Tips and Hints

CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEAS

23 Comments

I love giving gifts, it is a pleasure for me.

striped-gift-box-10027364

We are a family who likes to make or do things ourselves and gifts for Christmas for the extended family are no exception.  I love to give them things that we have produced on our farm or something that I have spun or sewed or baked.

Christmas isn’t that far away now and it is about time that No 2 daughter and myself start thinking about appropriate gifts.  We usually make our own Christmas cards and send out about 60 of them.   We try and send these our the first week of December but sometimes it gets a bit later.

I was thinking this afternoon of what we could make to give.  Most

years we make up a hamper of goodies with homemade jam, a jar of our own honey, a block of homemade cheddar cheese, and some baking.

This year I want to add some homemade soap (need to get a move on and make it this coming week) and maybe I’ll get No 2 daughter to weave some oven mitts.

Here are some ideas I’ve had:

  • plum puddings in bottles (see recipe posted earlier)
  • feta cheese in olive oil with sundried tomatoes
  • cheddar cheese
  • woven pot holders
  • spun wool for the knitter
  • home made soap
  • honey
  • fruit cakes, yo yo biscuits
  • homemade pasta
  • knitted or crocheted dish cloths

Maybe you can package the gifts up fancy with a nice jar and spoon for the honey or by wrapping your baking in cellophane with pretty ribbon.12544568-sweet-honey-in-jar-with-drizzler-isolated-on-white

You might not have the ability to do these things this year, but maybe you could prepare for the coming years.

If you don’t have a homestead or land to use for bees or a milking cow or goat, you could just make some beautiful biscuits or cakes or both.  Who doesn’t love baking as a gift.  I know we certainly do.

JUST A WARNING:

This desire to make all our gifts can get a bit of a drag especially when you are running to a timetable, but it is something that I endeavor to do.  Just try and make sure that you have enough time and it doesn’t get stressful, otherwise it just won’t be fun.

What do you do for gifts, have you any more ideas for us??

this post is linked up here…

WeekendBloggyReading

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 Nourishing Joy

 

 

 

 

 

23 thoughts on “CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEAS”

  1. Those sound like lovely ideas!

    I finished up a string block quilt for my stepdaughter, and am working on blocks for quilts for both of the boys. I’m planning on candies and cookies to give to family, and to send out to missionaries as money allows. I learned how to make caramels, tootsie rolls, and peanut brittle this summer, so those would make good gifts. 🙂

    A friend of mine crochets all year and makes afghans for her family and friends. She uses quiet family time to sit with it, and has made shrugs and such too–she’s quite good at what she does!

    To tell you the truth, I prefer the homemade/by hand presents over store bought any day!

    Reply

    1. It sounds like you are very busy but it also sounds great. What is a string block quilt?? I had promised my son a quilt for his birthday a couple of years ago and he said the other day that if I made that for him for Christmas that would be fine, just need to do it now. I normally knit when we are watching a movie or something but I have been blogging lately, will have to get back to knitting.
      Thank you for your comment. Blessings.

      Reply

      1. A string block is strips of fabric, any width, sewn down to a backing, either another fabric or paper. Trim around the block, and it makes a scrappy look.

        A good idea of string blocks are here at pinterest–mine don’t look near as nice but I’m still a beginner. 🙂

        http://www.pinterest.com/quiltmakermag/string-quilting-101/

        I’d love to learn to knit! I’m a mostly self taught crocheting fan, along with sewing, haven’t gotten the hang of knitting yet, though I love the beautiful stitches in knitting that I can’t replicate in crochet.

        I have a question: what do you all do to celebrate Christmas there, since it’s during the summer? Here it’s always chilly or downright cold, so there’s the whole coats/mittens/mufflers, fireplaces, lots of heavy knits, snowboots, snow, and so on. What’s it like there?

        Reply

        1. Oh okay, that sound interesting, I will have a look at them on Pinterest. My mother knitted from the age of 5 and did amazing things but I just couldn’t get the hang of it when she was alive, probably much to her frustration. Now what she did taught me has started to mean something so I am able to knit vests and jumpers, but nothing fancy. I get great pleasure knitting for my family (especially our granddaughters). I can crochet too but don’t do it so much.
          Christmas in Australia can be very warm, even us in the south can get a day of over 30 degrees. We usually have a cold luncheon here (that’s what I grew up with) but some people do the whole roast and vegetables. Then after lunch we (our family) will probably rest or if we have extra family here the children will play outside and we will chat and nibble the afternoon away. It is quite a relaxing day. I feel quite jealous of all those who get a white, cold Christmas, that sounds just so wonderful.
          Some people here spend the day at the beach and the further north you get the hotter it gets. We live in an area that the temperature various quite a lot so it also can be quite cool during the summer. This Christmas I think we have quite a lot of extended family coming so we will probably do a pig on the spit and salads, might even fire up the pizza oven for tea.
          New Years Eve the last few years has been very hot and we spend that outside having a spit or BBQ. Really it is all about fellowship. last year we had some couples from church over (the older ones) and had a great evening. They all left about 10 pm so we didn’t have a late night, which was great.
          Blessings Terri

          Reply

  4. Here at Christmas in our neck of the prairie, it runs about -1 C to -6C give or take. Usually lower and the farther north the colder it usually is, plus the winds–Kansas is windy just about every day. That makes it lovely for hot tea, hot chocolate, hot apple cider, warm cookies, and so on. 🙂

    Reply

    1. That just sounds so lovely and cosy (except the wind) I enjoy the colder months and love being inside making our house a real home, cooking food, especially hearty casseroles and knitting etc. I am enjoying chatting with you thanks a lot. Blessings

      Reply

  7. Hi,
    Great idea for gift giving. I think it is an extra special gift when it is homemade. Others ideas is you could make some DIY shampoo, toxic free essential oil air fresheners, skin lotion, and other personal care items. Visiting from Tuesday With a Twist blog hop.

    Reply

  10. Hello beautiful! Great ideas. Pinned. Thank you for taking the time to stop by! I hope to see you at our party tonight, it starts at 7 pm. We love to party with you!
    Happy Monday! Lou Lou Girls

    Reply

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