Holiday Gifts
Each year I try to give a little gift that is a little more personal and isn’t store purchased. Yes this can be a little time consuming but the joy I get from people loving the fact that I took the time to make a homemade treat it well worth it.
Most Requested Homemade Gift
The most anticipated treat that I give each Christmas is the jam that I make. One year while perusing Pinterest I found a recipe for Christmas jam. I thought – why not try it to see how it is. On black Friday I headed out to my local hardware store, bought a couple of packs of half pint mason jars and pectin. I figured at least I would try it out and see what happened – well, what happened was rave reviews! Each year the list of who will be receiving the Christmas jam has expanded and this year the list is up to 48 recipients! Yes, you read that right 48 people will be receiving the jam as a gift which equals to 4 batches of jam. Since all 48 people are not receiving the jam at the same time this allows me to spread out my jam making. I do a batch a weekend from Thanksgiving weekend on.
Cookies
Growing up part of our holiday traditions was baking cookies with my mom. We did everything from butter cookies to cream cheese holly wreaths. Now that I do most of the baking myself, I have put together a cookie list that I make each year:
- Chocolate Chip
- Sugar
- Gingerbread
- Magic
- Lemon Shortbread
- Butter
- Peanut Butter
Most of the recipes are not too time consuming so I am able to get a few batches of cookies done each weekend, store them in air tight containers, and I am all ready to package up in tins when I have a holiday gathering. The recipes I use are either found on Pinterest like the lemon shortbread and gingerbread while other recipes are from my family, or from the back of products that my mom pulled.
Candy
I started making candy for the holidays a few years ago. I stared with making chocolate truffles and fudge since it appeared to be the easiest recipes I could find. From there I began to expand my candy making experimenting to English toffee and caramels. This year my candy list consists of:
- Fudge
- Fudge with walnuts
- Vanilla Fudge
- Chocolate covered graham crackers
- Chocolate Truffles
- Peanut butter balls
- English Toffee
Gift Giving
I usually give my friends cookie, candy and jam as their gift or a part of their gift. This year I kept the decorating of the jam jars to a simple red or green string around the lid with a Christmas tag. I found this tag on Canva.
I like to package the cookies in a tin. I chose a tine with a clear lid so that the recipient can see what they are getting and won’t have to open it to see what is inside. I do this since at times gifts are exchanged in public places. I found these tins in Michaels – and the day I purchased them they were were on sale (score!).
If I gift both candy and cookies usually the candy needs to be refrigerated so I will keep those candies separate. I found these boxes in the dollar store. Also the mini cupcake holders are from the dollar store and are the perfect size to hold the candy!
Giving a homemade gift is a great way to tell someone that you are thinking of them and they are special.
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