Homemade Christmas Gift Ideas

The homemade Christmas gift ideas on this page make great personalized, inexpensive DIY Christmas gifts! You will find ...

1. Home Decor craft ideas (with year-round usability);

2. Seasonal, Christmas craft freebies, including ...
a) free printable Christmas decorations & easy to make Christmas ornaments,
b) online printable Christmas cards and free Christmas gift tags, and
c) homemade Christmas food gifts.

Homemade Christmas Gift Ideas:
1) Home Decor Craft Ideas

a) Paper Lanterns

1. Renaissance-inspired paper houses are perfect for sending by mail. They are designed to fit into a standard envelope, super easy for the recipient to set up, and one of my best Christmas craft freebies (if I do say so myself ;-)

2. Accordion-folded paper lantern craft idea: just fold-and-cut. Great craft to do with your kids, with lots of scope for inventing new patterns!

3. Make a paper lantern the easy way: download, cut out, glue, and light with an LED tea light. Why waste time? (These are excellent for Diwali celebrations as well!)

4. (and in the same vein), make paper lanterns f-a-s-t.  All you need is printer paper, a pin/needle, some corrugated cardboard and a few lightweight bangles ... or some ribbon ... or some wire ... or a pretty paper strip ... the possibilities are endless, and you'll find lots of inspiration on the page.

5. Use small doilies around plastic cups to spread Christmas cheer in the neighborhood! (This is probably the most fiddly way of making paper lanterns that I've come up with so far, but these are  small, cute homemade Christmas gift ideas. Also very popular as wedding table decorations!)

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b) Three More Homemade (Christmas) Gift Ideas

The pictures here show three free homemade gift ideas that make great DIY Christmas gifts.

Right: There are many ways to personalize a plain, store-bought notebook into a unique Xmas gift.  I've added a list of creative ideas for personalizing other items, too. These are lovely, unique & very  inexpensive Christmas gifts to make.

Center: Making a silhouette is much easier than most people think, and one of the prettiest DIY christmas gifts you could make ... reserve for folks who really  deserve it!

Left: Doorstops are probably the most off-the-wall of all my homemade Christmas gift ideas, but check out the page for ways to turn anything from antique clutch purses to a pound of pebbles into useful (and handsome) backdoor sentinels. You know, everyone needs a few doorstops. (They make great housewarming gifts, too.)

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Homemade Christmas Gift Ideas:
2) Christmas Craft Freebies

a) Ornaments & Simple Christmas Crafts

Christmas Tree
Ornaments

Check out my collection of creative, homemade Christmas tree decorating ideas. They can be used ...

• as hand made Christmas gifts in their own right,
• to 'glam up' small, store-bought gifts, or
• to add a personal twist to unique Christmas gift baskets.

You'll find gilded walnuts, hand made Christmas tree balls, gingerbread decorations, free printable paper craft templates, and much more.

Christmas Lights

Next up, some recycled craft ideas:  Turn small dessert glass jars into hand made Christmas gifts (or use them at home, with other Christmas lights and decorations). Click the link for 3 designs to choose from.

The little lights are best handed over in person (rather than sent) - they're a bit too delicate to pack off and mail. But they'll make lovely holiday craft gift ideas for a neighbor or two!

Christmas
Window Decor

The Christmas window decorations (pictured left) can be enclosed in a Christmas card and sent in the post.

If you're looking for free Christmas crafts for kids, these very  simple homemade Christmas gift ideas are a great place to start.

So download the five paper craft templates and start cutting! Before you know it, you'll be creating your own paper window star designs.

b) Free Online Printable Christmas Cards
    & Free Christmas Gift Tags

Printable
Christmas Cards

Print free Christmas cards - handmade cards are cheap homemade Christmas gifts by themselves. Or, use the instructions to get inspired with ideas for your own  handmade Christmas card ideas!

The page offers three free downloads:

• online printable Christmas cards,
• free Christmas gift tags, and
• small 'seals' for your Christmas letters and/or parcels.

So don't just print free Christmas cards; personalize these printables, and turn them into Christmas menus, thank-you notes, newsletter covers ... have fun!

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c) Edible Christmas Gifts

Rum Balls Recipe

My Mother's recipe for rum balls has been featured in a recent book, The Ultimate Christmas, (by HCI, publishers of the legendary Chicken Soup series)

Rum balls are super yummy homemade Christmas gift ideas, and you can 'dress them up' in a gazillion creative ways. Then, present them ...

• in a vintage Christmas cookie tin, or
• in a pretty glass bowl from a charity shop, or
• fill them into a jam jar (get creative with the lid!) or
• show them off in a clear cellophane bag, with one or two simple homemade Christmas ornaments attached. (You'll find more ideas when you head over to the page!)

Alternatively, if you're looking for Christmas gift basket ideas, check out my Ideas List for Tuscan Christmas food basket gifts (however, these are a mix of store-bought  & homemade Christmas food gifts.)

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