Homemade Holiday Presents! Lets help each other! Ideas WANTED!

[rhonhod]

I made the fleece no-sew blankets for everyone a few years ago. They take 4 yards of fleece each for nice big blankets (3 yards for kids blankets). Here are some directions I found online: http://www.exploringwomanhood.com/homelife/ideas/pom-jan03.htm

Last year I made peppermint bark candy. It was awesome, easy, and inexpensive. I can post pictures of that project if you want. I'll have to upload them and do it a little later.

I have also made tons of gifts in a jar type jars. I get most of my recipes from allrecipes.com. Just search for cookies in a jar. This is a great thread, let's keep the ideas flowing!

Thanks for this link, last night my DD and I sat down and made a baby blanket for my new niece that will be here in 3 weeks. OMG 3 weeks. Wow didn't realize she was that close to being here.

 

[DisKim]

I just want to say that I LOVE this thread! I have always gone overboard every Christmas. This year, my son was diagnosed with autism and I quickly decided to become a SAHM so money is suddenly tight. When I quit working, I told the kids that we would be making Christmas gifts this year. I am the least creative person in the world. Now, I have this thread to refer to so I can make gifts with the kids! Thanks everyone!

 

[mommytobug]

My daughter will be making the grandmothers a bird feeder. You take 3 terracotta pots and turn them upside down and put them on top of each other, so like a 12, 14, and 16" and then you take at least 4' more base and put on top to make the feeder. It has to be sprayed after painting so that the paint does not come off. I will find a link for the directions if i can.

 

[nicolita3]

I like the idea of the movie baskets.

Now my dilemna: I need to do 10. So, I would like to include 2 movies in each basket. The movies need to be Disney or some other "Family" style.

Ideally, I would like to include 1 Disney and 1 other "Family" movie in each basket.

Where do you find these cheap -- especially the Disney ones?

At walmart, at least the ones here in orlando you can find some Disney movies in the $5 - $9 rack. Just keep an eye out and you should definitly find some! Also Best Buy has them too at times.

 

[bopper]

Drivencrazy thanks for the recipe.

I went to the xmas tree shop this weekend and p/u cheap but popular coloring books for gift bags for my daycare kids. I'm adding .12 crayons from Target and going to Mickey Mart at DTD for cheap WDW gift next month. (Any suggestions from there?) Then I think they are done.

I would be real careful giving cheapo crayons if they are made in China.

 

[It's A Happy Day]

Kids presents to each other or great little gifts from teacher to kids - check local dollar stores, craft supply stores for containers for presentation:

Playdough
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
Water
Oil, optional (if you no not want it to harden)
Medium sized mixing bowl
Spoon
Food colouring

How To Make It
Mix the flour, salt, and water in a bowl. Add food colouring as desired
Add a small amount of oil if you do not want the play dough to harden.

Bubbles:
Magic Bubbles Recipe
Makes long lasting strong bubbles.
1/4 cup of liquid dishwashing soap (Joy works best)
1/2 cup of water
3 tsps. glycerin

Combine the glycerin and water. Pour in the dishwashing soap.
Store in covered jars.

another recipe:
Liquid dishwashing Soap
Corn syrup
Pipe cleaners or wire coat hanger

Recipe: in a small mixing bowl combine 6 cups water, 2 cups dish soap and 3/4cup corn syrup for stronger bubbles. Make the mix 4 hours before use and then pour into shallow pan. Bubble wands can be made by twisting pipe cleaners and coat hangers into circles, squares or any closed shape. Don't forget the handle! Simply dip the wand into the solution and gently wave your arm through the air. The bigger the wand opening the bigger the bubble. Be sure to bend sharp edges of the wand back so they do not make contact with the opening.
************
A favorite of mine that my sister does with my kids (would also make cool favors for a kids party!):
Recycling old crayons!
Take off the paper on the crayons and put them in an old saucepan. Or put the crayons in an empty tin can and place the can in a saucepan filled with water. Melt the wax by turning the stove on LOW heat. Place the cookie cutters on a sheet of aluminum foil. Pour the melted wax into assorted cookie cutters. You may need to hold the cookie cutters down to keep the melted crayons from running out. Wait for the wax to set, then cool, and pop your brand new crayons out. My sister uses chocolate molds that she picked up at AC Moore to make different new cool crayons shapes. Another idea is to layer different colors in the molds or cookie cutters and get a multi-colored crayon!!
**********
Great present/package for child - take a box like a photo copier paper box and decorate it with a "rainy day theme" or whatever theme you want and fill it with: construction paper, markers, crayons, water paints, ribbons, scissors, pine cones, old jewelry, feathers, pebbles, glitter, yarn, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, simple terra cotta pots, ribbon or magazines to cut up.

I always check Michaels & A.C. Moores clearance section and always find great clearanced embellishment things. The dollar store has cute craft items. If you yard sale or flea market shop always check for cheap jewelry/beads - you can unstring a string or fake pearls and the kids will glue them to projects, restring, etc.

 

[JoyG]

In the past I've gotten holiday labels from www.myownlabels.com that said "Happy Holidays from the ____ family". I baked batches of banana bread and put them in cellophane bags. I attach the label and tie the top with christmas ribbon. It was really festive and the label really set the gift apart. I like the Santa label the best.

