Need a Last Minute Holiday Gift for Teachers or Friends and Don't Want to Battle the Mall?

OK, School is ending for the holiday break and you haven't finished getting the teachers a gift. You also want to leave the front desk staff a gift and you'd like to give something to your neighbors as well. Tired of giving gift certificates to Starbucks? Here's a couple of easy make at home ideas.

Hugs Pretzel Sandwiches!
Here's what you need: A couple bags of Snyder's Snaps (see the photo) and Hershey's Hugs. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees (F). Spread out rows of the Snaps and top each one with one Hershey's Hug. Place the pan in the oven for a few minutes until the chocolate is just beginning to melt. Take out the pan and top each one with another Snap, pressing slightly until the the chocolate just starts coming out of the top holes. Place the pan in the refrigerator until the chocolate Hugs have hardened. The hardest part of this is to keep you and your family from eating them all up before giving them away!

This year my wife found some small glass snowman cookie jars at Target ($2.99 each) which she has used as containers for some of the pretzels and she has also used small Christmas type decorative boxes (kind of like decorated Chinese food containers!).

Brownies in a Jar
This one may already be familiar to you but it didn't take us long to do this. At the grocery store we got a case of Mason jars. We also picked up sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, chopped pecans, flour, and baking powder.

For each jar we started by adding 2-1/4 cups of sugar and pressed it firmly down in the jar. Next, we put in 2/3 cup of the cocoa powder and again pressed it firmly down on top of the sugar. Following the cocoa, add in the chopped pecans and be sure that they are evenly spread on top of the cocoa. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt and mix well. Top off the jar with the flour mixture and seal. You may want to use some Christmas type fabric on top as well and tie with a bow.

You will also need to include cooking directions which can easily done on the computer. Here are the directions to include with the gift.

Empty mix into large bowl. Use your hands to mix thoroughly. Add 3/4 cup of butter or margarine and 4 slightly beaten eggs. Mix until completely blended. Spread batter into a lightly greased or sprayed 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) for 30 minutes or until done. Cool in pan. Cut into 2 inch squares.

While this will take a bit of time, you can avoid the lines at the mall and give something which shows a bit of personality rather than the typical boring gift certificate. Happy Holidays!