Homemade holiday gifts and cookies. Hot Cocoa Mix 1 cup nondairy coffee creamer 1 cup sifted powdered sugar ¼ cup cocoa ¼ cup mint chocolate chips ½ cup mini marshmallows Combine all ingredients and store in an airtight container. Instructions for preparation are add 2/3 cup boiling water to 1/3 cup hot cocoa mix. Teacher Gift Take two apples and a bag of Hershey Hugs and tie them together. Add this note to your gift: "A teacher can't live by apples alone…she also needs hugs!" Bath Crystals 1 cup rock salt 20-30 drops of essential oils or fragrance (lavender is great for this one) Food coloring Mix salt and food coloring. Add oil and mix well. Store in an airtight container. **Author Note: Be careful with the food coloring on this one- use food coloring sparingly. The last thing you want is to give out purple salts and have your friends all turn purple from using them. These are great to put in vintage bottles with a ribbon to tie on the top- they make beautiful pieces in any bathroom with the right touches. Mocha Cappuccino Mix ½ cup powdered creamer 2/3 cup sugar ½ cup instant coffee ½ cup cocoa powder Blend I use a blender until mixture is a fine powder. Instructions for preparation are spoon 3 T. of mix into a mug and add one cup boiling water. Coffee Mocha Mix ¼ cup instant coffee ½ cup cocoa ½ cup sugar Combine ingredients well. Instructions for preparation are the following: for each serving, place 2 t. mix in a cup filled with boiling water Cafe Au Lait Mix ¼ cup instant coffee ½ cup dry milk ½ cup sugar Combine ingredients well. Instructions for preparation are the following: for each serving, place 2 t. mix in a cup filled with boiling water. Spiced Coffee Mix 1/4 cup instant coffee ½ cup sugar ¼ t. nutmeg ¼ t. cinnamon ¼ t. allspice Combine ingredients well. Instructions for preparation are the following: for each serving, place 2 t. mix in a cup filled with boiling water. Friendship Tea Mix 1 ½ cup instant tea powder 1 cup sweetened lemonade powder 1 cup Tang mix 1 t. ground cinnamon ½ t. ground cloves Mix well and store in an airtight container. Instructions for preparation are as follows: put 2-3 t. of mix in a cup filled with boiling water. Cream of Potato Soup Mix 1 ¾ cup instant mashed potatoes 1 ½ cups dry milk 2 T. chicken bouillon granules 2 t. dried minced onion 1 ½ t. seasoned salt 1 t. dried parsley ½ t. pepper Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and pour into a jar. Instructions for preparation are place ½ cup of soup mix in a bowl and add 2/3 cup boiling water. Stir until smooth. Chocolate Chip Muffin Mix 2 cups all purpose flour 2 t. baking powder ½ t. salt 1/3 cup brown sugar 1 1/3 cup milk chocolate chips Mix first three ingredients in a small bowl. Pour into jar. Layer brown sugar, then white sugar, and finally chocolate chips. Instructions for preparation are the following: In a large bowl mix 2/3 cup milk, ½ cup melted butter (slightly cooled), 1 t. vanilla, and two beaten eggs. Add the chocolate chip muffin mix and stir until just blended. Pour into a greased muffin tin. Bake at 375 for twenty to twenty-five minutes. Apple Spice Cake 3 cups all purpose flour 1 ½ cups sugar 1 t. baking soda 1 ½ t. cinnamon ½ t. nutmeg ½ t. salt 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts In a large bowl combine all ingredients and place in a Ziploc bag. Instructions for preparation are as follows: Combine apple spice cake mix with 1 ½ cup vegetable oil, 3 large eggs, 1 t. vanilla, and 3 cups chopped apples. Stir until smooth. Spread batter into lightly greased and floured 9x13" pan. Bake at 350 degrees for forty-five minutes. Cinnamon Scenters 4 T. ground cinnamon 3 T. smooth applesauce 1 T. Elmer's glue Mix together until it is an even textured dough. Roll out to about ½ cm thick on a sheet of nonstick baking paper. