When you're making homemade gifts, obviously you need to know the person fairly well or you might end up annoying them.   I would say typically frugal or older people would be more inclined to appreciate homemade gifts.  Moms especially tend to love homemade gifts, at least in our family.  🙂  My mom is always thrilled with my homemade gifts, she always has been, ever since I was a little girl.  It really warms my heart when one of my children make me something homemade, even a simple drawing, because to me a homemade gift says “I cared enough to spend time making this just for you.”  I also totally dig the idea that the person didn't spend a bunch of money.

Time is running short though since we're already in December so I thought I would share some ideas for items I've made as homemade gifts in the past, as well as a few other fun, easy and frugal gifts.

One year… many years ago… I made orange marmalade.  It was a huge hit.  I bought 4 ounce canning jars, oranges and sugar.  Simple and it takes less than half an hour.  Here is a super simple recipe for easy orange marmalade.  The finishing touch is to decorate the lid.  If you are into crafting you probably already have some Christmas fabric and ribbons around, otherwise purchase a bag of bows and stick one the top of each jar. The recipe I linked to make 3 cups of marmalade which will fill six 4 ounce canning jars.  Double the recipe and you have twelve unique gifts to share with close friends and family.  You could also make pretty gift tags using Christmas fonts.

Do you know any beef jerky lovers in your life?   Have you checked the price of beef jerky lately?  It's expensive!   Why not make a few batches of beef jerky to share with your friends and family?  It works best if you own a dehydrator but if not you can still put together a homemade version of a dehydrator.  Check out my post on Homemade Jerky to learn how to make jerky and the link for making your own dehydrator courtesy of Alton Brown. It's not uncommon in my area to find meat on sale for $1.99 a pound which by my calculations homemade jerky costs $0.54 cents an ounce.   Compared to Amazon's Jack Link's Beef Jerky which is currently $1.89 per ounce!

Does the recipient love movies?  How about putting together a Movie Basket with Candy and Popcorn?  Buy the person their favorite movie and then buy their favorite movie candies.

For Christmas 2009 I framed old photos for my mom.  She let me take all the old photos that were my Grandma's and I scanned and made actual print copies of them, and then put them into a nice frame that I'd bought from a second hand store. You can get frames for a reasonable price from Walmart or Target, but unfortunately they are typically quite cheaply made.  Thrift stores often have an abundance of frames and the upside in my opinion is they are older and therefore better quality, and often cost less than the brand new ones.

Does your loved one have arthritis in their hands?   Last year when I put this post together my hands were so painful, I started to look for products that would help ease the discomfort.  Thankfully I was able to figure out the cause of my pain… it turns out I was taking too much Vitamin C!    Having gone through this pain I have a completely different perspective now when it comes to having arthritis.  It is very painful and makes every day function difficult.  I feel sorry for anyone who has to go through this kind of pain, but these products would certainly make their live easier.

Last year I made Jingle Bell jars.  Totally from items I had around my house.  I don't know if you would want to give one of these as a gift, but I thought it made a beautiful addition to the table at our holiday meals.

Here are some other bloggers with great Christmas gift ideas:

• Ultimate Money Blog – Candy Cane Facial Scrub
• Funny About Money – A Handmade Christmas Present: Bath Powder
• Get Rich Slowly – 34 Great Homemade Gifts You Can Make
• The Digerati Life – How to Recycle Cookies Through a Cookie Exchange
• Sound Money Matters – 6 Cool Handmade Christmas Gifts
• Funny About Money – Superior Christmas Present for Young Adults!
• Frugal Zeitgeist – Unique Family Christmas Traditions
• Money Talks – How to Have a Budget Friendly Christmas

What about you?  Do you ever make homemade gifts for Christmas?  Do you like to receive them?