10 homemade holiday gifts

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Food gifts
1. Home-canned fruits and vegetables. With farmers markets still brimming with seasonal produce, it's a great time to be doing this. Home canning is an easy-to-learn skill that makes thoughtful gifts — and can really stretch your household budget.

2. Holiday baked goods. It's really hard to go wrong with this: pumpkin, nut and banana breads are synonymous with the holidays, are easy to make, and can even be frozen. So are regular breads, cookies and cakes. You can dress up baking by being creative about their containers. This also gives you an opportunity to put recycling to work. As an example, try nutbread in an old coffee can. Grease the sides, but substitute sugar for flour along the can walls. Your bread will emerge with a crisp caramel glaze. Decorate the can with wrapping paper scraps, replace the bread, add a ribbon — and you're in business.

3. Heat-and-serve frozen casseroles and entrees. Freeze-ahead meals take some planning to put together, but they can be as ornate as you want them to be and are a wonderful convenience for whoever receives them. Freeze them in recyclable aluminum warming pans — or buy some quality oven glassware for gifts that will be used many years into the future

4. Cookies in a jar. Not the cookies themselves, but all the dry ingredients. Layer them in a Mason jar for an attractive presentation. Decorate the jar with fabric and ribbon, attaching the recipe with a bit of string (bonus points if you reuse the front half of old Christmas cards for this). These make great teacher gifts, or can be combined with other items in a gift basket. You'll find plenty of variations at All Recipes.

5. For the coffee lover: homemade biscotti or chocolate spoons in a handmade mug. This is quite elegant, and has a long after-holiday life. Hit the holiday craft fairs and find a large hand-thrown coffee mug. You're after something colorful and substantial. Fill it with individually wrapped biscotti or chocolate spoons. They're both simple to prepare. The spoons are commonly done with plastic disposables. Shop around and find an inexpensive metal teaspoon set, instead. It helps to refrigerate them beforehand.

Craft gifts
1. Jars of homemade bath salts. As luxurious as they are inexpensive. Typical recipes are epsom or sea salt, baking soda, food coloring (use natural varieties), glycerin (vegetable-based) and your favorite aromatic poils. Once gain, it's all about presentation. Decorate the jars — and be sure to list the essential oils used, to prevent possible allergy issues.

2. Homemade holiday wreaths. Living wreaths are an impressive and welcome holiday gift. They're not difficult to make — all you need is some evergreen boughs, assorted greenery and wire. In a couple hours, you'll have several wreaths that would easily retail between $70 and $100 if you bought them from a commercial florist. The beautiful Heavy Petal has excellent step-by-step, illustrated directions to get you underway.

3. Buy vintage floral pattern teacups at secondhand stores and plant ornamental bulbs in them. Great for small gifts or holiday party favors. Here's a fun variation: find old mugs with herbal print designs and plant chives, oregano, rosemary or basil. Decorate with a bit of ribbon and a card describing how to care for the plant.

4. Gift baskets. These are a wonderful catch-all for the holiday season: a real expression of your creativity and the personality of the recipient. Start with a quality Fair Trade basket, some handmade ribbon — and set your imagination free. This is a great way to bundle handmade soaps and herbal cachets, potpourri, jellies, organic candies and treats and small craft items.

5. Reusable fabric shopping bags. With attention to the millions of disposable plastic shopping bags which end up in landfills and the environment each year, reusable bags have never been hotter. All you need are basic sewing skills and some repurposed or recycled fabric. The folks at Morsbags have patterns and easy directions for making roomy shopping bags that will last for years. You can easily make a dozen unique gifts in the course of an evening — and it's more fun with friends!

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Homemade gift ideas
We've got seven ideas for gifts that you can make yourself this holiday season.

Homemade gift ideas DIY: Knitting fingerless mitts is one idea for a comforting homemade gift.
As the holiday season nears, consumers are starting to make lists of gifts that Santa Claus, or his surrogate, needs to buy.

But in this economy, many shoppers are looking to spend less than in previous years. And there’s also been a backlash against the overconsumption that’s rife during the holiday season.

Increasingly eco-savvy consumers see the holiday season — with its quickly discarded wrapping paper and bows — as the opposite of green.

Homemade gift ideas are a solution to all of these concerns. And they require the very thing gifts are meant to convey: heartfelt thought.

A viable homemade gift runs the gamut from baked goods to crafts to homemade soap. And these ideas will cut down on how much time you’ll spend braving holiday shopping crowds.

Here’s a list of homemade gift ideas to try out this holiday season:

1. Baked goods
Few people will turn down homemade cookies, cakes or pies — especially during the holiday season when baked goods are as much a part of family tradition as wreaths and Christmas trees.

Chocolate cookies are always a good standby year-round, but in November and December other baked goods are also appropriate. Pecan pie is a Thanksgiving tradition, and gingerbread cookies and houses have come to symbolize Christmas.

What’s more, baking a homemade gift idea can be fun for the whole family.

2. Canned fruits or vegetables
In many parts of the country, fresh produce is still available at farmers markets and grocery stores. Canning fruits and vegetables is a cheap way to keep produce in one’s winter diet, and it also makes for colorful stocking stuffers for friends and family.

Because canning often rescues produce that might otherwise be discarded, it’s also a very green activity that could easily become a new holiday tradition. For step-by-step instructions on canning and equipment tips, read this primer on Epicurious.com.

For additional information, read this article on howtodothings.com.

3. Homemade knit scarf and gloves
Scarves and gloves have long been traditional gifts for Christmas. So why not honor tradition and go green at the same time by giving someone you love a hand-made knit scarf?

You’ll need yarn, knitting needles and a pattern. In addition to scarves, homemade gloves and shawls also make great green gifts.

For tips, feedback and links to specific patterns, check out this article on momadvice.com.

4. Homemade soap
Homemade soap makes for a fresh-smelling gift item, and it fits in a stocking.

Making your own soap will allow you to personalize the gift as much or as little you’d like. Fragrances and essential oils can transform your soap into something special that can’t be bought at the grocery store.

To learn the basics, check out this article on soapmaking at about.com.

5. Ladies clutch bag
Homemade and high fashion don’t have to be polar opposites. A hand-made ladies clutch bag is one of many homemade gift ideas that style queen Martha Stewart highlights.

To make the clutch, you’ll need a sewing machine, but most of the materials are available at your local craft store.

For instructions and video, check out this article on MarthaStewart.com.

6. Gift baskets
Gift baskets make superior homemade gift ideas because they’re limited only by the giver’s imagination.

You can fill a basket with food and wine, or artisanal soaps and beauty products, or a variety of other items. You can recycle a gift basket you have received or buy one fairly cheaply at a craft shop.

Be sure to add some holiday decorative flare with, for example, a ribbon, which you can recycle from last year.

7. Holiday wreath
Most families won’t skip the wreath when Christmas rolls around each year. Because they’re specialty items available for a limited time, wreaths can be quite pricey.

You’ll only need a few things to make your own homemade holiday wreath. In addition to holly and other greens, you’ll need clippers and a wreath frame, which you can buy at a craft store.

For detailed instructions, check out this article on Heavy Petal