Homemade Christmas Gifts for Your Doctor or Postman

If you like smaller, inexpensive gifts for some of your service people, like the postman or doctor (and his nurse, of course), you might be at wit's end. The poor mailman delivers your bills, but he isn't the source of them. So let's treat him the best.

Gifts for the Mailman

Give a gift of snacks for the steady Eddy government deliveryman. You can give homemade trail mix and pack it in a plastic bag that you stuff inside a homemade cloth bag. Mix a cup of granola cereal, 3/4 of a cup of yogurt-coated raisins, 1/2 cup of each dry roasted peanuts, dried banana chips, and dried apple chips, and finally add 1/2 cup of chopped dates. This is a blend that I really like and it is to quite healthy. The doctor's office might also like a tin of it.

The bag is quite simple to make. You can use the moneybag directions in the "Gold Wrapped Homemade Christmas Gift" story but replace the money sign with a serrated square and your own interpretation of a stamp. Try a simple hypodermic needle outline for the doctor's office.

I have included a Web site that has simple cookie cutters for all occupations. You can use these as a pattern, or fill the cookie cutter with trail mix. (Using the cookie cutter year after year to make cookies for the doctor's office is a great idea.)

Gifts for the Doctor's Office.

Make the doctor something healthy. Most physicians that I know are not health nuts. They definitely don't practice what they preach. My own personal physician was also a long time friend, since childhood. He would always chastise me for smoking and then before he left the room, would tell me to go to his office and he'd be there in a minute.

The first time this scared the devil out of me since I had just had my mammogram a week earlier. Frank knew I wasn't the strong silent type, and probably figured that a more private area would be suitable to breaking bad news.

This was not the case. The minute he came in, he closed the door, opened the back door, and asked me for a cigarette. He never quit smoking, as he had indicated, he just quit buying.

All this leads me up to the doctor's office. Physicians eat on the run and whatever you give them will be consumed as lunch, make it healthy.

Homemade granola bars are not difficult to make. They give the illusion of eating sweets, without a heavy concentration of sugar. You will need two 9X13X2 inch pans that you will line with foil. Mix 7 cups of granola cereal, 1 cup of both peanuts (unsalted) and firmly packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup of each sunflower seeds (unsalted again) and butter, 2/3 cup of wheat germ (Starting to really look healthy, isn't it?), and 6 tbsp of light colored corn syrup. (Use 1/4 cup and then add another half of that cup for 6 tablespoons.)

Mix all the ingredients and press into the prepared pans. Bake it in a 350 degree preheated oven for 11 to 15 minutes, or until it is browned lightly.

Once you have allowed the bars to cool completely, flip the pan over and take off the foil. This stuff is tough to cut smoothly and you will need to use a serrated knife or electric knife to cut it evenly. Store this in containers that are airtight until you gift it. Individual plastic snack bags are great, but make certain you cut the granola to fit the bags.