craftgrrl | I've Put a Lid on Christmas!

...and I am so sorry for the bad pun in that title.

*but*, I've totally figured out my Christmas presents for my entire HUGE extended family, and I thought I'd share in case any of y'all have too many family members and not enough $ this holiday season.

This Christmas, all my gifts will be in a jar!

I got about 100 mason jars (because I have about 20 families to make gifts for) and I'm doing five jars per family.

1) Hot coccoa mix (go to Sam's or CostCo, buy some of those HUGE Swiss Miss Coccoa cans, and scoop it into jars)

2) Christmas Cookies (use yr fav. recipe, but don't make cookies that won't keep or are really delicate and won't pack, don't pack cookies until they're completely cooled, put waxed paper between each cookie)

3) Christmas cookie mix (mix all the dry ingredients of yr fav. cookie and attach a card to the outside of the jar telling folks what wet ingredients they need and baking times and temps)

4) Mini soaps (packed into the jar with some colorful tissue)

5) A mini-jar-candle (take mini mason jars, buy the big, huge white wax blocks and a huge pack of wicks, melt, dye, add glitter, etc., pour over wicks into jars, let dry, cut wicks to size)

I'm packing the 5 jars in hand-made Christmas tote bags (made from some of the cute n' cheap Christmas fabric that is coming out of the walls of every fabric store on the planet) and covering the jar-tops so that they match the bags. Each family gets 1 bag. I should be able to do about 20 families for about $200. It has something for everyone. A bag that Mom can use during the holiday season. Cookies for the kids. Candles for the teens. Cookie and coccoa mix for the entire family, etc.

I'm putting a hand-made Christmas card in each one.

Also, with some easy modifications (cookies in different shapes and colors, the use of fabric for a holiday other than Christmas) this can easily be made into a gift for any other seasonal holiday :)

:D