Sure, making your own handmade gifts takes more time, energy and effort than popping by the store and buying something – but that’s what makes them so special. After all, it’s pretty easy to just grab something from the store or order it online without having to put too much thought into the present.
And while you could probably find a Christmas gift that the recipient will be fond of, a handmade Christmas gift is undeniably more meaningful.
Here is a list of some of our favourite handmade Christmas gifts that can be easily put together while making a great impression. The great thing about these ideas is that there’s something for everyone no matter your skill set. From yummy edible gifts to heartfelt ones filled with lots of love and memories, tune in to explore some Christmas projects that will keep you busy.
A Bundt pan wreath
‘Tis the season to be wreathing, so why not embrace the festivity by filling in a vintage Bundt pan with Christmas ornaments that will turn into a beautiful, shiny and bright holiday display.
All you’ll need to do is line the Bundt pan with some styrofoam by cutting it to fit and then attaching it with some hot glue. To secure the ornaments into the pan, hot glue them onto the styrofoam and complete the look with a large Christmas bow.
Festive photo album
Christmas is a time for family, love and sharing, giving you all the reason to gift someone a festive photo album that celebrates the good times together.
It’s a way of sharing your best memories with that person and can consist of the people you both spend time with including family and friends. Making a handmade festive photo album adds sentimentality to the gift and will be cherished for a long time.
Just because it’s Christmas doesn’t necessarily mean the photos inside the album have to be Christmas related. These could be photos from the years spent together.
To make the album, you could use a photo album or scrapbook as your base. Other materials you may need include some seasonal stickers, pens, pencils, paint, glue sticks, scissors, Christmas labels or tags, and your chosen printed photos. The level of festiveness is entirely up to you and the way you want to decorate the album is also up to you.
Having a photo album as a starting point makes things easier as you’ll just need to slot the photos into the plastic wallets and add the decorations around them as you like. For example, you may want to label photos, add some stickers around them, or even draw some decorations on the plastic wallets without covering the photo.
Choosing a scrapbook creates more room for creativity as your opportunities become endless. You can place photos wherever you want, such as creating them into a collage with drawings, writing and decorations.
Hand-painted dish sets
Pretty plate sets may just be the gift to give someone in your life and these beauties can easily be done yourself with a twist of your own creativity. The idea is to have them colourful and simple by layering a fun look. For example, you can decorate your dish set with flower designs that are festive such as poinsettias.
All you’ll need is some food safe markers, food safe ceramic dishes, and an oven to bake the paint into the dishes. These paint pens work very well when creating small lines to fill in a space as opposed trying to colour it in completely. If you need additional layers of paint, you’ll need to bake between layers as the paints will rub together resulting in smudges and wrong colours.
Get creative with different patterns such as lines, dots, scribbles, cute animals, flowers, plants, and so on. The world literally is your oyster.
When done, heat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius and bake for 45 minutes allowing your dishes to completely cool before handling or painting more.
Slice and bake shortbread cookies
If there’s one cookie that screams Christmas, it’s definitely shortbread (or arguably gingerbread). Plus, people just love getting gifts that they can eat, making this Christmas gift a wonderful way to share your baking skills with others.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup icing sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
- 340 grams of dark chocolate roughly chopped
- Flaky sea salt for garnishing
Whisk the flour, baking powder and kosher salt together in a bowl and beat the butter and icing sugar with an electric mixer on medium until light and fluffy (around 1 to 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla and decrease the mixer speed to low, gradually beating in the flour mixture until combined. Stir 115 grams of chocolate into the bowl.
Divide the dough in half and shape each into a log around 20cm long and 4.5cm wide. Cover the logs with glad wrap and chill for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius and line baking trays with baking paper. Slice each log into 0.5 centimetre cookies and place them 2.5 centimetres apart on the baking paper. Bake until the edges are slightly golden, around 12 to 15 minutes and transfer the cookies onto a wire rack to cool.
Like a baking tray with baking paper and microwave the remaining chocolate in a bowl for 30 seconds and then stir. Microwave it again in 10-second intervals stirring each time until melted. Dip half of each cookie into the melted chocolate and place it on the prepared baking sheets. Sprinkle it lightly with sea salt and refrigerate for around 10 to 15 minutes to let the chocolate set.
Enjoy a Christmas meal at the Cooly Hotel
While making a handmade Christmas gift takes time, you shouldn’t have to go through more effort by cooking your Christmas meal too.
Head to the Coolangatta Hotel for a scrumptious Christmas meal with your friends and family, featuring all of your festive favourites in Christmas harmony. With live entertainment and exceptional customer service that will have your every need tended to with care and consideration, there’s no place better to celebrate Christmas on the Gold Coast than at the Coolangatta Hotel.
