Wouldn’t it be nice if you could hire some of Santa’s elves to help you come up with all your holiday gifts? With so many people on your list, finding something special for everyone can be a bit of a challenge.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution, and it doesn’t involve lots of time in a crowded shopping mall. Turn your home into a gift-making workshop. Homemade presents are the best kind: They’re cost-effective but carry sentiment that money can’t buy.
The following ideas are for gifts that have broad appeal and are designed to be produced in multiples. Use an assembly-line approach, and you can make a number of gifts quickly and efficiently without losing any of their charm.
First, compile a list of recipients so that you can determine the amount of materials you will need. Then gather your own elves – your family members – and spend an afternoon putting the gifts together. Clear a work area, and assign each person to a task, such as cutting out tags or filling bags with candy.
Before you know it, you’ll be surrounded by beautiful holiday gifts – all with a personal touch.
Recipe booklets
Pass on your culinary traditions to friends with an easy-to-make recipe booklet. To make one booklet, cover the exterior of a blank greeting card with patterned wrapping paper using a glue stick. Remove the flap from an envelope that will accommodate 3-by-5-inch recipe cards, and discard. Glue the front of the envelope to the inner right-hand side of the greeting card.
Stuff the envelope with recipe cards printed (by hand or on a home computer) with your favorite holiday recipes. Finish by affixing a label to the front of the booklet.
Give the booklets on their own, or attach them with twine to a little cardboard box filled with homemade cookies or other sweet samples from your recipe collection.
Striped soaps
Delight someone with a fresh-scented and boldly striped soap. Purchase clear and white glycerin soap at a crafts store. Use a mini loaf pan as a mold; each “loaf” of soap will require 2 cups of each soap and makes six bars of soap.
Melt 1/4 cup glycerin according to the package instructions. Stir in a drop of peppermint oil (available at most health food stores) with a plastic spoon.
To the clear glycerin, add drops of red food coloring, stirring until you get the desired hue. Pour the 1/4 cup of melted soap into the loaf pan. Let cool for 20 minutes. Score the top with a fork. Repeat, alternating colors, until the pan is full. Let set for 4 hours.
Pop soap out of pan, and slice into bars. Wrap each bar in cellophane; tape it shut. Cut tags in the shape of holly leaves out of green construction paper; punch holes in tags, and tie to soaps with bakery string.
Candy sticks
Turn Christmas standbys into extra-sweet treats by dipping peppermint candy sticks in white chocolate and covering with nonpareils. For 50 sticks, you’ll need 8 ounces of white chocolate and 1 1/2 cups of white nonpareils.
Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water; stir until melted. Let cool slightly. Dip peppermint sticks about one-quarter of the way into chocolate; spoon nonpareils over chocolate.
Stand candy, coated end up, in a loaf pan filled with dried beans; refrigerate until set.
Package candy in cellophane bags. Cut rectangles out of card stock the width of the bags. Fold them over the tops of the bags; staple shut. Affix labels over staples.
Popcorn tins
Pack two kinds of flavored popcorn in one bucket tin divided by card stock cut to fit the diameter and height of the tin. Fill the containers by holding the divider in place and adding popcorn a handful at a time, alternating between the two flavors to keep the divider from slipping. Put the cover on the bucket and finish with curled paper ribbon and gift tags.
Questions should be addressed to Ask Martha, care of Letters Department, Martha Stewart Living, 11 W. 42nd St., New York, NY 10036. E-mail to: mslletters@marthastewart.com.
2005 Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc.
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