Homemade Christmas Gift Baskets

Frugal Gifts

Buying presents adds up fast which makes homemade Christmas gift baskets a much more affordable alternative. I don’t’ know about you, but some of the most memorable presents Tim and I received were homemade Christmas gifts.

We’ve been pleasantly surprised over and over again with wonderful homemade Christmas ideas. It's nice having someone having taken the time to create something for you.

Below, you’ll find quality frugal Christmas gift ideas that will also save you significant cash.

Homemade Christmas Gift Baskets

Homemade Christmas Gifts

One of the most popular gifts I’ve given at Christmas is a homemade cocoa gift basket. Within each basket (easily found year-round at DollarTree) was included a mug (DollarTree again) chosen for its design, decorated (there are paint-pens which are safe for use on dishware – check your local craft store or department), or photo-printed by an online company (VistaPrint constantly runs sample freebie offers on this kind of thing, or you can go with Snapfish, Ofoto, etc.), specifically with each recipient in mind.

Each one included one bittersweet-, one milk- and one white-chocolate dipped spoon (get some melting chocolate and a box of plastic spoons….melt chocolate, dip spoons, put in fridge to “set”, tie cellophane over top with ribbon), a few thin, long cinnamon sticks and a tiny spice shaker of powdered cinnamon, a tiny can of whipped cream, and then several small, screw-top spice jars (DollarTree again) full of cocoa.

The cocoa was homemade itself, which is what made the basket particularly special. I came up with ten blends, and then chose the best five out of those ten for each person or persons receiving a basket.

Each blend had a silly name, which the jar would be labeled with, and then I printed out from home a sort of ingredient list for the included flavors, which was put in the bottom of the basket.

There were things like “Rocky Road Home”, which had chocolate-fudge cocoa with mini marshmallows, dark chocolate cocoa, extra mini-marshmallows, shreds of semi-sweet chocolate, and powdered (thank you, blender) peanut.

Another one was “White Christmas”, which had white chocolate cocoa, ground vanilla bean, shreds of white chocolate, and just a few mini marshmallows for the look of the thing. “Boot-Prints” had milk chocolate cocoa, caramel cocoa, lots of semi-sweet chocolate shreds, a few ribbons of white chocolate cocoa, and a smattering of mini-marshmallows.

“Quick, While The Kids Are Sleeping!” involved chocolate cocoa, milk chocolate shreds, cappuccino cocoa, and ground-up, chocolate-covered espresso beans.

“Snuggle By The Fire” involved chocolate cocoa, ground cinnamon and little, chocolate-coated cinnamon candy hearts. Etc. There was one with raspberry involved and one with hazelnut and one with peppermint. The selections between them were based on the allergies and preferences of the people who would be drinking them.

Frugal Christmas Ideas