As the winter days get shorter, it’s inevitable that your family spends more time indoors. Take the opportunity to work on some homemade gifts together—not only are these kitchen-based projects super easy to put together, they’re a great way to spend time together as a family, and they’re presents that friends and family will truly appreciate.

Beeswax food wraps:
Beeswax wraps are gaining popularity as an alternative to plastic wrap - made of cotton cloth that’s been infused with beeswax, these cloths can be used to cover bowls of rising bread, store herbs and keep sliced fruits and veggies fresh in your fridge. You can use and reuse them by simply hand-washing them in cold water and hanging them up to dry. When they wear out after a year or so, they can be snipped up and disposed of in your green bin.  The store-bought versions get spendy fast, but a homemade version is surprisingly easy to make! While there are lots of recipes and methods for making your own, we like this one a lot—you’ll just need beeswax, cloth and perhaps a pair of pinking shears to get started on these gifts. Here’s a second easy method that shows how kids can get involved in making these. 

Lotion bars:
Although they’re strictly for your outsides and not your insides, beeswax lotion bars smell good enough to eat and are simple to prepare in your kitchen. These bars make a lovely present for both kids and adults: they’re very gentle on skin, and smell nice even without any added scent, thanks to their base of beeswax and coconut oil. To add a mild scent, try grated lemon peel, lavender flowers, or a few drops of vanilla.

Gifts you can eat:
For edible holiday gifts, you can never, ever go wrong with tins of cookies! As always, it’s important to attach a card letting your giftee know the ingredients, just in case they have any allergies or food restrictions. To fill a tin with ease, try Canadian blogger Simple Bites’ genius idea for shortbread cookies: one batch of dough yields 4 different kinds of cookies. And for a really beautiful gift, fill a glass Mason jar with a batch of cookies rolled in powdered sugar to look like snowballs. Help your snowy cookies form the base of a lovely winter scene by adding an origami animal (try a brightly coloured fox!) or paper snowman sitting lightly atop the cookies in the jar. For more ideas, scroll through our impressive recipe archive of cookies that are easy to make with kids—the hardest part will be choosing which recipe to get started on first! If you’re looking for ideas that are, ahem, outside the cookie box, we’ve got more easy food gifts to make with kids here, along with DIY gift suggestions sorted by family member.  And we have community-sourced DIY gift ideas here!

What’s your favourite gift to make and give? We’d love to hear about it - let us know on our Facebook or Instagram feeds!