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3 Easy DIY Holiday Gifts: Consumable + Reusable

Easy DIY Holiday Gifts

Try these three easy DIY holiday gift ideas for all the special people in your life.  These gifts are all either consumable or contain reusable elements so that you can feel extra-good about giving.

I think there’s something really satisfying about making holiday gifts for the special people in your life, especially if the gifts you make turn out to be, ahem, pretty awesome.  Because of the build-up of the holidays, though, and the added expectation and pressure we put on ourselves, we tend to overshoot in the homemade gift department.  Which can lead to that much more disappointment if you try to spend the next  month making a pile of Gordon Gartrelle-replicas for your loved ones.

Keep it simple.  Keep it smart.  And keep the gifts usable (and preferably reusable).  Try these three easy DIY holiday gift ideas today!

This post is part of Important Media’s “More About the Love, Less About the Stuff” holiday series. This year, we’re talking all about redefining holiday traditions to focus on compassion over just more stuff.

3 Easy DIY Holiday Gifts

1) Food! And more specifically, food in a jar.  The idea behind recipes in jars is that you layer all non-perishable, dry items in a jar and include a sweet little tag or label which includes the recipe instructions, as well as a run-down of other ingredients needed.  Any dump-and-stir cookie recipe works really well here, as well as fancy pancakes, soup (a vegetable soup with some cute holiday-themed pasta would also be really nice here), or hot cocoa.  And here’s the best part about this easy DIY holiday gift: that jar is reusable for you and for your giftee.  If reusing a jar for a delectable recipe-in-a-jar, remember to wash with hot, soapy water (I like to boil them) and to dry really well.

2) Body products! Body products are one of my absolute favorite easy DIY holiday gifts…and again with that wonderful reusable jar.  Make some lotion.  Make some lipbalm.  Make some body scrub.  Make any lovely, thoughtful body product you’d like and place in a darling, little 8-ounce canning jar for easy gift-giving.

3) Accessories!  Try these on for size.  If you’re upcycling or using “found” or thrifted objects, so much the better.  Jill recently addressed fast fashion overload in secondhand stores and the inability for secondhand retailers to keep up with donations.  With that in mind, perhaps reusing something you have on-hand or purchasing something that can be upcycled from a secondhand store is a more thoughtful option.  I recently purchased a $2.00 silk scarf from a local thrift store to make this adorable little bag, which aside from being a purse, might also serve as a nice gift bag for all that food and those body products.

Image credit: Cookie mix, body scrub, and woman wrapping gift images courtesy of Shutterstock.

Written by Leah Gehlsen Morlan

lives and works in Iowa City, Iowa. She has a film degree from the University of Iowa, and her interests include: watching & writing about film, chasing her kids around, childbirth, healthy cooking & living, and DIY body & baby products. Find me on Google+.

Multitasking Woman via Shutterstock

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