely crystal bowls that I bought for a couple of pounds each in a charity shop. Bowls like these are deeply unfashionable, but are lovely, cheap containers tied with ribbon, for home made sweets or biscuits.
Or you could buy some plain white candles and make a table centre piece. Again, charity shops have boxes of cheap Christmas decorations, some are good for repurposing into something different with the candles.

I got a set of homemade cooking oils once which were lovely (but friend was a gardener so had herbs / chilli etc.. for free. I imagine if you had to buy everything it would be quite expensive.

My son's scout group do a sectret santa for a fiver and he got a cookie making kit. Someone had filled a large jar with flour, oats, sugar, chocolate chips, crushed smarties and included a hand written recipe (I think we just had to add butter and egg) fab gift and kept us busy on a rainy afternoon..

I have just seen you can sew, my niece sews and has given us some fab gifts over the years. My son really loves gaming and my niece made him an among us character - absolutely brilliant gift - he was over the moon with it and it is completely original - everyone comments on it.

I’d say talk to them and see if you can not do gifts between adults.

You could make felt Christmas decorations though? I’ve added a picture of some I’ve been making. I traced/drew templates on paper, then cut the shapes out of the felt, did the decorations on one half then blanket stitched the back on. Sheets of felt are about 50p in hobbycraft, then you’d need embroidery thread and maybe a couple of buttons or beads.

I've made some chocolates for my little ones baby/toddler class teachers and plan to do the same for friends and family. Order a Christmas chocolate mould tray thing, melt a big bar of chocolate and half fill the moulds, add a bit of melted Nutella then more melted chocolate on top and refrigerate 😋

Slow cooker fudge!!

400g chocolate, 1 tin of condensed milk, in the slow cooker for 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes, plop into a square brownie baking tin lined with paper and then press in whatever topping you like!

It's revolutionary! Then I wrap with brown baking paper, Christmas ribbon and a tag! Store in the fridge but it doesn't last long once people taste it!

Loads of variations on the internet, Terry's chocolate orange, biscoff with white chocolate!

It's the best!

Knit all the adults a beanie hat. Charity shops often have new balls of wool, or perhaps end of line colours from a wool shop which can be cheap.
Shortbread is traditional & popular at Christmas. You could make the adults a batch each. Put it on a Christmas paper plate & cover with cling-film, perhaps add a ribbon & gift tag.
You can find some lovely frames in charity shops. Fill them with an important photo/or collage of photos; or maybe print off a motivational quote.
If the 10yo has their own room, perhaps you could make them a door plaque with their name on it. Make them a cushion in their favourite colour.

Honestly when it comes to gifts I would rather have a cheap token gift than something handmade. For £30-£50 for 5 people thats £6-£10, you could easily get a token gift for that OR a secondhand gift (recycling is good and you can get bargains).

The truth is most people are just not good enough at DIY to make something worthwhile (and even those that are talented doesnt mean it translates to good gifts, I have no use for knitted oddities) and I have enough ugly arts and crafts in my house thanks to having 3 kids without adults adding to it. Also after buying all the stuff homemade is NEVER cheaper you just end up spending a lot on something a bit bodged usually.

I like making mars bar crunch - mix rice crispies with melted chocolate and put in a tray to cool in the fridge. Melt a bag of mini mars bars and pour over the top. Refrigerate to harden and cut into big slabs. Wrapped in nice festive tissue paper or a box would be a nice indulgent gift?

But if you have a budget of about £6 pp could you buy a load of books or something and give alongside either homemade choc treats or a mini toblerone or something? You can often get good book deals (3 for 2 etc) and can usually find something suitable. Or as others have suggested, just tell them you are only getting the nephew something (also why are you having to sort out stuff for 3 BILs? Do you really need to get them something?)

I'm not sure if people want home made stuff tbh unless you happen to be excellent in the kitchen

Your best bet is to speak to them and say you won't be doing gifts this year, bar the child

Alternatively, buy a handful of £1 scratch cards and pop in a card with a couple of Lindt balls on the side!

Buy cheap box of Christmas crackers and some string or twine or ribbon. Cut off existing ribbons carefully. Put a scratchcard in each and a chocolate or two. Tie back up with your own string. Make lovely labels by hand for each person. Job's a good un. For the child, replace scratchcard for a five pound note.

If you have jars to hand then you could do cookie or cake mixes, there's loads of ideas and recipes on you tube. Add in a charity shop book, some sell new books, and a reading book or puzzles one for the 10 year olds.

Or asda sell plants in pots for something like £5/£6 each, wrap in cellophane with a ribbon.

Mendiants - discs of melted chocolate with dried fruit and nuts on them. When they are set they make amazing chocolates and should be easy enough and cheap enough to make. There are loads of recipes online.

If you have family photos that arent printed and framed, you can make printable family calendars with photos and just find the place that would print it out for the best price. Also you can make Christmas ornaments, there is a really good video with tons of ideas: