DIY Christmas Gifts Easy, Affordable and Unique

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Over the past few years I’ve transitioned to making more homemade DIY Christmas gifts. A good blogger would have documented all of these gifts with photos. However, I didn’t, so we’ll leave that up to you to consider although I’ve done my best to remember the gifts as there have been many over the years.

However, for a few of the gifts I did actually document the process and photos. I am sharing those DIY Christmas gifts today in a roundup post. DIY for Christmas gifts are a wonderful way to show your loved ones you care.

DIY Christmas Gifts Easy

Why Make Christmas Gifts?

Not only are homemade gifts usually sustainable they can also save you money and bring the joy back into Christmas. Also, if you are someone who already enjoys crafting – DIY Christmas gifts offer a wonderful excuse to spend even more time on your hobby.

Christmas Gifts I’ve Made

I have gifted: local wine with a homemade “wine” tag, DIY soup kits, DIY ranch dressing/dip kits, tins of fruit cake, homemade polish bread and a homemade beach glass ornament which was a great type of DIY Christmas ornaments.

Last year I made rosemary salt and rosemary infused olive oil with fresh rosemary from my garden. Homemade gifts are personal, budget-friendly and with the right recipient in mind – very much appreciated – in particular DIY Christmas gifts for mom.

In addition to homemade gifts I have also made handmade Christmas cards. Keep in mind when making homemade gifts that while they will likely save you money, they also require advanced planning and preparation.

Homemade Christmas Cards

Many of the gift ideas in this post can still be made a few weeks before Christmas. However, usually when I make homemade gifts I try to plan before Halloween what I’m making, how many gifts, how long they will take to make, the supplies needed and the cost of supplies.

This helps give me peace of mind when planning for a homemade Christmas. If you haven’t planned this far ahead it’s OK but I would offer up those suggestions for next year.

Again, when planning DIY Christmas gifts ideas also don’t forget to plan how you will package and wrap the gifts as well. When purchasing supplies you can also try to take advantage of seasonal sales such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

If you need supplies for any of these gift ideas I highly recommend visiting a local craft store or shopping online.

Homemade Christmas Gifts

Today I’m offering a few more ideas from my blog archives. If you are in a pinch for ideas or want to avoid the mall, try a DIY project!

Keep in mind that creative packaging and presentation are also an important part of any homemade gift. I often add homemade tags to my finished gifts too.

Beauty Christmas Gifts

Health and beauty gifts are great for women in particular, but you can also modify most recipes for a mens version as well. General gifts such as face scrub can work for nearly everyone.

If you have a very close family member or friend, then moving onto a more specific beauty gift such as makeup finishing powder can also work.

Homemade Face Moisturizer: Mix up this easy to make jojoba oil moisturizer, store it in a decorative container and gift it to a friend. A cute label, a ribbon or special packaging can really make this gift pop. Don’t forget to include directions on how to use the homemade face oil.

Homemade Face Scrub: Winter is rough on skin, especially the delicate skin on the face. Make this homemade face scrub and gift it to friends. The small Ball Canning jam jars are a great container for this face scrub.

Homemade Night Cream: Another recipe that’s perfect for winter is this easy homemade face cream. It only requires a few ingredients and a little bit of the cream goes a long way. It’s one of the perfect DIY Christmas gifts for girlfriends or female family members!

Homemade Finishing Powder: Do you have a friend who loves makeup? Make her this homemade mineral veil face powder. It works great to top off a look or can be used alone as a light makeup, or to simply absorb oil on the face.

Homemade Makeup Remover: A nice companion to the homemade makeup powder is to combine the gift with a little homemade makeup remover kit. I have a recipe for an easy two ingredient makeup remover, perfect for gifting to a makeup lover.

Edible Christmas Gifts

There is a lot of great food around the holidays which can be tricky of course but it’s often only once a year you can enjoy some of these wonderful foods.

Gifting hand baked goods or homemade foods is another gifting option. Also, consider home canned items which can last up to six months so the recipient can enjoy eating the gift at a later time after the holiday season is over.

Homemade Date Bars: These date bars keep for several weeks. They are a homemade “LARABAR,” super healthy and can be made in almost any flavor. My tutorial explains how to make date bars. Experiment with lemon, orange, chocolate or peanut butter to create a flavored bar. These can easily be frozen or refrigerated as well to extend shelf life past the holiday season.

Homemade Food and Canned Goods: Home canning is one of my favorite pastimes and a wonderful gift for loved ones. Jams and jellies are easy to make and can be stored for months. Take advantage of fall fruits and vegetables – such as apples and pumpkins – and can homemade applesauce, apple butter or pumpkin butter. A few more recipes are below, these can be made and gifted in tins or sturdy boxes.

Household Christmas Gifts

Gifting cleaning gifts might sound strange but I think this is a great idea especially if you put them together in a little cleaning kit. The recipient will have them in plenty of time before spring cleaning season.

Consider homemade cleaning items for college students, young adults living in their first apartment or others. The gifts can be combined with purchased accessories such as a brushes, paper towels and more.

Homemade Household Cleaner: Making homemade household cleaner is very easy. It’s best with added citrus rind so making this a few weeks before gifting is ideal. This household cleaner recipe only requires a few ingredients and you can put the finished product in a bottle of your choosing and even decorate the bottle if you like.

Homemade Window Cleaner: A great companion to the all purpose cleaner is a window specific cleaner. This homemade glass cleaner is just for windows and like it’s counterpart only requires a few ingredients, mixing and bottling. You might even already have the ingredients in your home.

Homemade Laundry Detergent: Lastly among the household gifts, consider making homemade laundry detergent. This is a recipe for a powder detergent that I made for a few years. I have step by step directions on exactly how I made it and how to store the homemade laundry detergent.

Homemade Gift Wrapping Ideas

After I’ve finished making my homemade gifts I like to use homemade wrapping or reuse packaging materials when possible. This can include boxes you already have from items you have purchased, reusing tissue paper or recycling wrapping paper, twine, ribbon and bows.

Keep in mind that with any of these gifts, homemade packaging can really make the gift shine. Consider alternative gift wrapping such as brown bags or newspaper.

Decorate packages with bows or ribbons. Or make homemade gift tags for an added special touch.

Easy Christmas Gifts

In Summary

Making a homemade gift shows special attention and care for your loved ones. Whether it’s for a family member, friend, coworker or teacher – a homemade gift is a great way to do gift giving this holiday season.

Not only are homemade Christmas gifts easy to make they are also unique and I can guarantee the recipient will not receive two of the same gift when it’s a homemade gift from you as part of a DIY Christmas.

Have you made homemade gifts before? What did you make?

*This post was originally published in 2014 and has been updated and republished for accuracy and comprehensiveness.