8 handmade gift ideas for Christmas you can make with your kids (+ how tos)
🎄🎄🎄
Christmas gifting made easy: 8 DIY gifts to make that the whole family will love!
Get ready to deck the halls, Christmas time is coming! Have you started thinking about what gifts you need to get? Don’t fret, we’ve got your covered.
Festive gifting doesn't have to mean buying brand new for each and every person (and as parents, we know that can be a long list).
Making your own gifts can be much more personal, not to mention more sustainable for the planet. Did you know us Brits produce over 30% more waste during the Christmas period alone? Yikes.
Here are 8 gift ideas that you can make yourself at home, all simple enough to do with your little ones, too. We love these DIYs, if only we were on your list!
Handmade gift ideas for foodies
⭐ 1. Hot chocolate essentials
Christmas time brings chilly evenings, comfy socks, blankets and an excuse to watch all of our favourite movies back to back. What more could you need? Hot chocolate!
These adorable Snowman Spoons will level-up your mug, and are simple and fun to make with your little ones. Candy canes provide the spoon, and dipped dairy-free chocolate (dip the curly end) makes the base for fun decoration. For snowmen, use vegan marshmallows to create the body and decorate however you like.
Your lucky giftee can swizzle them in their hot drink and let the flavours bring the magic!
Fancy a grown-up version? Shop your local charity store for beautiful vintage spoons and pour melted vegan chocolate into the bowl end. Decorate with chopped nuts, raisins or coconut flakes and let set. Then wrap compostable film and tie with a bow for a delicious treat.
⭐ 2. Sugar cookies
Who doesn’t love cookies? Sugar cookies make a fun and festive base for you and your little ones to get creative. Decorate with Santa faces, reindeer noses, Christmas trees, elves… The opportunities are endless!
Just grab your food colouring and sprinkles and get to work. We recommend piling them up in a recycled vintage tin and wrapping up with a bow before gifting.
Here’s a simple recipe for the cookie base, thanks to Loving It Vegan:
- Cream together 112g vegan butter with 150g white granulated sugar, then add in 1 tsp vanilla extract and ¼ tsp almond extract.
- Sift 250g of all purpose flour into a separate bowl and add ½ tsp baking soda and ¼ tsp salt.
- Mix the wet and the dry together with your hands (the kids will love this bit!) and slowly add up to 2 tbsp non-dairy milk until it comes together into a ball of dough.
- Roll out the dough on a floured surface, cut out fun festive shapes and bake at 180c for about 10 minutes. Let them cool completely before decorating, and try not to eat them – they’re gifts, remember!
Don’t fancy doing the baking yourself? Create a sugar cookie kit like this one, so your giftee can decorate their own bakes.
⭐ 3. Sloe cordial
Cordial is a thoughtful, non-alcoholic drink that your adult friends will love. We love this sloe berry version, and you can get creative with the glass bottles and decorations you use. Here’s a simple recipe.
Handmade gift ideas for the home
⭐ 4. Christmas decorations
Perfect for the yuletide enthusiast, Christmas decs are great fun to make and are wonderful gifts your family members can reuse again and again.
Decorate plain baubles, pour concrete Christmas trees, or opt for DIY kits like our Elf Christmas Decoration by Cotton Twist.
⭐ 5. Wall art
Love craft? Embroidery hoops make great wall art (or ornaments) that can be completely personalised to your giftee, and can be enjoyed under supervision by slightly older children, too.
You’ll need:
- An embroidery hoop
- Sustainably sourced cotton or fabric
- Thread
- A pencil
To do this one, lightly draw your design onto fabric with pencil and secure into the hoop, twisting the dial to pull tight.
Use your thread to trace your designs, mixing in different stitch techniques like straight stitch, backstitch and the french knot.
⭐ 6. Bath in a jar
Do you have a bath lover in your life? This is the one for them.
Grab a sterilised mason jar and fill it with a mixture of bath/epsom salts, dried flowers, himalayan pink salt crystals and a few drops of good quality essential oils.
Wrap a pretty bow around it and voila! Instant zen.
⭐ 7. Low-waste starter kit
Take a recycled box or large tin and fill it with low-waste home essentials to get your giftee started, with reusable versions of their much-used items.
For the kitchen or home, think things like Reusable Metal Straws, Silicone Zip Lock Bags, Wax Food Wraps, a Cotton Tote Bag and a Water Bottle.
Or for the beauty lover, add in Cotton Makeup Rounds, a Safety Razor and some cruelty-free makeup or skincare.
Perfect for your friend or family member that wants to be a little more green!
⭐ 8. Sharpie hand-drawn crockery
This completely customisable DIY is great to do together with the whole family.
Get yourself some clean, plain ceramic mugs, plates or bowls and some oil-based Sharpies (water based won’t be permanent), and design your crockery however you like!
Initials, dots, stripes and faces all work brilliantly, but let your creativity flow.
Once the design is fully dry, pop your items in a cold oven and turn the heat to 220c. Bake for an hour before turning the heat off and leaving your creations to cool inside the oven.
Wrap them up however you like, and pop a note to remind your giftee that they’re best to handwash to keep the design as long as possible!
--
Will you try any of these Christmas gift DIYs? Tag us in your sustainable makes on Instagram, at @shop.econess!