Xmas food gifts-prsentation, jars etc!

[MilkNoPoisonPlease]

Hiya,
am doing some food gists for the parents of the kids i nanny/babysit.

want to do
*Oil's with chilli/garlic etc
FudgeBiscuits (dont know what though! ARGH!)

Oils-i need the bottles with the stopper if poss...so bloody expensive though- whole point is to keep gift costs low!!

Fudge- either polythene gif bags or greaseproof paper bags. would prefere the greaseproof ones but cant find and smallish ones!

Biscuits-christ knows!

TIA!

Woops! gifts oil fudgebiscuits

can't help with bottles with stoppers but...
Asda had some nice glass jars on offer the other day £1 each - they were the type with 2 handles at the side you press down to seal the lid iyswim.
Also if you have a hobbycraft nearby they sell gift bags and cellophane wrapping with christmassy designs. hth

Have no asda near me! i live in bloody north london and the nearest one is ages away and i dont drive

ooh do hobbycraft have a website?

thank you and yes the helped!

I did sweets as presents last year and I got the cellophane bags on ebay- I think I bought 50 and then used the rest for biscuits for a church fete. Lakeland also do them and I would imagine they do the bottles too.

Good luck- I've done jam and plum brandy this year. Homemade presents rock!

For fudge and biscuits, you can get crisp see-through paper (cellophane?) from florists, and use a paper plate (ideally a christmassy one) as the base, then scrunch the cellophane(?) up and tie with ribbon, and home made tag.

OOh!! thank you!

lakelands quite pricey though (i ADORE it though! when the catalogue comes through the post i sit with a cup of tea and go through it...at the ripe old age of 21!)

I'm feeling very Homemaker-esque!...was going to do jam, but i cant stand eating it so have no idea how it should taste!

ooo!! i didnt think of that choccyp1g! thank you

Cor blimey i love mumsnet!(and lakeland)

Cello bags are widely available on ebay. I've just spent days hunting down the ones I wanted and ended up with far too many!!! I got some nice patterned Christmas ones off ebay and some clear ones from a party shop - I think most party-type shops sell them now as party/loot bags.

Bottles There is a selection of sizes on this website and cheaper than Lakeland too!!

I'm going to try and make these this year for the parents I work for.

Ikea have some nice bottles and jars.

thank you!

are these bags mega tacky?

i really want those swing top bottles

I don't think they're tacky (but then I love all things tacky so probably not the best person to ask!! ).

I have just opened the ones I had delivered this morning and they're fine. I have a pack of clear bags with gold stars for the grown ups, a pack of blue bags with snowmen on for the children and some all clear ones (not sure who for but will keep for spares!!). I don't really like the ties that came with them so will probably use some ribbon or the raffia that I got to tie around the jars I've also bought!!

I'm planning lots of home-made gifts but have a funny feeling that I've bought so much that it's going to end up costing loads.

I love the swing-top bottles too and am trying to think what I could fill them with. I'm going to attempt some to make some flavoured vodka/gin but I am quite useless so we shall see how it all turns out!!

After reading this thread a few days ago I decided to make some homemade things. I'm doing joint baskets for my mum & dad, sister & partner and FIL & MIL. This is mainly because I always struggle to know what to buy the men. Everything I'm looking at making seemed a bit random when put together, so I have come up with 'a night in' themed box.

I'm making my own chocolate and nut fudge and am presented it in some glasses I bought from Tesco for 40p each. I have some coloured cellophane to wrap them up nicely like proper fudge. I'm going to include a box of popcorn, a cheapish dvd ( a classic one I know they'll love prob. about £2.99), I got small hotwater bottles with knitted covers from B&M Bargains for £1.99 each, perhaps a fleece throw, cake bath bombs from ebay (6 gorgeous ones for £4.99 delivered), perhaps a few big bars of chocolate. I'm struggling for other ideas, so if anyone has any other suggestions or where to find cheap baskets or big gift boxes please let me know. I'm trying to stick to £20 a box which I think is pretty good for 2 people, plus it seems more personal than buying things that won't get used.

Your idea sounds great! I did something similar for my sister last year. We went to New York in Nov so I made up an album of photos from our holiday then filled a shoe box (I was too mean to buy a box or basket!!) with pop corn, mini bottle of wine, can of coke (her hang-over cure), maltesers and 2 NY based dvds.

TK Maxx have a good selection of baskets but it might push you over your £20 limit. Could you decorate some shoe-boxes? For some reason we always have loads of shoe-boxes in my house!!!

I usually make these kinds of things for Christmas, containing;

• Bubble bath
• Hand/body lotion
• lipbalm
• face mask
• cushion
• dvd
• tissues
• choccies
• jelly sweets
• mini bottle of wine (last year I found some plastic glasses of wine sealed with foil in Home Bargains)
• any other bits I see around like nail kits, etc.

Ikea has a good selection of baskets.

for baskets, do you have a dunelm mill nearby? They do have a website. They do nice backets which aren't too expensive.

I did hampers and used baskets from poundland, which were acutally laundry baskets but they weren't very big and i think they looked ok, and obviously they were only £1!!

for the cellophane bags, you want ebay, but you want to make sure they are gusseted cellophane bags or the bag wont sit right with the sweets in. i have just bought 50 for around £3 inc postage

just ordered these

i dont need 12 but works out over a piund cheaper then buying them in a shp and there the ones i wanted!

pound & shop god i cant spell ever tonight!

Marvellous ideas, I have to say! Thanks to MN, I have been inspired to make some gifts this year and I have settled on plum brandy and possibly fudge.

I think I'll get bottles from the website you linked to, Mogs0, but can anyone tell me if there are particular sorts of bottles I should be looking out for to store brandy? Is that flippy-lid/ lemonade sort ok?

Cheers!

I've got some cider vinegar bottle that look very nice, was hoping to re-use them for my flavoured vodkas but am stuck on how to seal them, would swing top closures fit on any bottle or just certain ones? Can I buy screw caps from anywhere? Am looking on Ebay but can only see metal beer bottle tops or corks.

Tesco have kilner jars, short squat ones for £1.50.

Ive just made jars of chutney and got some fab christmas ribbon from craftyribbons.com

They were really reasonable with some only 20p for a meter. You can also get free delivery if you put 'sock' as the voucher code(unless its changed).

am now consider doing pickled onions for DH as his gradndad always used to make these - dont know if im brave enough.