Looking for easy and inexpensive Christmas gifts to make your friends and family this year?
Making your own Christmas gifts is a great way to save some money as well as have some fun and really get into the spirit of Christmas.
You may think you are all thumbs and no good at making anything, or maybe, you just can't seem to come up with any ideas yourself?
No problem, just look through the ideas below and you'll be getting to work in no time!
Some presents can be put together from things you may already have at home, some will mean heading for the shops with list.
Read the full list first so you don't miss out anything.
Family Calendar:- Make up your own calendar using your home computer and printer. If the gift is for a grandparent - add photos of the grandkids or of old family photos.
Homemade and customized items are inexpensive Christmas gifts to make, and are very popular among busy moms and grandparents.
You'll find a free template to use here:
http://familycrafts.about.com/cs/calendars/9/122900a.html
Jars of Goodies:- gather together any clean and pretty glass jars you may have (or buy some). Decorative jars filled with treats are easy to make Christmas presents.
- Large jar plus measuring spoon - fill the jar with gourmet coffee or cocoa. Use a festive ribbon to tie on the spoon and you have an instant gift.
- Small jar filled with herbal tea and stainless steel tea infuser ball - fill the jar with the tea and tie the infuser in place with a decorative ribbon.
- Large novelty jar - fill with brightly colored Christmas candies and tie with a large ribbon.
Christmas Glow:- handmade candles are fantastic Christmas gifts to make at home.
Everyone loves the soft and romantic glow that candles give, especially women.
Good quality candles with essential oils and beautiful colors can be ridiculously expensive to buy - but it's relatively easy to make Christmas gifts at home.
There are a number of excellent guides available online to help you get started.
Here's one from CandleMakingAtHome.com that is excellent value and would make a great gift in itself.
Click here to read more.
Christmas Cookies:- Shortbread is top of my personal list of easy to make Christmas gifts.
Every year I give out bags and bags of these easy to make, great looking and fantastic tasting little Christmas cookies.
School teachers, doctors, friends, and all the people I like to thank but can't afford to buy gifts for.
After I've made up the cookies ( in the shape of a star or tree), I just drizzle the icing over in a zig-zag pattern, drop on a few cachous and BINGO! Christmas presents done!
For me, they are definitely one of the easiest and most inexpensive Christmas gifts to make.
I always use this shortbread (Christmas Cookie) recipe
Handmade by Someone Else?:- Sometimes it's time we need to save, not necessarily money. You may just not have the time to make all the Christmas gifts you want to.
How do you feel about cheating a little? How about handmade, rather than homemade? And by someone else?
Gourmet chocolates are always handmade. You may just have to forget the inexpensive thing though, as you'll notice they cost significantly more than your standard chocs.
But they are definitely worth it. Check out the Christmas Gift Assortments from Chocolate.com
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Hands On:- Ok, so this is stretching the homemade / handmade deal...but what about a massage?
Homemade vouchers are easy to make Christmas gifts. You can print them out on your computer or hand write them on pieces of nice card.
Give a stack of 5 or 10 cards all good for a massage.
Make them all slightly different:
- Foot massage
- Scalp massage
- Neck and shoulders
- Whole body deluxe
- Hand and fingers massage
- Use your imagination
If you aren't that confident in your massage abilities, you could stretch the budget to include a massage unit to help out.