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Christmas is a time for exchanging gifts with friends and family. For some, shopping is the most festive feature of the season! For others it can be an onerous chore. Whichever describes you, this page will offer some ideas, many of them home-made, to please everyone on your list. Making the gift yourself adds meaning and makes it much more personal, since you crafted the gift to please a specific loved one. But, there are ways to personalize a store-bought (or online bought) gift as well. Find something on this page to inspire your gift-giving this Christmas!
Gifts for Children
Let's start with an easy idea for children. This non-toxic playdough will be a hit, especially if you pair it with a few "tools" to help them fashion their creations.
If you're not the "creative" type, you can still put a nice gift together inexpensively for a child. Why not assemble an "art kit"? (Dollar stores are your friend here.)
Homemade Playdough
Art Kit
Recipe for Homemade Playdough
INGREDIENTS:
1 Cup all-purpose flour
1/2 Cup salt
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 Cup water
1 Tablespoon oil (vegetable or canola are good)
abt 6 drops food coloring
METHOD:
Combine flour, salt and cream of tartar in a medium size saucepan. Combine water, oil and food coloring in a pourable container. Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients and place over medium heat. Stir constantly as the mixture cooks. It will be a blobby liquid at first, then it will begin to come together. When the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan to form a messy ball, it's done. Lightly grease your cutting board. Turn the mixture out to the cutting board and knead for a bit to blend and smooth out the playdough. Allow the playdough to cool so it won't cause condensation in your container, then store in a zip-lock baggie or a plastic container with a tight lid. It will keep for a month or two, longer if you refrigerate it.
[although this playdough is non-toxic, it's quite salty and not meant to be consumed!]
Make two or three colors and wrap them together in a little box with a baggie containing some fun items such as a plastic knife, bottle caps, popsicle sticks, cookie cutters, birthday cake candles, large buttons, etc. Use your imagination! Include a rolled up plastic placemat (Dollar Tree has these) for the child to make her creations on.
image by Bobjgalindo on Wikimedia
Pick out a brightly colored reusable shopping bag and head to your nearest Dollar Store. Fill the bag with inexpensive "art" items for the child to experiment with. Depending on the age of the child, these can include coloring books, crayons, water color paints or poster paints with brushes, a pad of colored construction paper and one of white, child-friendly scissors, colored markers, hole punch, yarn (to hang their artwork), glue, glitter, stickers, rubber stamps and ink, pipe cleaners, and anything else you see that might be fun to be artistic with! Tie the handles of the bag with a pretty ribbon and a tag, and you don't even have to wrap it.
Interactive Shadow Box
For a child aged 4 to 9, you can create a magical, three-dimensional miniature world that sparks hours of independent, creative play! This is a wonderful, old-fashioned alternative to plastic toys that invites children to become the authors of their own holiday adventures.
How to build it: Find a sturdy shoe box or a decorative hatbox/storage box (with lid). Use a glue stick to line the inside back wall with a beautiful piece of festive scrapbook paper or a printed public domain winter landscape (a snowy forest or a cozy village scene works beautifully).
The Characters: Search online for public domain vintage illustrations of woodland animals (deer, foxes, owls), snowmen, or holiday characters. Print them on heavy cardstock, carefully cut them out, and glue a small wooden craft stick (popsicle stick) or a coin to the bottom of each one so they can stand upright inside the box.
The Magical Glow: Include a short string of battery-operated mini white LED fairy lights (with the battery pack safely tucked in the back). The child can drape these lights around the top of the box to cast a warm, comforting winter glow over their scene.
Sparking the Imagination: When the child opens the box, the shoe box becomes their tiny theater stage. Just like the Scrap Book, you can sit with them and ask guiding questions to get their mind cranking: "Who lives in this little winter forest? Where are the woodland animals walking tonight? What happens when the snow starts to fall?"
Personalized Touch: Use a marker to write "Tammy's Winter Theater, 2026" on the top lid. It is a lightweight, deeply personal gift that costs next to nothing but feeds a child's soul for months!
Holiday Scrap Book
For a very young child - about 6 and under - you can create a beautiful Christmas picture book! This is a low-tech way to get a child away from screens and using their own imagination and curiosity!
Purchase a blank notebook/journal with a Christmas themed cover. Then grab all those Christmas catalogs you've been meaning to toss, and start going through, looking for holiday pictures that might appeal to a little one. Christmas toys and yummies, of course, but also Christmas scenes, vintage or old-fashioned Christmas images, snowy landscapes, religious themed pictures, Christmas trees, and images of children dressed in their Christmas finery or pajamas!
