DIY Christmas gifts

Beth Carey, Staff Writer

It’s the night before Christmas and you forgot to get someone a gift!? Fear not! These are some quick “do it yourself” projects that would make a great gift for anyone.

“Cookie in a Jar”

What You’ll Need:

  • A Mason jar to put all the ingredients in
  • 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
  • ¾ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • 1 ½ cups chocolate chips
  • ¾ cup packed brown sugar
  • ½ cup granulated sugar

First, combine the flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Then place the mixture in a 1-quart jar. Layer the other ingredients in order in the jar, pressing the ingredients down firmly after each layer. Seal the jar with a lid and add some decoration with markers and ribbon. Attach the recipe to the outside of the jar so the receiver knows how to bake the cookies!

Recipe to Attach:

Preheat oven to 375° F. Beat ¾ cup softened butter, 1 large egg and ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until blended. Add cookie mix; mix well, breaking up any clumps. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Decorated Frame

What You’ll Need:

  • A Frame
  • Ribbon, spray paint, etc. (whatever you want to decorate it!)
  • Photo of you and the gift receiver

For this gift, you’ll need a frame. The frame can be cheap, expensive, simple, or garnished. It just depends on who you will be giving it too. Once you’ve got the frame just start decorating it! You can add decorative ribbon around the edges, spray paint it, or even glue on some rhinestones. When you’re done decorating the frame add a picture to make it personal.

Movie Night in a Box

What You’ll Need:

  • A big box
  • Paper shreds
  • Bag of popcorn
  • Some of their favorite snacks
  • A DVD

This is a creative gift for someone you love hanging out with. Start off with a box and fill it with the paper shreds. Add in their favorite kind of popcorn, bottle of soda, and box of candy. Then put in their favorite movie or a movie you both would like to see! Just make sure they don’t already own the movie. Last but not least, top it off with some more paper shreds and add the cover to the box.

Chocolate Pretzel Treats

What You’ll Need:

  • Bag of pretzel squares or circles
  • Hershey kisses
  • Bag of M&Ms
  • Large oven-safe pan

Who doesn’t like getting some holiday treats for Christmas? These are super easy to make, but still delicious. Start off with a pan and place the pretzels in rows on the pan. You don’t need to leave much room in between the pretzels, so place as many as so can on the pan. After you’ve done this, start unwrapping the Hershey kisses and place them on top of the pretzels in the pan. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and when it’s ready, put the pan in. Keep an eye on the treats in the oven, since they only need to be heated for about 5 minutes. When the Hershey kisses look slightly melted, take the pan out of the oven. Take a bag of M&Ms and place a single M&M on top of each Hershey kiss. Press the M&M down so the Hershey kiss becomes a circle on the pretzel. Once you’re done with all of them, pop the pan into the freezer for a few minutes to cool off and harden the chocolate. When they’ve cooled off put them in a decorated container and gift them!

Homemade Candy Cane Hand Scrub

What You’ll Need:

  • A jar to put the final product in
  • 4 cups of sugar
  • ¼ cup of candy canes
  • 1 cup of olive oil
  • Optional: 20 drops of peppermint oil

To start off, measure and pour the sugar into a mixing bowl. Stir the sugar to break up any clumps. Now add the olive oil to the sugar, and stir again. The mixture should resemble wet sand, but make sure that it isn’t too saturated. If you wish, finish the mixture by adding peppermint oil. Put the sugar mixture off to the side and now place a handful of your crushed candy canes in a ziplock plastic bag. You want to make the candy cane pieces even smaller with the help of a rolling pin. You want the candy canes to become superfine, similar size to grains of sugar. To create the pretty scrub, place a big spoonful of the sugar-and-oil mixture at the base of the container you want to gift it in. Then sprinkle a layer of the crushed candy canes on top. Continue layering until you reach the top of the container. To finish off, add a ribbon to the container and a few candy canes. Now your candy cane scrub is ready for gifting!