Homemade Holiday Presents! Lets help each other! Ideas WANTED!

[ZPT1022]

I think what I'm doing this year is making family 'movie' baskets.

Take a basket and fill the bottom with shredded paper. Put in boxed 'movie theater candy' (buy at Factory Card Outlet... cheap cheap cheap!) and buy a couple boxes of microwave popcorn. Take the popcorn pouches out and arrange with the boxed candy. I'll either then purchase some DVD's from the budget bins or put in a $15 gift card to Blockbuster. I'll then put shrinkwrap on it and tie with a bow. Ta-da! I'm guessing, if I do the gift card idea, it'll be around $25 per basket, as long as I can find some nice cheap baskets on Black Friday

We've thought of doing something similar, but instead of a basket, using a popcorn bowl to put everything in

 

[timzagain]

I bought large popcorn bowls from our local dollar store instead of baskets.

You could also check out garage sales etc for baskets.

 

[pooksma]

NemoMOm,

I have made all my Christmas cookies by making the dough, freezing or refrigerating. I then roll them out and bake them and again put them in freezer then ice them another day. I have made as many as 15 batches of dough one year just for roll out cookies so this is a big project. Guess what? I quit making cookies a couple years ago.

I also make Russian Tea cookie dough ahead and put in fridge. I make the peanut butter kisses also and nearly every dough. It is much easier to make one big mess making all the dough first.

For the roll out dough, I used the plastic bags that use twist ties. I put about 1/3 batch per bag and then pat them in a round and flat shape and stack them inside a large tupperware container to freeze. I take only a few at a time out so they stay chilled to make rolling out easier. It worked well for me.

I used to send family out of state homemade cookies packed in tins or Tupperware containers (when I sold T ware) so they got a double gift.

None of us need the calories anymore.

I've never made Russian Tea Cookies. Would you mind sharing the recipe?

 

[hellow]

stupid question for those who do the 12 days of Christmas: What days are they? The 12 days leading up to Christmas?

TIA

 

[bear74]

lots of great ideas.

 

[pigget74]

stupid question for those who do the 12 days of Christmas: What days are they? The 12 days leading up to Christmas?

TIA

I had a student one year who did this. He and his sister did the 12 days before we got out for break. They followed the song and just did 1 item, then 2 items, all the way to 12. It was very cute and thoughtful.

 

[ChristyJ]

Another treat: we buy pretzel sticks and dip them...some in dark or milk chocolate, then dipped in crushed toffee, peanuts, mini M&Ms, etc. and some in white chocolate, then dipped in crushed candy cane. We buy the longer treat bags (usually get Christmas themed ones from Target), and they make a yummy add-on to a gift...often we have given them along with a $10. Panara gift card & coffee for a teacher gift or gift for a friend, etc.

 

[bevtoy]

We dip one end of pretzel rods in white or else milk chocolate and add appropriate holiday sprinkles, chocolate chips or pieces of heath bits for embellishment. Walmart sells individual plastic bag 25 for 2 dollars and we can tie each pretzel in its own bag for any holiday or event.
They look really cute and are quite expensive if you try to buy them.

 

[MinMouse]

We buy a supply of disposable popcorn boxes (the kind that fold flat and you put them together) and do a movie giftcard or blockbuster card with a packet of microwave popcorn and box of candy. No wrapping required . . . . it's all in the box!

 

[NATALIEBELLESmom]

I bought the mickey mouse egg cooker things a WDW and I use them to make cutouts of rice crisp treats and dip the ear in chocolate just like a The world and give them out for Halloween and Christmas a super big hit for big and little kids. I have also made xmas ornaments with a matching gift box.
I love all these ideas and I know I will be using a couple this year.

THanks,

 

[Amii]

Every year I make my kids a coupon book. I just cut paper and use construction paper for the outside covers. I give them coupons for things like 1 hour with mom, get out of one chore and stay up 1 hour late. I also put in a few like rent one movie or pick out a snack at the grocery store. I put some holiday stickers on them, punch holes with a hole punch and then tie them with ribbon. I was surprised to find out one year that this is my kids favorite present and they look forward to it every year.

The most impressive craft that I made was a mirror for my mother. She loves fall leaves so I got an inexpensive mirror with a wooden frame at the Christmas Tree Shop during the fall. I collected pretty leaves and glued them to the wooden frame of the mirror. Then I put a few coats of polyurethane. It came out amazing and was super easy to do.

