The Christmas catalogs are coming in the mail and there are a few gift ideas that caught my imagination, as great ideas of things that you could also make yourself:

Breakfast in a Bag… or Basket or Box
Buttermilk pancake mix with maple syrup, fruit syrup or preserves (eg. blueberry, raspberry…) packed in a tote, basket or decorated box. Coffee, tea, hot chocolate or honey would go nicely, too.

Tin of Cookies…or caramel corn, nuts, dried fruit or candy
Gingerbread men or other shaped cookies decorated in icing or covered in chocolate and tucked in a decorative tin. Or another favorite homemade cookie, candy or snack.

Mix in a Jar
Cookie, brownie, muffin, cake or pancake mix in a quart jar, trimmed with pretty fabric or paper, ribbon, and label (with instructions). Or package in a sealed bag and tuck in a handmade decorative bag or box.

Buckets of Candy
Label and decorate (paint, ribbon…) pails (or buckets, or jars) filled with candy along a theme. eg. “Bait Pails” filled with gummy worms, gummy frogs, swedish fish, or whatever else you can think of for bait. Or pails of candy canes in assorted flavors, or chocolate covered pretzel sticks.

Evergreen Wreaths and Centerpieces – balsam, juniper, fir or other evergreen arrangement, with Christmas-y trimmings.

Candle Centerpieces: Place a block of wet oasis on a dish or shallow container, insert evergreen twigs and small boughs all around, covering the block. Trim with ribbon bows in seasonal colors, pinecones, red berries, silver moss, etc. Insert tapered candles into the center of the arrangement.

Wreaths: bind bundles of evergreen trimmings and twigs with floral wire and onto a wire wreath frame. Trim with Christmas ornaments, or pinecones, berries, or moss, and ribbon – perhaps velvet or tartan.