Tired of over-consumption during the holidays? Prefer to make or receive handmade gifts? In this post, you’ll find the how-tos and recipes for 13 great homemade gifts for this holiday season that won’t take a lot of time to prepare.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. Always shop small, local, and/or direct when you can, though!
Natural Cleaning Homemade Gifts
1. Dishwasher Tablets
Borax, washing soda, epsom salt, lemon juice, and some essential oils. In approximately 15 minutes, you can have this dishwasher tablet recipe packed into an ice cube tray to set for the next 12 hours.
Pop out the tablets from the ice cube tray, add to a mason jar with a lid and ring, tie around ribbon or twine with a sprig of rosemary for looks and you’ve got a ready-made homemade gift.
Be sure to add a tag or even the recipe (grab the recipe card by clicking the button below and print it!) to the jar so the recipient knows what it is and the ingredients inside.
2. Laundry Detergent
A mason jar full of all natural laundry detergent powder would make a great DIY gift for your crunchy cousin. Or friend, co-worker, sister, etc!
This recipe makes a large batch so go ahead and consider that multiple gifts made and ready to go. Gift a small bottle of essential oil with it for fragrance boosting in each load.
Time some ribbon and the recipe around the top.
3. Dish Soap
This one is fun because one loaf of soap makes 9 bars! That’s 9 gifts or maybe even one or two soap cakes for yourself.
In this cold-process soap making recipe, it is recommended to allow soaps to cure for 4 weeks. At the typing of this post, Christmas is in 2 weeks. To get supplies and make the soap means you will not have enough time to allow it to cure first.
But don’t write off this homemade gift yet!
I’ve learned with this recipe that because the coconut oil solidifies fast, the dish soap can be used with only 2 weeks of curing if need be.
Alternatively, you can hot process this recipe using THIS METHOD for a much quicker cure time (about 1 week and it’s ready to use!)
4. DIY Hand Soap
Probably the easiest and cheapest gift to make! Everyone needs hand soap all the time but maybe especially in the wintertime. This gift is reusable, too!
This DIY hand soap is non-drying which is great in the winter. Add essential oils for scent as you please or leave it be. Additionally, you can buy a scented Castile soap (peppermint, lavender, tea tree, orange, or almond) and you won’t have to buy any essential oils!
Go to Amazon and grab some glass foaming soap dispensers (pictured) or plastic ones (I use these in the kids’ bathroom). Add Castile soap, water for dilution, and essential oils if you want for an easy homemade and useful gift!
Be sure to tack on the recipe so your recipient can make it herself. Add some ribbon the top of the bottle and viola! A simple homemade gift for the holidays.
5. All Natural Face Scrub
Dry winter skin is the pits! Exfoliating that dead skin is the only way to have soft skin this time of year. Pair it with a good moisturizer and do this 2 or 3 times a week this time of year is best.
Sugar, salt, and baking soda. Add a sprinkle of water and BOOM! A simple and thoughtful gift.
Add the three ingredients (not the water!), a little instruction card, and ribbon to the top of a half pint mason jar and you’ve got a sweet little homemade gift.
6. Conditioning Balm for Wooden Utensils and Cutting Boards
Wooden kitchen tools should be taken care of with a conditioning agent. Some will say food grade mineral oil. I say no thanks.
Coconut oil and bees wax is all you need!
This is a perfect homemade gift for the chef in your life. They’ll certainly appreciate a gift that will help extend the life of their cooking tools.
Edible Homemade Gifts
1. Fruit Jams
Strawberry, blueberry, apple, pear, and peach jam make for a delicious and thoughtful gift for the holidays. Make the recipient a loaf of bread to go with it and you’ll probably make yourself a new BFF. Bread and jam would also make a great hostess gift.
Print the cute label for the jar and tie some ribbon around the ring for presentation.
2. Apple Butter
From fall to early spring, this sweet treat is both warm and inviting.
Fresh apples and spices make this apple butter delicious cold or warmed up a little.
Homemade apple butter is a fan favorite and this recipe makes enough to gift AND keep some for yourself.
3. All Meat Seasoning
A dry rub that checks all the boxes for any meat! Great for grilling, smoking, sautéing, or roasting, this seasoning is delicious on steak, chicken, turkey, venison, pork, and more.
This batch makes a healthy amount but consider doubling it for small jelly jars to gift.
4. Fruit Sauces (apple or pear sauce)
Fruit sauces make fun and delicious homemade gifts in a jar.
Fresh apples or pears and optional cinnamon sticks add flavor and an aesthetic to the jar. Wrap the ring in ribbon and it’s ready to gift.
5. Vanilla Extract
Now this one will take a good amount of time… like 6 months to be ready to use. But don’t let that deter you from making this specialty homemade gift!
Grab your organic vanilla beans from here, swing top bottles, and vodka to make this super easy homemade gift. Split and add beans to the bottle, top off with vodka, label it with a ready date of 6 months out and gift it!
Yes, it’s a gift that’ll need to wait to use but I promise your gift recipient will think of you with fondness when she takes this bottle out of her pantry to use in the spring for some freshly baked chocolate chip cookies!
Kids’ Crafts for Homemade Gifts
1. Cinnamon Ornaments
A wonderful craft to do alongside the kids or grandchildren, DIY cinnamon ornaments is a core memory maker! Make the circle ornaments a little bigger for baby hand prints for precious homemade gifts to parents and/or grandparents.
Go foraging the woods nearby for holly berry, juniper berry, spruce, pine, cedar, cypress, rosemary, and any other evergreen in your area to help make prints into your ornaments.
Bonus: these ornaments have a light, natural scent.
2. DIY Water Slime
A great (or not so great, depending on your preference) gift for kids!
This is a non-toxic recipe for slime that will entertain children for hours, days even!
Make this homemade gift even more special by making it a “kit”. In a bag or basket, add the slime in a tightly sealed container along with food dyes for color, glitter (hard maybe!), beads, googly eyes, foam balls, or any other slime addition.
Also know you are more than welcome to add the recipe card and RULES for SLIME PLAY on this gift such as but not limited to: playing with slime in permissible areas of the house. Or outside, lol!
In summary
In homemade gift ideas summary, I hope you’ve been able to find a neat DIY gift idea to round out your holiday gifting this year.
Yes, many of these homemade gifts take time and effort. The value in a handmade gift adds just another layer of specialty to the present.
It means you took time, energy, effort, and mental planning to organize, purchase materials, and craft this gift with that person and their interests in mind. Homemade gifting means you get to share your craft with others.
Homemade gifts are love wrapped in ribbon.
Subscribe for more like this
Feel free to follow Johnson Home NC on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube. I’d love to be tagged in your photos of your homemade gift creations!
Allow me to slip into your email inbox weekly with kitchen, gardening, and chicken raising real time happenings from our one acre North Carolina homestead right to you by joining our email list HERE.
