Ahh the holiday season is upon us. At some point running this marathon, I am sure you have felt pressure during the holiday season. Maybe your family has strict traditions they have assumed you would also uphold. Maybe, you have a hundred different teachers, caregivers, therapists, etc. you feel you need to buy for. Maybe, you have a large family with multiple children who also have birthdays during the holiday seasons. Maybe, you also have a neuro-spicy kid or two whose whole routine is thrown off by the holiday craziness. Maybe it was trying to find a gift for a kiddo who is anything but “typical”.
I’ve been there. Heck, I am still there at times. This year, I was determined to not let the holidays get the best of me. I have to say, I have never been a fan of the consumer mindset that occurs during the holidays. Why must we buy stuff just because society said these are the days you should gift things. It feels almost forced and not loving at all in my head. The truth is I want to give people gifts, but I want to gift them things with intention and love. In 2 Corinthians Paul is writes the following:
10 “And here is my judgment about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. 11 Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. 12 For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.
13 Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. 14 At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, 15 as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.”[b]
This year we we’re facing my husband being laid off with his last day a little over a month before Christmas. Thankfully, we got word months in advance so we had time to prepare. Isn’t God so good in how he gives us what we need? Anyhow, I immediately thought well what about Christmas. I have always loved doing projects and now that I have had my garden for a few years, I figured why not use what I have on hand and do a homemade/handmade Christmas this year. As Paul stated, the one who gathers much does not have too much. We have enough to gift what we have gathered!
I thought you all might be able to use some of these ideas for your kiddos or loved ones as well. First up is Air Dry Clay Ornaments. These we’re super fun to do! I gathered flowers from the gardens, before the first frost recently took them out. I then pressed the flowers in between parchment paper within a large cookbook. I had air dry clay on hand but I followed along with this site to make the ornaments. They also have a recipe to make your own air dry clay! I will likely be making some to gift to my middle who loves clay.
These were a blast to make and my kiddos enjoyed rolling out the clay and picking out the shapes to make the ornaments. Next on my list was Whipped Tallow Butter. I went to our local farm store and purchase Beef Tallow while I was doing my monthly meat run. This was my first time making it but the process was easy enough. Melt the tallow down, add in some Vitamin E & essential oils of your choosing, cool, and whip! I will say the next time I do this, I will likely melt the tallow down a few more times to ensure any beef smell does not come through.
Labels made using Canva and I used Mod Podge to adhere to the lid.
I also have been baking a ton of bread. I aim for four loaves of week, and then freeze. I love using The Prairie Homestead Recipe as it has yet to fail me and is a super simple no knead dough! I will add, I like to use parchment paper with a bit of olive oil rubbed on otherwise the dough will stick. I have experimented with this recipe several times and my two favorite versions are adding Cheddar to the middle of the dough with a simple flip and then Jalapeño and Cheddar to the top. I also like to add Everything Bagel season to the middle of the dough and also top with that as well for another version of this easy recipe.
And of course, with bread you have to have jam. What’s that saying? If you give a mouse a loaf of bread, he’s going to want jam? So I canned some Jalapeño Cranberry jam for spice lovers and will be gifting our already canned fig jam or autumn olive jelly to those who don’t prefer the spice.
Christmas Simmer Bags were another fun gift to make as I had plenty of apples and oranges on the counter. These have been popular on social media and so I figured why not? Filling our home with natural scents always brings a smile to my face and those who visit. I dehydrated apples & oranges and put a few slices of each into the pouches I ordered from Amazon. I also put in some dried rosemary from the garden, cloves, allspice, star anise, dried cranberries, and two cinnamon sticks. I found the labels with instructions here.
I’ve also been loom knitting dish/wash clothes with cotton yarn I already had on hand stowed away in a closet. If you haven’t tried loom knitting, do not be afraid. It is simple and quick at least for dish/wash clothes. You can go down the rabbit hole as I did some time ago and end up making large blankets that take months however. But it is enjoyable. I don’t have any picture of the dish cloths but check out this video if your interested in making some yourself.
I also made some shower steamers using baking soda, citric acid, witch hazel, essential oils and some dried herbs I had. These are quick and easy to make as well and can be used in the bath as bath bombs too for kiddos who enjoy those. Perfect when kiddos are under the weather. Click here for the recipe. I still have some herbal oils infusing to make a lemon balm salve for lip balms and a rosemary salve which is great for healing. All of which I had extra from the garden.
Another fun gift idea is making sugar scrubs with coconut oil, dried herbs, and sugar. I do not have one recipe I follow for these.
All of these things have been super fun to make and are useful items making the gift giving that much sweeter. I don’t feel as rushed this holiday season as I have taken a little bit of time each week to pour into a batch of these gifts. I also haven’t felt a financial strain when thinking of gifting for multiple people. This is a change from previous years. So if gifting stresses you out, take a minute to unwind, look around at what you have on hand, and create! I found myself praising God and thanking him so often as I was working on these things as I was in awe of how much he has blessed us with a created for our use on this Earth. I hope this was helpful and would love to hear if you all end up creating some of these things for your holiday gifts. Let us know in the comments which gift idea was your favorite!