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters making a small hole for the ribbon with a straw and place it on cookie sheets to dry. Turn shapes every few days until dry and hard. When dry, thread the ribbon through the hole. These make wonderful ornaments. Gel Air Freshener 2 cups liquid potpourri (concentrated kind) 4 pkg unflavored gelatin 2 Tbsp salt (to preserve) Heat 1 cup potpourri almost to a boil. Add gelatin and salt, stir until dissolved. Remove from heat and add other cup of liquid potpourri. Pour into glass jars and let set overnight. Decorate. Great ideas! Those are wonderful..I hadnt done homemade in years. I get & love getting this every year from our greek Yia Yia's a tin of homemade pastries..she makes the best baklava's ever:) Anyone could do this..make fudge (I will follow thread for some recipes!) or homemade cookies or both and can get the Christmas tins at the dollar store..all the pastries were in little colored cupcake papers (?) . Put a fancy bow on top of lid and it makes a great gift for family, friends and teachers:) Those look wonderful!!! And drooling over the baklava.. I think that is one of my favorite treats in the world! Just some helpful hints for teacher gifts - make sure your teacher(s) aren't on diets! Most of the teachers at my ds' school have joined this local weight-loss program and are trying very hard to not eat many sweets. I'm sure they will be appreciative no matter WHAT they get - but try to be sensitive if someone is trying to lose weight. Oh - one more. Keep in mind that teachers are being hit by this economic crunch as well. Even a $5 gift card helps a lot! (I taught for a year - can you tell?). I'm doing $5 Target gift cards this year. I've been collecting them every time when they have a good deal. For instance, this week Target has if you buy two Tidy Cats Litters for $10.99 each (and I have two $1 off coupons making them $9.99 each) - you get a $5 gift card. I have gotten three $5 gift cards this way and I'm set for litter for a LONG time! There have been several deals like this over the past few weeks and I have collected 14 so far. I think I'm almost done! I still have to figure out how many gift cards I need - with all the school staff that works with my ds - it ends up being a LOT! I do a bigger gift for his main teacher and the autism teacher and my dd's main teacher. Finally, mugs and ornaments are something every teacher gets a TON of. Seriously. I have gone to garage sales that are from teachers who are retiring and they often have TABLES of this stuff. Just keep that in mind...
I go to Dollar Tree and get a basket. My kids have so many teachers, paras and therapists, I cant do individual. Some of these ideas are great to add to the baskets! Last year, where I make my own soy soaps and candles, I did a whole basket of those. This year, I was looking for a new idea. I think you helped me find it! Thanks so much! Ours arent in the economic crunch here because we are privatized--they get paid for days like today, where my kids are off..ugh..but, I am trying to think of something to put in the baskets---one year, I made homemade chocolates. One year was all bath and beauty products made from soy and shea butter compounds--I will have to be creative with some of this stuff! Thanks again! This is what I did when Sarah was really little (4 years old) When I didnt know what to do for Christmas one year..I had Sarah's picture with her different therapists framed and the words to "Wind beneath my wings" scripted under her pic and printed it on nice paper. I got red frames for Christmas at the dollar store and they adored it! Very inexpensive but sentimental:) This was one pic I framed of one of her therapist:
This was another I did of her other therapist :)
This one for for the ST and BCBA..ect..
I make most of our baked goods gifts here too and the ones listed above look sooooooo yummy, can't wait to try them all. Thanks so much for listing these, Turtle. I use the red and green plastic tumblers/cups they sell at grocery stores and fill them with mini-brownies, mini-chocolate chip cookies and mini-fudge and then wrap them in colorful cello paper with a Christmas ribbon. For larger gifts, I sometimes group 2 or 3 of those glasses/cups together (one with white fudge, one with mini-brownies, one with cookies, etc.) I use the Christmas mini-cupcake paper cups for extra visual impact (I always buy those after Christmas and save them from one year to the next) OK, now I'm really in the Christmas mood ... Claire |
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