Here Are Some Great Homemade Christmas Gift Ideas That Won’t Break the Bank

Making the perfect Christmas gift is fairly hard to do if you’re not the creative type. If you don’t like to sew, bake, knit or scrapbook, there’s still always another option that is thoughtful and doesn’t cost much. You may just need to invest a little bit of your time. The time taken to create a homemade Christmas gift for someone you love is one of the reasons why these gifts are so appreciated.

You can take a few hours to draw a picture of your mother, hand knit a scarf or put together the ingredients for your famous cookies for a child who lives on the other side of the country. And that’s why these gifts are the most loved.

Tip: Aim to make at least three gifts this year. This will make the holidays easier on your wallet, give you more pride in your gifts, and help you to connect more deeply with the loved one that will receive it.

Here Are Our Top 10 Picks for Easy Homemade Christmas Gifts:

10.) Edible Plants

This one may sound odd, but what a wonderful gift it is to give someone a plant bears fruit or can be used to create delicious meals! If the lucky person has a yard, bring them a small peach tree, blueberry bush or lemon tree

For those who only have a patio or balcony, bring a smaller plant or plants like herbs that fit even in the tiniest of spaces. A set like pizza herbs (basil, oregano and rosemary), salsa herbs, or Herbs de Provence will make a wonderful gift that will keep on giving. Plus, the plants will always remind them of you when they use the fruit, vegetables or herbs for their meal.

If you want, you can purchase seeds and a cute growing container (or make one yourself!) a few months before you want to give the gift. That way, your gift is ready to be used once you give it.

 

9.) Homemade Tea Bread

Tea breads are wonderful gifts for anyone who loves to eat (so, basically everyone). A tea bread is anything you would eat with your tea, like banana bread, pumpkin bread, lemon poppy seed bread, dried fruit and nut bread, or chocolate bread. There are billions of recipes online. Even if you’re not an experienced baker, you will do just fine if you find a good recipe and stick to it. After letting the bread cool, you can wrap it in a cute kitchen towel, tie it up with a ribbon and add a little card. You could even keep the bread in the pan so the person receiving can make their own next!

If you know someone who loves pumpkin, make pumpkin bread. For chocolate lovers, try a good chocolate bread. If you want to try something unusual, try this delicious cinnamon bread recipe!

 

8.) Hand-Knit Mittens

If you don’t know how to knit, you can sit this one out. However, if you are willing to try, you’ll learn they’re not that hard to make. All it takes is a little time and patience, and you can make this gift just sitting in front of the TV or on the bus on the way home after work. Mittens sure make a very cute handmade Christmas gift.

Find the tutorial by Instructables.

 

7.) Mini Scrapbook Gift

Making a nice looking notebook is easy on the wallet and makes an excellent gift when filled with little sayings, quotes, photos, ticket stubs, receipts, travel documents and other things you shared with the recipient of the book. A scrapbook makes for a fun time remembering all the good moments and reconnecting with the other person even before you give them the book. This makes a scrapbook a wonderful and loving gift that will be super enjoyable to look through.

Tip: You don’t have to buy all sorts of expensive items to decorate your book — use gift-wrapping paper, strings, markers, crayons and simply anything that looks nice.

The easy tutorial can be found right here!

 

6.) Cookie Ingredients Jar

Does your friend have a sweet tooth but little experience in the kitchen? Then he or she will appreciate a jar of cookies! Mason jars filled with cookie ingredients like flour, sugar, cocoa, oats and whatever the recipe calls for are an easy and cheap way to make your friends happy with homemade Christmas gifts.

Decorate the jar with a ribbon, and remember to have the direction card on the jar so that the recipient knows how many cookies it makes, how much butter, milk and eggs they need, how long to bake the cookies and what temperature to bake them at.

You can present this delicious gift in any way you’d like. With a cute scrap of cloth screwed on to the top to dangle over the edges, this makes a super cute and personal present. This gift is even better if you have a famous recipe of your own!

If your friend is on a special diet, try one of our chocolate chip cookie recipes for paleo, vegan, low-fat and gluten-free diets.

 

 

5.) DIY BBQ Set

For the man who has everything, put together a DIY gift set complete with some grilling essentials: homemade ketchup, dry rub, skewers, a basting brush and a  cutting board.

 

 

4.)  Flavored Salt

If the recipient’s more of a savory person, make an assortment of salts for a gift with some kick. Collect jars over the year (jam and peanut butter jars do the trick), then stick on a cute label or sticker. These gifts are incredibly simple to make!

Tuck the labeled salt jars in a box for a simple, homemade Christmas gift, or wrap a single jar in brown craft or parchment paper. Make sure to keep some for yourself as well!

Mommapotamus teaches you how to make flavored salts for Christmas!

You’re feeling extra generous toward your foodie friend? Why not gift a bottle of wine or wine accessories to go along with the salt?

 

 

3.) Pressed Flowers

What a brilliant idea: flowers you can keep forever and not have to change the water. Wildflowers or blooms from your garden can easily be preserved and made into a beautiful glass framed display for a flower-loving friend.

Held in a glass frame and decorated with a rope hanging, the flowers can be hung on the wall but also look lovely propped up on a shelf. The internet has easy tutorials on how to make pressed flowers.

 

2.) Embroidered Handkerchiefs

A great handmade Christmas gift for those who already have it all! Give charm to basic cotton hankies by adding a funny quote or simply just the recipient’s name. For each handkerchief, handwrite the phrase of your choice in the bottom-right corner with a water-soluble marker, then embroider over the letters using a standard stem stitch. For detailed instructions, check out a quick tutorial.

 

1.) Handmade Soap

Perfect for a handmade Christmas gift, these sweet-smelling soaps will be someone’s new favorite cleaning product. Soap is reasonably easy to make, too. Once you’ve got the basics right, you’re set to whip up soap for every gift-giving occasion.

This is not a last minute solution. Soap needs three to four weeks to age before use, so get started on your Christmas soap sooner rather than later. Here’s a Christmas soap recipe to get started with!

 

Gift giving sometimes turns from something personal and heartfelt into something stressful, expensive and impersonal, but it doesn’t have to be this way! Making things that feel good, taste good or remind people of good things will always be the best gifts of all. So make time, not money, to make your gifts this year!

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