<p>Stationery. When the kids were little, I wanted them to do something homemade for their teachers, so we would do bubble prints: mix paint and dish soap with water, insert straw, blow to get big bubbles, hold an index card over to get a nice print. Then affix with glue stick to some plain cards. Or, “marbled” prints: fill a pan with water, drip enamel paint on top, swirl a bit with a toothpick, drop an index card on top, lift off carefully. Affix to plain cards. </p>
<p>I also have a recipe for chocolate bath bombs, which fizz up in the bath with a lovely chocolate odor, the effect of both some chocolate syrup and lots of cocoa butter.</p>
<p>I made first aid kits (yes, they’re actually finished already!!!). I bought some inexpensive Rubbermaid plastic containers with a lid, and filled them with: bandaids, neosporin packets, tweezers, advil, benadryl, immodium, gauze pads, alcohol preps, gloves, and a little piece of chocolate and a tiny bottle of brandy - medicinal, of course!</p>
<p>I love that idea, too, oregonianmom, and may steal it!</p>
<p>I have a large famly (9 siblings, mother, several cousins I am close to) and for several years I had amaryllis plants sent to them every Christmas season.</p>
<p>One year I had old family photos copied for all my siblings (like another poster above).</p>
<p>One year I ordered battery-jumping kits, with directions printed on them, from a society for the prevention of blindness. Improperly jumping batteries, causing explosions, is a major cause of blindness.</p>
<p>I used to make Vanilla Walnuts (pulverized vanilla bean combined with various spices and sugar, coated on walnuts, baked for a whle) and put them in pretty tins lined with paper doilies.</p>
<p>Those hot chocolate cones are cute! I’ve never heard of them before, and when I saw the first post I thought (missing the “hot”) that someone was rolling sheets of chocolate into cones to be used for ice cream.</p>
<p>Every year we do these kinds of gifts - we call them “Our House to Your House,” and we give one to each adult (individual or couple) in the family and to a few friends. Most years, it’s something homemade. </p>
<p>Last year I gave an Oregon calendar plus an Oregon-made bar of scented soap, and an Oregon-made bar of chocolate. A few years ago, we made power outage kits: I bought small canvas bags at Michael’s, and I painted a glittery lightning bolt on the front of the bags. Inside we put a disposable flashlight, cheap radio, batteries, matches and candles. My husband is a musician (as a hobby) and he made CDs one year. We’ve made homemade hot fudge sauce. Cinnamon-apple pancake mix plus apple syrup. One year I bought every person a sweatshirt and painted their name in puff paint on the sleeve and splattered various paint colors across the front (okay, this was in the 80’s - it looked cool then! LOL!). We have made calendars with family pictures on each month. I’ve embroidered Christmas ornaments. We’ve bought personalized mugs and placed packets of gourmet hot cocoa inside. </p>
<p>There are so many ideas out there. This thread is great!</p>
<p>Oregonianmom,
Do you make the apple syrup yourself? If so, would you please tell how?</p>
<p>I have lots of apples on my tree. I don’t know what kind they are - they were quite tart but have turned sweeter in the last week or so. I’ve been reading apple jelly recipes and might give that a try, and I’m thinking of experimenting with a spicy one that has red chili flakes.</p>
<p>Does anyone have experience making jelly without commercial pectin? From what I’ve read, there is a lot of natural pectin in apples.</p>
Gosh, it was probably 20 years ago, and I don’t remember the recipe. Seems like I found a recipe in a magazine (it would be a lot easier to find now with the internet!). It was thick and delicious, and had chunks of apple in it and lots of cinnamon. We poured it into self-sealing canning jars and put a cute piece of fabric with ribbon over the lid.</p>
<p>Grad student DD learned to knit a year or two ago and spends the entire year knitting in her spare time to make Christmas gifts. She had advanced from scarves to mittens and arm warmers and may take on caps soon. The nice yarn is not cheap, so she watches for big sales and works on it all year.</p>
<p>I used to do those well loved photo calendars but with all the kids in college, I have no photos to use any more :(</p>
<p>i am working on some knitted projects. i am working with several strands of yarn and “fake fur” yarn–the effect is a super plush soft afghan.</p>
<p>i am also going to be making mobeus knitted scarves. </p>
<p>i have a few baby sweaters in the works, too, but those can wait!</p>
<p>none of these really save any money! but i love to do something homemade.</p>
<p>for our family get together, we started a $5 white elephant exchange. It makes it easy for everyone to participate without breaking a family budget…and it’s fun to see what items are popular and what items make everyone chuckle…very fun and very inexpensive!</p>
<p>For edible gifts - if I make enough jam in the summer, I like to give it away in the winter, but this year I’m keeping it all :-). In the past I have also used fall fruits (like apples and pears) to make chutneys, and I’m thinking of trying that again this year.</p>
<p>There are a couple of unusual things I tried a couple of years ago to go on cookie trays that I can recommend. </p>
<p>One of these treats is dates stuffed with a bit of almond paste mixed with orange or tangerine zest. You cut a small slice down the middle of the date so you can get the pit out, and then put in a pit-sized piece of your zested almond paste and fold the date closed again. I’m in northern California, and we are lucky to have a date farmer come up from southern California to our farmer’s market every two weeks with about a dozen different varieties of dates. The best kind of date for this purpose is one that’s pretty soft. I use Barhi. You can use other kinds of they’re not too hard.</p>
<p>The other unusual treat is homemade candied orange peel, which you can dip in chocolate if you like (or dip half in chocolate). This takes longer to make, but it’s not difficult. The book “Fruit” by Alice Waters has an excellent explanation of how to candy the peel and how to temper the chocolate if you’re doing that. This is very, very good.</p>
<p>One year I made pillowcases for my nieces and nephews. Used fabric especially chosen for each child - One received a basketball pillowcase, one received a guitar pillowcase, one received a cat pillowcase, etc. They are so easy to sew and very personal. Also, a pillowcase with bears on it - because a black bear was constantly getting into my brother-in-law’s birdfeeder. It was so much fun to think of each person and what fabric might suit them.</p>