Top Ten Homemade Christmas Gifts for the Family

Homemade Christmas gifts for your family will have more meaning and lasting memories than anything you could purchase from a store. With a little creativity and insight to what your family holds close to their hearts, you can come up with the best gift they will have ever received. Below are the top 10 homemade Christmas gifts for your family this holiday season.

1. Your children are getting older and ready to move out on their own if they haven't already. In every household, Mom and Dad have memorable photos land-marking important events and childhood milestones up to the most current point in their lives. Put those pictures to use instead of letting them collect dust in a shoebox. Pull them out of the bedroom closet and put them to good use. Go through and pick out your favorites to make individualized photo albums for each child. Start with the earliest picture memories and finish with the most current. You can add notes hand written or printed from the computer with descriptions of your precious memories. This is also a great gift to put together for Mom and Dad. The only thing that you will need to purchase for this gift is a photo album which can be found in almost any store. WalMart, Target and Kmart are all places that you can find a variety of quality albums at very low cost.

2. Another gift made at home involving your pictures is a family alphabet book. This idea is great for those with large or extended families. Again, you will need photo albums; preferably ones that already have card stock in them. Select a picture that will correspond with each letter of the alphabet and for each page paste the letter with the picture. Your photos can have pictures of Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents and Cousins to get the whole family in on it. Copies can be given for each family unit in your family tree instead of having to get individual gifts.

3. Got some great cookie or brownie recipes? Share your recipes in a more creative way than just handing over a copy or sending an email. This Christmas give it as a gift in a jar. Brownie and Cookie recipes are all made with dry ingredients. Get your famous holiday sweets recipe and get out your mason jars. Gather all the dry ingredients needed and layer them in the jar in fun patterns. When all ingredients are added, seal the lid, add some ribbon and attach a card with the full recipe to complete the tasty treats. This will save you on baking with those that just can't resist your cookies. If you don't have a special recipe high in demand you can find some that work very well with the jar gift at the kitchenlink.com. On their site you will also see more recipes for things like hot cocoa mixes and coffee drinks.

4. Found online at mormonchic.com are the easy steps to make a Potpourri Candle. The candle is made all from basic materials (with the exception of canning wax) found around the house. That is assuming you have extra candles and potpourri. If not, you can pick them and your canning wax up for very cheap at any arts and crafts store. The preparation time for this project is about an hour and the candle making process could easily end up being an all day process once you see how beautiful these simple candles come out. All the beginning steps for the candle making like crushing the potpourri with a hammer and sprinkling the candle when done are fun for the younger ones to join in and help. The last steps that involve the the canning wax and stove are better left to the grown ups.

5. Snow globes look great in a collection and are fun to make. This project is another one using jars. You can also use old peanut butter containers or baby food jars; anything that is clear and has a lid. Gather things around the house that would look good in your snow globe. You could use old plastic figurines that you don't use any more. Get some glitter to act as your snow and add them all together in your jar with water and some food coloring, twist the lid and seal it with hot glue and you've got yourself a snow globe. Hint: If you don't want your figurines to float freely in your globe, use the hot glue to secure them to the inside of the lid and let it dry before you twist it shut. The lid will be the figurine's platform. To take that a step further, you could also decorate the platform to have a whole scenery to go with your character.

6. This gift the younger kids can get in on to help. This project was found online at FamilyCrafts.About.com. For family members that love sweets for the holidays, this is the perfect homemade Christmas gift to make. The Candy Plant Craft is easy to do. The only time consuming part is waiting for everything to dry which is no big deal. Before you have to do the grown up part of the project, get out some brushes and paint for the kids and let them paint their favorite creations on the pots. If you insist you can draw outlines of Christmas pictures and have the kids fill them in. When dry, you are going to place some floral foam into the pot for your candy flowers to grow out of. Then take some Popsicle sticks and glue your wrapped candy to them and "plant" them. This is a great homemade Christmas gift for the family that younger kids can be a huge part of.

7. A homemade gift idea for women in the family that enjoy taking relaxing baths, there is a gift project for them too. Honey bath oil is easy to make and all you have to buy is the bottle to deliver it in. This project is quick an easy and you can make several gifts in one sitting. How creative you get with the decoration of the bottle is up to you. Combine 1/2 cup of liquid soap, 1/2 cup of honey, a full cup of either baby or light olive oil and a few drops of your favorite essential oil. When done, simply pour into your containers and you have bath oils that are irreplaceable.

8. Give a gift to frame this seasons memories. Homemade picture frames are simple to make and they are easy to individualize. This is also another fun homemade Christmas gift the kids can help out on. Frames and even supplies like trinkets and such can be found at your local dollar store. With frames and supplies in hand, grab your glue gun and start working on your priceless homemade Christmas gift.

9. Those of you out there that want a homemade Christmas gift that you can put more dedication into, you can easily learn to knit winter hats for your whole family. Stores like WalMart that have a craft section have kits that come with simple to read instructions and several looms to create hats for heads of all sizes including infants. Pick out some stylish yarn to go with your looms. 1 skein of yarn will make 2 medium sized hats so be sure to buy enough.

10. To seal the deal on your homemade Christmas gifts, add a homemade chocolate covered spoon to the gift tag. All you need is some cheap plastic spoons, plastic wrap, chocolate and ribbon. Melt your favorite chocolate and dip the spoons in up to the handle. Do as many coats as you want. Leave them to cool then wrap in plastic wrap and seal them with your holiday ribbon. Attach them with your gift tags on all your presents for an extra treat.

These top 10 homemade Christmas gifts for your family will be fun to make and enjoyed by everyone.