Along with sniffles and sneezes, most kids contract a severe case of the gimmies during the month of December. My 6-year-old could easily be hospitalized for the severity of her case. The other day she whined for a good 20 minutes as she watched in utter horror as I (GASP!) wrapped a (double GASP!) Christmas present for her BFF.
She recently begged Santa for the same Littlest Pet Shop set and couldn’t believe that would have the audacity to ask if she would like to help wrap the one I had purchased for her pal.
Cue the drama.
After the wrapping incident I gave her my standard lecture on how Christmas is about giving, not getting, and how we should be concentrating on making others happy during the Advent season, blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada.
The look on her face said it all. I immediately shut up and started delegating.
My daughter would spend the rest of the afternoon helping me put together homemade gift jars for our neighborhoods. The easy handcrafted presents are a great way to involve kids in gift giving.
Here’s what we made:
COOKIE GIFT JAR
Place all the dry ingredients needed to make your favorite cookies into a pretty jar. Then, attach a recipe card listing the wet ingredients and directions on how to make the cookies to the lid of the jar.
SALSA GIFT JAR
Use fresh produce from the farmers market or any extra tomatoes you grew in your own garden during the summer and froze, to make a spicy treat to share with neighbors, teachers or members of your Bunco group. Make large batches of salsa and place in jars. You could attach a pepper to the lid or tuck the salsa into a basket with a bag of tortilla chips before presenting it to the gift recipient.
If you prefer giving traditional gifts in jars, then stick with the classics, such as homemade brownies, mini muffins, fudge, pudding, toffee or cookies. My mom makes a killer homemade trail mix that she gifts in jars during the holiday season. You could also make multiple batches of gourmet popcorn, spiced nuts or homemade dip to place in gift jars. Other ideas include: jam, chutney, pickles or flavored vinegar and oil.
Just remember to get the kids involved in the process and let them be the ones to present the jars to loved ones, so they can bask in the glow of the gift recipient’s sincere appreciation.
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