 

[D L and K's Mom]

I confess I didnt read all the pages. Sorry if this is a ddouble post.
My DD made fleece scarves for everyone last year. We bought a couple of yards of fleece and cut it into scarf length and width pieces. I marked the fleece with little 3 inch lines and she cut them for fringe..it was easy and adorable because she made them.

 

[amyy]

12 Days of Christmas

I have done it twice for Secret Santa. I do it for the 12 days leading up to the final party we would have. I usually start it off with a poem that I write specific to the person I have. The poem lets them know the gifts will go on for 12 days etc. If I can find one of them I will post a few lines. Can't come up with anything off the top of me head today. Something like "There are 12 days until our Christmas party and Secret Santa wants to have some fun."

Then for each day the gifts are wrapped in one box (or bag). One day, for example, the tag on the outside may read "on the 5th day of Christmas my Secret Santa gave to me..." inside with the gift a tag that says "...5 Hershey Kisses". Sometimes it might not be obvious that it fits the day...like a 5 oz candle for the 5th day so I like to have the tag. It dosen't have to be expensive and is fun to do. Some inexpensive ideas: 3 postage stamps, 2 oz candle, 4 gift bags (from the dollar store where you can get 4 for a $1), 12 chocolate chip cookies, 7 pieces of fudge, 8 candy canes etc. One day I wrote up a certain number of receipe cards. Another day I listed a certain number of reason why so and so was great co-worker.

I am enjoying all the great ideas everyone is posting.

 

[dbarker]

I like the idea of the movie baskets.

Now my dilemna: I need to do 10. So, I would like to include 2 movies in each basket. The movies need to be Disney or some other "Family" style.

Ideally, I would like to include 1 Disney and 1 other "Family" movie in each basket.

Where do you find these cheap -- especially the Disney ones?

 

[neatokimmo]

I've made movie baskets two years in a row. The first year I took the ads to Walmart and price matched all the movies. The second year I ordered everything off Amazon because at 5am with thousands of people around me was just too stressful.

I haven't read all the posts but this is how I did mine. I found round cardboard deco Christmas boxes at Dollar Tree. I bought a large piece of Styrofoam and covered it in tissue and used it to wedge the DVD upright. I put flavored microwave popcorns behind it and candy in front of it. The I took floral wire and attached long strings of curly ribbon to it and stuck it into the foam in the bottom to make it look wider. I thought cellophane was way to expensive so I just put it in the center of a large piece of wrap (from Dollar Tree too!) and pulled it up like cellophane and gathered it up with curly ribbons again.

I am doing something similar this year but with kitchen gadgets, towels, spices, cookie cutters, things like that.

 

[NemoMOm]

Drivencrazy thanks for the recipe.

I went to the xmas tree shop this weekend and p/u cheap but popular coloring books for gift bags for my daycare kids. I'm adding .12 crayons from Target and going to Mickey Mart at DTD for cheap WDW gift next month. (Any suggestions from there?) Then I think they are done.

 

[SandraVB79]

I have an embroidery machine (and a Disney license, woohoo!), so I buy (cheap) plain towels, and then I embroider them with the names of the person I am going to give it to, or I put a design on it of something I know they'll like (for example some nautical theme when they like boating).
Everyone always likes it!

I once received a self-made knitted bunny rabbit, and 25 years later, the bunny rabbit has shared with me many travels all over the world, a lot of happy moments, quite some sad moments, ...
The bunny is now retired in my bed, she's too fragile to be going on vacation with me but whenever I'm on vacation, my grandmother takes care of her

 

[NemoMOm]

Hey ALL,

You guys have really inspired me! I was at Sams this morning and they have nice movies ranging from 6.50-12.88. Then they have these movies in tins from different genres. I got my parents the classics, I think there are 6 classic movies from Elizabeth Taylor to Cary Grant so they are really good movies for only 14.88! So I'll add some popcorn and treats and get boxed for shipping Thought I shared since some of us have been wondering where to buy some movies.

 

[left210]

For those of you doing movie baskets - check Blockbuster for popcorn bowls. They are disposable cardboard bowls with the popcorn in the bottom that you cook in the microwave. I think they were $2-3 each and then we added two coke bottles, two movie candies and a $5 blockbuster gift card.

 

[Luv'sTink]

For those making recipe cards or home cooked goodies, great site for cards and such......

http://www.razzledazzlerecipes.com/artistcafe/index.htm