Homemade little gifts for your Christmas or Secret Santa? Here some ideas!

December has definitely arrived: cold, a bit wet but always extremely charming. Going out in December is so beautiful as you get to see Christmas decorations in the shops and all those colorful lights everywhere. In some kind of magical way Christmas fills your heart with joy and hope and lifts up your spirit… or … well, at least this is what happens to me every year.

But there is also the negative consumistic aspect: the stress kicks in, too many things to juggle, presents to buy, the festivity to organise, the big family lunch, and maybe at work they even asked you to organise the Secret Santa?

Well,… sometimes all we need is a good organisation and a couple of fresh ideas to avoid being swallowed by the crazy Christmas vortex.

I thought I might share with you some ideas of lovely and thoughtful little presents I prepared for some friends and colleagues. 

If you want to give something really nice but personal, that shows how much you care, then just go for some homemade delicacy: some cookies for example, your favorite jam or chutney, the Sicilian pistachios pesto, just to name a few.

Homemade? Yes! I know what you are thinking.

“I don’t have time, I am not great a cooking”, but listen to me first.  Let’s say you have few close friends and a couple of colleagues to whom you want to give something for Christmas.

Instead of rushing from a shop to another, trying to save as much money as possible, just plan few hours in the kitchen.

In 2 or 3 hours you can either make a jam or prepare cookies for at least 8 people. You save lots of money and you dedicate the time to all of them at the same time! Isn’t it great?

Of course if you have more time you can even decorate your biscuits as much as you like and let your creativity prevails. It took me only 2 hours and a half to prepare all the cookies and do the packaging as well, and the homemade touch, I am telling you, it is so appreciated!

If you feel like is not enough in some cases, you can always combine one of those things with another little gift like a Christmasy mug or a kitchen towel or glove, (or all of them), just like it shown in the pic on the left and below.

In the first one I filled this lovely mug with the cookies.  

These kitchen towels are from ‘Penelope’ textile shop, Palermo – Italy

In the second one I wrapped the packet around the kitchen towel, making sure it looked pretty.

And why not add a nice glittery card too?!

In the third one I prepared the pesto of pistachios because I know one particular friend of mine is crazy about it. I bought this cute little jar, filled it with the pesto and give it to her with a cute red ribbon. 

She absolutely loved it, because it took her by surprise. She definitely did not expect that!

So, …although I know this festivity period is overwhelming and sometimes we get caught up in the thousands of things that we have to do, try to enjoy its charme and its profound meaning. Do not stress and do not despair, because the way I see it, Christmas is not about making expensive gifts, it’s about showing that we care and we think of others as much as we think of ourselves.

We all agree then? Let’s plan few hours ahead in our Calendar to prepare something genuine and full of love. Something special for our special loved ones. It is incredibly worth it!

Enjoy!