When a gift is homemade or has your personalized touch to it – it is a great way to make someone feel special especially over the holiday season! Today, I am sharing some of our homemade gifts and recipes as well as a few links to printables that will add a personal touch to your gifts.
Homemade gifts are “all the rage” right now! (yes – I said all the rage – not sure if that is what the kids are saying these days but, that is the best way to describe it!) If you are not a baker and you know of someone who isn’t or is, this gift is fool proof and very inexpensive to put together:
Mason Jar Cookie Mix:
Buy a box of cake mix, any brand will do – we picked up these Betty Crocker cake mixes. Buy some m and m’s – you can even get a small holiday pack now or the regular chocolate m and m’s - you do not need much about ½ cup or so. Fill a jar (we have extra mason jars from when we made sauce, clean one’s) and you can even get mason jars or any clear jar really with a lid that are inexpensive at the Dollar Store.
Fill the jar with the boxed cake mix, add the m and m’s on top, and add a ribbon or gift tag to it (I just printed a Christmas tree template but you could totally draw it free hand) along with written baking instructions and voila – they can enjoy some baking during the holidays! These are great for kids to make with their families over the holidays.
The link to this gift idea and baking instructions can be found here
If you are looking to do some baking but do not want to spend hours in the kitchen – these Mini Pretzel & Chocolate Bites are so SIMPLE and QUICK to make! All you need are pretzels, rolo or caramel filled chocolate, some m and m’s, kisses and pecans. My mom made these for a party we had recently and they are amazing and went very fast!
All you do is preheat the oven to 350, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Lay out the pretzels – add a rolo on top of some and a kiss on the others. Let that bake for 3 minutes and stay close the chocolate melts fast! Once you take it out, place the m and m’s on top of some and the pecans on others. You can use all varieties of candies – let it cool and place into mini muffin cups and into a jar or tin tray and voila- another homemade gift!
If the person you are giving a gift to prefers a healthier option – these Dark Chocolate and Trail Mix Bites are FANTASTIC!
All you do is melt some dark chocolate squares or Chipits in the microwave at 15 second intervals, stirring in between and watch carefully to make sure it does not burn!
Pour it onto wax or parchment paper about a teaspoon and a half or so of each depending on how large you want them. Add in your nuts mix items – we love these natural one’s from Walmart. Put in the fridge for a few minutes to harden and voila these are all ready to go! You can find the delish and simple recipe here. I have already baked these three times in the last week and a half they will go even before you give them away - GUARENTEED!
For healthier baking options – check out our favourite recipes on my previous blog posts including Skinny Oats Monkey Cookies with chocolate chips and Seed Bars recipes which include one of our favourite items to bake with - Quaker Whole Grain Oats.
If you make your own homemade items, this is a great time to give them away as gifts. We make our own WINE and TOMATO SAUCE.
During the holidays, we give to friends and family and this year we are personalizing them. These lid inserts are adorable! (see link below)
This wine tag is great afterall, it is homemade wine!
You can use printable tags and/or write the recipe/cooking instructions on the back.
Put your gifts together using some wrapping paper, tin containers, jars, etc.
For links to gift tags used in this post find them below:
Plad tags
What are your favourite Homemade Gifts?
Happy Homemade gift giving and Happy Holidays!