How to make stunning Holiday gifts – No, really.

The Plan

1.  Spends hours upon hours researching possible gifts on the internet until you come up with 48 different ideas.

2.  Spend many more hours researching possible gifts until if you have to see one more possible gift, you’ll scratch your own eyes out.

3.  Start deciding who would like what and what is most economical.  This requires knowing people’s dietary choices, their home decoration scheme, and how picky they are about their Christmas gifts.  Then throw the last one out the window, baby.

4.  Start assembling and creating and then don’t stop for four days.  Yes, that’s right.  Four days straight, so they better enjoy that damn gift!

5.  Make beautiful tags – handwritten and illustrated – with instructions for use on the back. Include illustrations such as a stocking, an elf throwing snowballs, a tree, a snowman, a candle, a gingerbread cookie, a present, gumdrops, a peppermint, a sled, Christmas lights, ornaments, a candy-cane, snowflakes, a mug, a Santa hat, a train, eggnog and rum, a sleigh, a gift basket, a shovel, a star with tail, a bag with presents in it, a poinsettia, a wreath, and a red monster truck with flames.

6.  Put items in a pretty basket.

7.  ??

8.  Profit

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List I came up with for Holidays 2009

• Blooming Acres basket (local flower shop that handmakes baskets)
• dry soup mix
• orange cranberry muffin mix (from Betty Crocker)
• apple cinnamon muffin mix (from Betty Crocker)
• carrot muffins?  bran muffins?
• wild bird suet
• rum coffee spoons
• holiday marshmallow pop
• chocolate peppermint spoons
• almond maple granola
• bath sets made from the salts from our wedding reception
• hot chocolate in a jar
• hot cocoa mix
• hot cocoa mix II
• petal soap
• apple cinnamon air freshener
• cinnamon ornaments
• ranger joe cookie mix
• votive holders
• lantern candle holders
• teacup candle holder
• peppermint candles
• glittery snow candles
• dry spice mix for the apple cider (my recipe)
• words of wisdom
• notecards with kids artwork printed on one side
• photograph session with each person and each kid
• herbed rice mix
• holiday cookies
• pancake mix
• basic bubble bath
• oatmeal bath bombs
• rainbow bath oil
• rose bath salts
• bubble bath jelly  jars
• brownie mix in a mug
• chai tea latte mix in a mug
• company’s coming dessert mix in a mug
• potato soup mix in a mug
• myo vegetable soup mix
• harvest cake mix
• taco seasoning in a pretty jar (from bulk seasonings)
• fudge in a mug
• tortilla soup in a mug
• big batch cajun rub
• big batch barbecue rub
• handmade candles
• daddy caddy

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Items We Made / Tested

• dry soup mix I didn’t use the exact same beans that they did, but I did use the same quantities.  I placed them in a re-purposed cleaned oddly-shaped spaghetti sauce jar and tied a ribbon to the spice satchel and instructions.  In order to make this greener, next year instead of using a thin sheet of plastic for the spice satchel, I’d like to place the spices inside a re-purposed paper bag turned into an envelope with the instructions printed onto it.  The gift turned out very pretty, but I’m not sure how it tasted so hopefully somebody tests it out and reports back to me!  Many of the spices were bought in bulk at our locally owned grocery stores.
• wild bird suet We had a bunch of lard in the freezer that had come from my mother-in-law as a gift ages ago.  She loves birds and has a variety of bird feeders around so I figured this would be the perfect re-gift.  We used natural peanut butter, cornmeal, whole wheat flour, raisins, and a bird seed mix from our locally owned hardware store.  You have to watch this very carefully because it burns very easily and then the birds won’t touch it!  We learned the hard way.
• holiday marshmallow pop
  
• chocolate peppermint spoons We purchased some of the non-plastic recyclable compostable re-usable spoons from one of our local grocery stores for this gift.
• bath salts Our wedding reception was beautiful.  Our tables had wonderful flower arrangements and an led candle and a jar of bath salts (my favorite was the table decorated by Sammi).  We expected people to take them home with them – and had left a note saying such, yet at the end of the night we had tables full of bath salts.  I took them home and put them in storage.  For Christmas, I went shopping at our local antique store looking for containers to put the bath salts and bubble bath in.  I found these beautiful narrow glasses with a star etched on them for $1 a piece.  Score!
• lantern candle holders I thought this was a very cute idea, but I love re-purposed items.  I have no idea if my giftee liked it or not.  I photoshopped together a picture of a Christmas fairy and part of a traditional German folk tale onto a label for my re-purposed can.  I poked holes along the edges of the fairy’s wings and snowballs and feet and then modgepodged the can along with a pretty ribbon.  When a candle goes into the can, the holes along the fairy’s wings light up and you can see the outline of the fairy.  I also printed off the folk tale and gifted it with the candle holder.
• teacup candle holder I poured hot cinnamon-scented candle wax into a teacup I purchased at a local antique store.  Pretty simple!  Oh yeah, I wicked it too.
• mulled cider in a mug (my recipe) Recipe: 1/8 tsp each cinnamon, ground clove, ground allspice, powdered ginger, nutmeg, 1 tsp brown sugar, 4 dried cranberries, 1 half orange slice     Notes: The oranges came from someone’s tree down in Texas.  They shipped the oranges to me and I dehydrated them.  Many of the spices were bought in bulk at our local grocery store.
• photograph session with each person and each kid
  
• herbed rice mix I used a plain long-grain rice and omitted the mushrooms.  The parsley and thyme came from our garden; I had dehydrated them a few weeks before hand.
• shower gel I bought a kit at Michael’s to make shower gel and scented them cucumber melon or a vanilla blend.  I hid tiny plastic snowflakes in the shower gel and placed it all in one of the narrow glasses from our local antique store.
• brownie mix in a mug We added in mini M&Ms.  This turns out more like a fudge – not like a traditional brownie.  We also added a tsp of oil to the instructions – it turned out much better that way.
• chai tea latte mix in a mug I didn’t feel that this tasted at all like chai tea latte, so instead I called it vanilla caramel tea.  It was good though.
• potato soup mix in a mug This was runny, but we think if you let it set longer it may absorb more water.
• company’s coming mix in a mug We added in dried egg and 2 tb water for a total of 3 tb water.  We also reduced the microwave time to 1-2 minutes.
• fudge in a mug This was horrible!  We didn’t like it so we didn’t end up gifting it.
• tortilla soup in a mug This was our absolute favorite.  It was so well liked that people have been asking us for the recipe so they can replicate it!
• big batch cajun rub We put these in re-purposed cleaned artichoke glass containers and I think they looked pretty snazzy.
• big batch barbecue rub These too.
• handmade homemade candles

I also tried to make something special for each person. My mom got the teacup candle, my sister some organic chapstick from our local health/grocery store, my sister-in-law got a special collage in a frame (handwritten songs and other sentimental pieces from her deceased father) and some earrings from a local catch-all store, my mother-in-law got the lantern candle and some local wine, my father-in-law got the rice mix and rub mixes, my brother-in-law received some fiberglass and fiberglass resin stuff (see how technical I am?), and our best friends got an AC/DC apron.

More Photos

Talk To Me

1. Have you ever made holiday gifts like this? What are your favorites to include?
2. If someone was to make you holiday gifts from the list, which ones would you want?
3. Is the weather cold where you are? It’s danged cold here (below zero for sure!). Brr.