If you haven’t guessed by now, I have a lot of favorite Christmas traditions – watching movies, baking, decorating my place with lights, listening to festive music, and of course, Christmas shopping. Although most of my shopping is done online now, I still enjoy going to the stores to get some gifts.
Every year growing up, my sister and I would venture out to the mall with my dad to shop for my mom. After checking off the items on our list, we’d go to this little coffee shop in the mall and order hot chocolates. We’d sit by the window in the corner, talk about our purchases, and do some people watching. Something so simple turned into an event I looked forward to on our annual outing.
This year, I was set on buying my husband a certain gift – I have to be careful not to spill the beans! Of course this idea popped into my head last week and when I went online to order it, I found out it was on back order. After some frantic Googling, I discovered there were a few stores in the metro area that carried it. I called around to about 10 different locations before finding one, so I ventured about 20 miles out-of-town to buy it. Maybe I’m crazy, but I actually had a lot of fun on my mini shopping adventure.
Despite my love of shopping for gifts, I’ve gotten into making gifts as well. My niece Eva was born last February, so I taught myself how to crochet and I made her a hat, headband and booties for Christmas. It was so exciting to see my sister open them, especially after I told her I made them myself.
In addition to crocheted gifts, I like to make mason jar gifts, usually mixes for pancakes, muffins, cookies, or hot chocolate, and hand them out to our friends. It’s fun to decorate the jars and add cute labels and tags with preparation instructions. I know it’s not much, but it’s something practical to give someone to let them know you’re thinking about them during the Holidays.
This year I decided to assemble brownie mix, s’mores in a jar, and hot chocolate mix (with mini marshmallows) in mason jars. I found recipes online to use for the mixes, but you could make up mix for any of your favorite baked goods. Just make sure to include a quick guide on what else to add and how long to bake for if needed.
I included some pictures to show what my finished products look like.
