Homemade Stocking Stuffers

**monkeywrangler71** · 12-05-2007, 10:57 AM

Let's all list some ideas for small homemade gifts. All ages, all interests. I had a lot of ideas earlier in the year, but I seem to have forgotten them all now! So, all I can think of at the moment is:

Homemade cookies/candy
Homemade play dough

Next year I want an all homemade Christmas, so I'll need lots of little ideas!

**Momto2Boyz** · 12-05-2007, 12:37 PM

We always had fruit in our stocking (bananas, apples & oranges) tucked into the bottom, then we made a fruit salad for Christmas morning breakfast with them. Kind of random, but fun!

Homemade Christmas crackers (the kind you pop open...not eat!): I haven't made these, but I think I might try them this year!
You can find directions online by searching for Old English Crackers

Homemade mittens (if you sew or knit) I don't knit, but I took some old sweaters that my boys had grown out of and sewed up some mittens for them to go in their stockings.

Homemade bubbles (I don't have a recipe handy, but you can find them online)

Handmade ornament for everyone (either dough or cinamon or wood, doesn't matter)

Handmade "Santa" coupons (for your spouse or SO: one free pass on a chore, backrub, etc. For kids: extra dessert one night, movie night & they get to pick the movie, etc.) These can be as fun & silly or as serious as you want them to be.

Molded bath soaps. (I cheat, but you can do them from scratch or a kit.) I take all the little free sample bars of soap I've gotten through the year, and I shave them down, melt them just a bit, then pour them into craft molds I have. Or if you have all white...you can make "snowball soaps" (do a seach online to find these if you haven't seen them) for everyone. My kids especially love these for bath time. They are super easy and free if you have bars of soap laying around...otherwise, not that expensive to go out and get a 3 pack of cheap soap!

Sweater socks - I'm making these for my stockings! Basically same as the mittens above. I don't knit so I sew them. I use the arms of the kid's sweaters that I cut up for mittens. The arms are perfect for socks. I use the cuffs of the arms to go at the top of the sock, so I don't have to try to hem sweater material, then you can just sew a straight line across the end that will become the toe. They don't work great under shoes...but they are great to wear arouund the house when it gets cold!

Flavored coffee - I tried this last year as gift. I made "homemade" french vanilla coffee for all the coffee lovers we knew. Take a vanilla bean and slit it, put it in a can of coffee and seal tight for 2 weeks. The coffee takes on the flavor of the bean. I know you can also add cinamon or nutmeg & other spices to ground coffee too. If you want you can pair it up with homemade creamer to match the flavor.

Ok, I think that is all I can think of off the top of my head! Most of mine are geared towards kids, though. I can't wait to keep checking back to see what others suggest! I need ideas for this year!

Also, have you checked out the website for the Buy Nothing Christmas? It is pretty neat, I stumbled across it by accident one day. It is a movement started in Canada, and our immediately family has been trying to go to a BNC for the last 2 years...it's just our extended family won't agree to it! I can't post a link, since I am too new to this site. But if you put Buy Nothing Christmas into a search engine, it should come up! I love their "Christmas Catalog"...it is full of ideas they will sell you for $0! (It is their cute way of sharing their ideas with you for nothing...but I love it). Hope you enjoy it!

**monkeywrangler71** · 12-05-2007, 12:45 PM

Originally Posted by Momto2Boyz

Also, have you checked out the website for the Buy Nothing Christmas? It is pretty neat, I stumbled across it by accident one day. It is a movement started in Canada, and our immediately family has been trying to go to a BNC for the last 2 years...it's just our extended family won't agree to it! I can't post a link, since I am too new to this site. But if you put Buy Nothing Christmas into a search engine, it should come up! I love their "Christmas Catalog"...it is full of ideas they will sell you for $0! (It is their cute way of sharing their ideas with you for nothing...but I love it). Hope you enjoy it!

http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/index.html

**monkeywrangler71** · 12-08-2007, 09:57 PM

This week I made soap crayons for the kids. All the instructions I found online called for soap flakes, but I couldn't find any at a reasonable price. So, I grated up bar soap, mixed it over low heat with a bit of water and a lot of food colouring, and squished it all up until the colour was uniform and it was a pasty consistency. For molds I used the little things that look like test tubes that sometimes come on the ends of cut flowers; I cut the ends off so they were open on both ends. I just stuffed them with the soap mixture, then let them sit for about an hour, pushed them out and set them to dry overnight.

You could use anything as a mold, but the kids have little soap crayon holders and I wanted to make them to fit. The flower things were the perfect size.

**sunshine** · 12-08-2007, 10:47 PM

I make soft jewelry (sewn and quilted, plastic canvas, crocheted, knitted) homemade beauty products like bath salts, body scrubs, lip gloss, etc.

coupons for massages, mom/child date, dad /child date, get out of chore night, etc.

**Gabe** · 11-24-2008, 12:15 AM

Bump Bump Bump

**Palooka** · 11-24-2008, 01:05 AM

I have a candle maker machine thingy. It doesn't cost much for the wax at all and I have the pillor style shape and it all came with it. I think my husband payed about 15 bucks for it last year at Hobby Lobby. If you want fragrance with it it cost a little bit more.

The wax it came with I can make lots of candles with. I think it takes around 45 minutes to make one candle. And I mean who doesn't love candles!!

Homemade Christmas ornaments for sure. The schools are even great if you send pictures of your kids and they get creative with them or the family just signs them and the year. I first never appreciated this because I was young and stupid and every year that I dig out my christmas ornaments I always have tears in my eyes thanking someone that took the time to make that for me and great family memories.

**rainbowgc** · 11-24-2008, 12:22 PM

Thanks for the link. I like to sew bake and small gifts for friends.

**monkeywrangler71** · 11-24-2008, 12:36 PM

at my all homemade Christmas this year. I haven't made a single thing.

Thanks Gabe for bumping up the reminder of my total failure

**Lydia** · 09-25-2009, 11:35 AM

Growing up we always had awesome stockings (which I later found out was thanks to my dad) but one of my favorite things was every year there was one of those chocolate oranges that you have to smack to crack open.

Homemade gifties are always a good idea, and usually what I do every year.

**savvy_sniper** · 09-25-2009, 11:46 AM

I make inexpensive (but nice) Christmas tree ornaments. I use them instead of bows on my nieces, nephew, and great nieces presents. One year I made them stockings and put the ornaments ON the stocking. They all still have those stockings!

My oldest niece has two kids and her tree is mostly decorated with the ornaments I made and gave her when she was growing up. NOW my great nieces put their ornaments on the tree also.

I don't know how my nephew feels about the ornaments, but the girls all love them!

**mauimagic** · 09-25-2009, 12:01 PM

Love your ideas SS and mahalo for bumping this up. I've found cute ideas on Organized Christmas for all holidays - little gifts and lots of other things. Am off to work, but will post later!!