Carefully cut out each image and use a glue stick to secure them to the pages. No words necessary! Of course, if you want to compose a line or verse for each picture, you surely can, but this little Christmas book is meant for a child who cannot read. Just a picture book for the child to carefully turn the pages and use their own mind and imagination as they gaze at the festive images.
You don't have to do a Christmas theme, either. Does the child love trucks? ballerinas? puppies? dinosaurs? You can make a scrap book with these themes too! Just search online for your subject in pubic domain images, download and print them off!
When the child opens your gift, have them sit with you as they turn the pages. Ask the child about the picture. What is this picture about? Would you like to go to this place? Can you think of a story about this picture? Which is your favorite picture in the book, and why is it so special? This exercise is terrific for getting a child's mind and imagination cranking, rather than having screens feeding everything to them!
On the inside cover, use a colored marker to write "Matty's Christmas Book", for example, in child-friendly lettering, and include the year. Trust me, they'll love this!
There are many places online you can find beautiful vintage Christmas images to use in the projects above. The graphics fairy has many free images that she has collected. Another place to look is robincolors and public domain pictures. (the images in the middle on this one, not the ones on the top and bottom that cost money) These sites feature vintange images, whose copyrights have long since expired. They're free to download and use for your own purposes! YAY!
Gifts for Adults
It's often harder to decide on appropriate gifts for adults. One strategy is to think about that person on your list .... what are they into? You can put together a basket or box or bucket filled with inexpensive items that suit your gift recipients interests!
For example, you have a nephew who recently got a new (used) car. How about buying a simple bucket, and filling it with car needs and supplies? There are lots of things that are pretty inexpensive that could go in such a bucket!
For example, you have a nephew who recently got a new (used) car. How about buying a simple bucket, and filling it with car needs and supplies? There are lots of things that are pretty inexpensive that could go in such a bucket!
You could put in a bottle or two of gas treatment, a huge sponge and car wash liquid, a shammy cloth, scented danglies for the rear view mirror, spot treatment for seats, a sun shield for the dashboard, and a few items that are handy to keep in the glove box, such as tissues, napkins, extra pair of sunglasses in a case, notebook and pens, hand sanitizer, and an N-9 medical mask, in case they're needed again! (hopefully not) Then tie a festive bow on the bucket's handle and there you go!
Knitting/Crafts Basket
Knitting/Crafts Basket
You can do a similar thing for someone on your list who likes to knit or crochet. Pick up some special yarns, perhaps a book of patterns, needles in varying sizes, a tape measure, small pair of scissors, stitch markers, stitch holders, tapestry needles, crochet hook, needle stoppers and a needle gauge. A similar basket for different kinds of crafting would work well too!
Gift Cards
Gift Cards
Gift cards were once considered an impersonal gift and frowned upon by some. Nowadays, however, the gift card has become a common gift that most everyone loves to receive at Christmas. You can personalize it in several ways. Giving your brother and sister-in-law a restaurant gift card? Give them a home-made little card with it worth 4 hours of babysitting! A gift card to Starbucks could be tucked into an attractive coffee mug. Or, include a pair of earbuds with a gift card for itunes.
FOOD for Christmas Gifts!
If your stumped for a gift for someone on your list, food may be your best option. After all, everybody loves yummy holiday treats! (Just be sure you're aware if this gift recipient has any allergies or dietary restrictions!) Of course, you can purchase goodies or wine to give as a gift. But it's extra special when you make something yourself! Try the following suggestions and give a gift from your heart and from your home.
Christmas Snack Mix
Christmas Snack Mix
My "famous" Christmas mix is universally enjoyed, and all my friends and family look forward to a tin each year. Find some festive tins, line them with foil and take a large, clean garbage bag to properly MIX the mix! Adjust the amounts, depending on how many tins you plan to gift, and don't forget to include some for your own home! Into the bag, add: 2-3 bags of goldfish crackers (I use both parmesan and cheddar), a box of gold raisins, a box of chopped dates, bag of chopped, dried apricots*, 1-2 bags of Christmas M&Ms (without nuts), a jar of peanuts, bag of cashews and bag of pistachios (out of the shell, of course). Blend with a wooden spoon or plastic-gloved hands and divide into your tins. I usually do larger tins for family, and make up half a dozen small tins for neighbors, the post lady, and to have on hand as a gift for someone who unexpectedly gives you a gift! This sweet and savory blend is always a big hit. Watch out for small children, though, as little ones can choke on the nuts!
*about the apricots, look for dried apricots, already diced. If you buy dried whole apricots, you'll have to dice them and then bake them in a slow oven for an hour or so, or else the moisture from the apricots will make your crackers go soft.
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