The best homemade Christmas gifts are ones people use up or keep: a hot cocoa jar, cookie mix, homemade vanilla extract, a sugar scrub, a salt dough handprint ornament or a family recipe book. Below are 14 ideas, who each one suits, how to make it, and which ones to start now so they are ready by December 25.
Updated by the Frugal Santa elves
Good homemade gifts are either used up or kept. Food, drink mixes and a sugar scrub get used and enjoyed, so nobody has to find a shelf for them. Keepsakes such as a handprint ornament, a recipe book or a framed drawing get kept because nobody else could have made them. The gifts that disappoint are the ones in between: a craft nobody asked for that is too nice to throw away.
For: Anyone
Layer sugar, cocoa, powdered milk, mini chocolate chips and marshmallows in a quart jar and tie the directions to the lid.
For: Bakers
Split about 5 vanilla beans, drop them in 1 cup of vodka and let it sit at least 8 weeks. Start early.
For: Anyone
Bag up dried orange slices, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves and a few cranberries. They cover it with water and simmer for a house that smells like Christmas.
For: Kids, coworkers
Melt chocolate, spread it thin on a lined tray, scatter crushed candy canes over it, chill and break it into pieces.
For: Mom, a sister, a friend
Stir 2 parts sugar into 1 part oil, add a little citrus zest, and pack it in a small jar with a label.
For: Grandparents
Press a child's hand into salt dough, bake it hard, paint it and write the name and year on the back.
For: Grown-up kids, newlyweds
Copy out the family's favorite recipes by hand, one per card, with a line about who made it and when.
For: A partner, a parent
Write short reasons you love them on folded slips, one for each week of the year, and fill a jar.
For: Grandparents
Pick the best drawing of the year, write the artist's name and age on the back, and put it in a frame you already own.
For: Family far away
Print a photo from each month of this year and glue each one above a hand-drawn month for next year.
For: Gardeners
Fold small paper envelopes, fill them with seeds you saved, and write the plant and when to sow it on the front.
For: Anyone with a mantel
Dry thin orange slices at 200°F for about 3 hours, thread them on twine with cinnamon sticks and roll it up in tissue.
For: Anyone
Write one page about a memory you share with them. It costs a stamp, and nobody else could write it.
Vanilla extract needs the longest: at least 8 weeks of steeping, so it has to start by October 30 to be ready on December 25. If that date has passed, give the bottle anyway with a tag that says when it will be ready. Here is a simple order for the rest:
Layer 1 cup sugar, 1 cup unsweetened cocoa and 1 cup powdered milk in a quart jar, then top it with 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips and 1/2 cup mini marshmallows. Add a pinch of salt with the sugar. One jar makes about 10 mugs, and you can split it between two pint jars for two gifts.
Press each layer flat with the back of a spoon so the stripes stay neat. A crushed candy cane on top makes it peppermint cocoa. Tie the directions to the lid, like the tag here.
Kids give best when the gift is clearly theirs. A scribbled card from a grandchild can mean more than anything from a store.
Our Christmas crafts page has 15 more things kids can make from what you already have.
Save glass jars from sauce and jam all fall; soak off the labels in warm water. Wrap the rest in brown paper, a grocery bag turned inside out, or newspaper tied with red string. A circle of fabric over a jar lid, held with a rubber band and a ribbon, looks finished.
The tag does the rest. Write who made it, the date, what is in it and how to use it, and list nuts or other allergens on anything you cooked. Print free "From: Santa" gift tags, or follow our step-by-step wrapping guide for neat corners.
Homemade is not always cheaper. Candles, soap and knitting can cost more in supplies than a nice one from a store, and a gift someone has been wishing for all year beats a craft. When you can, find out what they want first. Our cheap Christmas gifts page lists ideas under $10 and has a budget calculator.
On Frugal Santa, anyone can tell Santa their wishes on a live video call: kids with a grown-up, or grown-ups for themselves. Santa is an AI video character. After the call, the wishes come back as a list with store prices, lowest first, so you can decide what to make and what to buy. $1 a minute. See how calling Santa works or start a call.
Something they cannot buy: a family recipe book, a letter about a shared memory, a framed drawing by a grandchild or a jar of reasons. Our page on gifts for someone who has everything has more.
Hot cocoa jars, cookie mix jars, sugar scrub, candy cane bark and a simmer pot bag all take an evening or less, and you can make several at once.
Dry mixes in sealed jars keep longest, so make those first. Bake cookies and bark close to the day you give them, and add a "best by" date to the tag.
A handwritten card or a drawing in the child's own words. Skip the baking: in a Study.com survey, more than a third of teachers named homemade treats as the gift they least want. See Christmas gifts for teachers for what they do want.
Live videoLet them tell Santa on a live video call. Their wishes come back as a list with store prices, lowest first, so you can make it or buy it for less. $1 a minute.
Call Santa
Cheap Christmas Gifts40 ideas under $50, plus a Christmas budget calculator.
Christmas crafts15 easy crafts from things you already have at home.
How to wrap presentsEight drawn steps, odd shapes, and a how-much-paper calculator.
Santa gift tagsPrintable To/From Santa tags with each child's name on them.