Perfect for holiday gifts for friends and family!

Post updated 12/16/25 with new photos of chocolate covered pretzels!

Are you gearing up for Christmas yet? I am! This time of year when the girls are home on breaks, we start thinking about what gifts they will make this Christmas.

We have a tradition of giving our friends and family home-made gifts from my daughters, and have been doing it for years! (See my Holiday Traditions with Kids Through the Years post.) Growing up, the kids really looked forward to this. We would brainstorm, do a little research- then start the process, which often took a few days or more!

Here are a few of the gifts my girls have made over the years. They are all simple enough for little kids to make with the help of an adult, and are proven to be loved by the recipients!

The first three on this list come in kits you can buy at Amazon or your local craft store. When kids are very little, it’s easiest, in my opinion, to buy these kits specially designed for young children.

1. Painted plates or cups.

These are so cute, and my father still has this one displayed at his home (probably because, in efforts to make all the letters fit, my daughter misspelled her own name; which is to this day, hilarious). You can get sets of paints that come with a plate or cup to decorate. Or if you have older plain plates you can spare, that works too, and obviously saves some money.

2. Soap.

I do love gifts that are practical, and we also want to mix it up and not always have treats that add to extra holiday pounds (those are later on this list). The soap-making kits are fun to use, and allow for personalization with such things as crushed peppermint, dried flowers, mint sprigs or holly berries, to name some ideas if you’re looking to make them more holiday inspired. You could also use a variety of essential oils or extracts like vanilla to create your own beautiful scents.

3. Garden stones.

I have mentioned that we used a garden stone kit to create this ceramic plate that has sat on my porch for so many years (you can tell it’s old, but I love it). Use one or two of these kits to create stones for beautiful gifts for loved ones. Use your little ones’ hand prints or footprints as a super cute touch, and let them paint them as they please. Even more perfect for the gardeners in your life! Pair with some seeds or garden tools for a gardening theme!

4. Peppermint candles.

They sell wax in little pellets that are really easy to use, and we used mason jars which looked so cute. As a nice touch, we added some peppermint essential oil to make them smell minty, and crushed some peppermint on top. We packaged them with a ribbon and candy cane. I love how they addressed this one!

5. Painted canvases. Click here to see my Painting with Kids blog post, where I mention that there are SO many kinds of media that can be used for painting (flower pots, walls, paint by numbers kits). My adult girls still love painting on canvases– and their room is decorated with lots of these.

They have married their love of painting with creating very special Christmas gifts. They sign and date the back and wrap them up for friends and family. So personal and sweet.

6. Chocolate covered pretzels. This was SO much fun for my daughters. See this huge assembly line they made!

Using regular pretzel rods, melt a couple kinds of chocolate (we used milk chocolate and white), and set up your table with the melted chocolate in bowls. Put some into these cute squirt bottles so they can drizzle it on. Use food coloring to dye the white chocolate different colors and a bunch of different kinds of sprinkles. They can be so creative with this, and they came out beautifully!

These were a huge hit; both for them having fun and how they turned out. I definitely tasted my share of them, and they were just like the kind you buy at a specialty candy store.

7. Chocolate-covered strawberries. Along the lines of the pretzels above, but with strawberries! Again, the squirt bottles make it so easy to decorate these, and they came out perfectly.

Keep refrigerated until ready to use, and package them in sweet little cardboard boxes (see #10).

8. Candied nuts. I think these are a perfect holiday snack, and they’re fun to make. Just get an assortment of nuts like walnuts, pecans and almonds. There are a bunch of recipes for this, so feel free to look up a few of them depending on the flavor you’re wanting. Check out Homemade Candied Nuts at Sally’s Baking Addiction website. The gist is you want a savory and sweet mix to bring out the flavor of the nuts while keeping them crunchy while they bake. I have used honey and brown sugar as sweeteners, and spices like red chili flakes, cinnamon and thyme.

9. Santa Cupcakes.

The girls made these recently and they turned out cute. The idea was the cupcake was Santa’s body, whipped cream was his beard, and a strawberry was his hat. And I love these cute gift boxes– they can be used for several other things on this list (strawberries, nuts, marshmallows), too!

10. Home-made marshmallows.

We followed this recipe to make homemade marshmallows, and even used peppermint extract and food coloring to make festive holiday marshmallows. FYI, homemade marshmallows have a much wetter, stickier consistency than store-bought. So be sure to store them in the fridge until giving them away. A cute idea is to include a packet of hot chocolate and/or a mug with this gift!

11. Monogramed Note Paper and Envelopes.

I love this idea because it’s so darned easy but is such a nice personalized gift. The girls just type on a blank page of a word processing document either a person’s name or monogram with their address underneath. Print on a thicker stock of computer paper, maybe in a nice muted color. You can get matching envelopes, and also print the person’s name and return address in the left-hand corners. I love to fold the paper and stack on top of the envelopes in a pile then tie with a pretty ribbon.  I also love the idea of creating a special stamper for your family or friends to use on their correspondence going forward. This is such a pretty one from Zazzle!

We created stamper with our names and wedding date for our invitations and thank you cards that were SO cute!

I hope you enjoy this tradition of home-made holiday gifts! If you have any of your own ideas for things that were fun to make with your kids and also great gifts-please let me know!