 

[Mom-to-2-Princesses]

I just remembered another item I made a few years ago -we have a family Christmas where I need items for about 8 women.

A Dishtowel Angel! You use
1 dishtowel, 1 washcloth, 1 Pot holder, Ribbon
to create a soft angel. The towel gets folded into the body, the washcloth are the arms and the Pot holder the wings. This site has great instructions and a great picture -- just picture it in Christmas towels instead of normal ones.

http://crafterscommunity.com/view/142/Dishtowel_Angel

They were unique and not too much money - I bought sets of Dish Towels, etc at Big Lots and TJ Maxx. Cute gift that was close to $5.

 

[NemoMOm]

I would be real careful giving cheapo crayons if they are made in China.

They are actually Roseart on sale at Target for back to school. I highly encourage any to snap some up as they are $2.00 a box during the year.

 

[snowwhitesmom]

subscribing!

 

[Amii]

My grandmother is 81 and has everything she could want or need. She lives alone and cooks mostly prepared food because it is too much to cook for herself. A few weeks before Christmas I start making a little bit extra of everything I cook for dinner and freeze a portion for her. Then I give her the frozen meals at Christmas. Then I give her a card saying when we visit every month (she lives out of state) we will bring her more meals.

I also give my elderly neighbor a card every Christmas saying we will make him one home cooked meal a week.

They both love it and I know they are getting home cooked food at least some of the time.

 

[Girldreamer02]

stupid question for those who do the 12 days of Christmas: What days are they? The 12 days leading up to Christmas?

TIA

my fiance and i have been doing this for the past three yrs...we exchage a small gift on all the odd days of dec leading up to christmas...we don't do the number of things..just little presents...like i got him a little dollar cookbook and a box of sweetarts for one day. at least thats how we do the 12 days.

 

[BecBennett]

I'm only half way through this thread, so you'll have to forgive me if what I'm about to add has been said a bit further down the post, but I've just gotten too excited and I need to add my ideas!

I don't know how popular they are in the states, but here in Oz, chocolate covered coffee beans can be hard to come by. My DBF loves them, so I'm going to make a few lots of them and put them in pretty bags. He'll get some, and then I can give other bags to other friends/family.

Also, I moved out of home just after Christmas back in 2002, a friend of mine bought me a laundry basket, and filled it with little things for my new place that I would never have bought before - paper towel, toilet paper, pegs and peg pasket, coat hangers, dish washing liquid, washing detergent, soap and the like. It was great and now I make up one of those for anyone I know that's moving out of home for the first time. They really appreciate it, and it helps out with the dreaded first ever grocery shop, as that can be EXPENSIVE!

Keep the ideas coming, they're great!

 

[meandtheguys2]

Oooh... How do you make your coffee beans? That would be lovely for some of my favorite coffee addicts!

 

[BecBennett]

Oooh... How do you make your coffee beans? That would be lovely for some of my favorite coffee addicts!

It's pretty easy, and pretty messy too. Just melt some chocolate (I put it in a microwavable bowl and then put that bowl in a pot with some water and heat the water while stirring the chocolate - absolute best way to melt chocolte)
The next bit can be done a few ways, either drop a bunch of the beans into the chocolate and pick them out and put them onto baking paper to set, or you can do it one at a time, or if you have lots of time on your hands, you can dip half the bean into the chocolate, and let it set, and then dip the other half in another type of chocolate to give it a half and half look. There's lots of ways you can play around with it.

I'm not a coffee fan myself, so I'm not totally sure how nice they are, but I'm told they're great...

 

[meandtheguys2]

Thanks!

 

[IluvDISNEYLAND!]

Food Baskets
Desserts - you could do mixes vs. ready made. Mixes for brownies, muffins, cakes, canned frosting, cookies, decorating toppings.


I think this is a great basket for young girls, tweens because they are at that age when they really like to get into baking. They are old enough to move past the easy bake ovens. You could also get dry cookie mixes and add cookie cutters, sprinkles and ect. I might do this for my niece.



Thanks for the wonderful idea.
P.S. the cakes mixes/muffins mixes would go great with mini cupcake pans!!!

 

[MNFootballMommy]

Michael's Craft stores have their Christmas 'foam' projects at $3.99 each (reg.$7.99) I got a package of 30 foam photo ornaments for DD to make for family members and I figure I can also use some as gift tags with the recipients picture in it as well! I always have extra glitter glue, spangles, foam pieces, etc. to add to these to make them a bit more than just the kit, but they are great for the kids to make. I also keep some plastic page protectors around and cut a piece out to put over the photo on stuff like this as just a bit more protection from dust, fingerprints, etc.

Anyway, they have foam gingerbread houses, Christmas villages, etc., as well as ornaments, foam trees and so on. It is a good deal and I know from experience that they tend to sell out VERY early in the season. Last year they sold foam mailboxes, so DD decorated them for family as Christmas card holders. They turned out VERY cute. I put the family's last name on the flag and let her go to town with foam decorations, glitter glue and more. They were much cuter than I had anticipated and wanted one for myself, however, by Halloween they were GONE! Friday is payday, so I will be BACK!

 

[debbiet1]

2 yrs ago I knit all the girls hats and scarf sets and the boys got mitts and neck warmers. Last year everyone got a home knit ski sweater. This year they are all getting handknit afghans.

 

[KLAIT]

Taking this back to the top!