I've been something like a mad scientist this year, creating all kinds of concoctions as Christmas gifts!  Essential oils have played a big part in this endeavor and I have enjoyed every minute of it.  

     The great thing about using essential oils to make these gifts is that you get a beautiful result from very little effort and very few ingredients.  The products come together fairly quickly and packaging them up is a lot of fun because they can go into all kinds of little bottles or pretty wrappings.  All of these ideas make lovely and well appreciated gifts.  

     My good friend Jaci, who is my go-to for all things essential oil posted some really fun ideas this year for a 25 days of Christmas using Doterra Essential Oils.  If you want to shop Doterra, click the link.)  I'm borrowing some of her ideas for this list! (She had so many good ones!)

      If you've read this blog for very long, you will know that I am the music leader for the primary kids at my church.  I love that job and have been doing it for a long time now.  I adore the children and love making singing fun for them, plus helping them to feel the Spirit while they learn and sing the messages of the songs.  So, at Christmas time, I love to give them a little gift as a way to express my love for them.  Of course, the problem is that there are a lot of them and I don't have a lot of money to spend.  So my gifts are usually handmade and from the heart.  
       You may have had similar experiences trying to come up with a group gift idea for a classroom of kids at school or church or a team or club.  Of course, you can always give candy or food of some kind, but I always like to make it a little more special and enjoy adding a special twist to really give that holiday vibe!   
      Today I'm sharing 5  cute ideas that are budget friendly, yet awesome gifts that I think any group of kids will love! 

1- We'll start with what I gave this year:  Dipped Oreos and Christmas Pencils.  I have a few kids in my group who have special dietary needs.  Some are gluten free and some are dairy free.  When it comes to food, I am very careful.  I check with their parents before I include any ingredients or purchase any food items for them.  Oreo Cookies, the gluten free version are vegan and dairy free as well!  They work great for my Primary kids, they taste great whether the kids have allergies or not and I use them a lot.  You can also find a version like Oreos at Sprouts that is very allergy friendly, but the Oreos are less expensive.  I decided to dip them in white chocolate, but I had to find a allergy free version.  Enjoy Life has a white chocolate chip that is free of 14 different allergies, including gluten and dairy, and it tastes great! They also have semi-sweet chocolate.  The link is for Amazon, but I found them cheaper at Sprouts. 
      After I purchased the cookies, chocolate and I already had sanding sugar, I melted the chocolate, dipped the cookies and sprinkled on the sugar.  After they were dry, I slipped them into these little bags.  I already had the bags, but you can find them here.  Putting cookies in a bag elevates them from ordinary to special!  Then, I taped on some Christmas Pencils that I found at DollarTree and also tied them with some red ribbon!  Simply a cookie and a pencil, but the kids were so happy to get them! 

2.  Freeze Dried Candy:  The Primary Presidency also gave our children a gift.  One of them has a freeze dryer and she freeze dried Nerd Gummies and they bagged them up into special bags with a sweet message on them.  If you have access to a freeze dryer, this gift of freeze dried candies is a big hit!  If you don't, you can find freeze dried candy on Amazon! They look so festive and taste fabulous!
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3.  Play Doh Minis:  That set of Play-Doh, pictured above also comes with those cute cookie cutters!  There are 24 in a pack for $25 dollars.  If you get them without the cutters, you can get a bulk pack or 42 for $17!  That is a great deal!   I've seen these elevated as gifts with little tags that say "Wishing you a Doh-lightful Christmas!"  You could easily design that on Canva and print them off on cardstock.  What a terrific non-food gift! 

4.  Candy Cane Chocolate Hearts:  On the blog Playdates to Parties, She tells how to make these adorable heats with candy canes and chocolate.  She also includes a printable to go with them.  I fell in love with these as soon as I saw them!  I wish I had seen them before I did the other gift that I gave this year, but I'm tucking this idea away for next year! I'm glad I found the Enjoy Life Chocolate that I will be able to use in the middle of the hearts! 
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5.  Cinnamon Bear Popcorn Balls:  Back in 2020, Lindsey posted this recipe for Cinnamon Bear Popcorn Balls that I think kids will love! They would be an inexpensive and delicious gift wrapped in cellophane and tied with a pretty bow.  Once again, the Enjoy Life Chocolate could take the place of the Funfetti Chocolate Chips.  Also, be sure that popcorn is not an issue with any of the children.  
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     Maddy reminded me that checking party aisles at stores for party favors like fidget toys, tiny puzzle games and so forth is always a great option and then all you have to do is amp up your presentation to make the gift a little extra. 
     If you give a fidget toy, you might want to combine it with the fidget chocolate treats that we blogged about here!  (Bonus Idea Here!)
 No matter what, the kids will love your gift!  If you do come up with any awesome ideas that you would like to share, we would love to hear them.  Please drop us a comment! 
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Around our house during the holidays, playing games is big! Since we have such a big family, it is a lot of fun to have games that can include everyone who wants to play. I've written a couple of other posts suggesting party games and board games that include a lot of players.
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Well, I got to thinking that one classic game that can include everyone is Charades. If your young ones enjoy watching Frozen II, they will recognize Charades from the beginning of that movie. I thought wouldn't it be great to have a Christmas version of Charades all ready to go? So, I sat down with Lindsey and a few of my grandkids and we brain stormed ideas that would be great to include in a game of Christmas Charades. Let me tell you, we did pretty good! This game includes 83 items to act out in 6 different categories!

I sent the list to Alicia, and she designed the rules and tips sheets and the cards. Then, I printed them all off on some cute coordinating Christmas card stock.  (You can also pick up a pad of Christmas card stock at Hobby Lobby for a good price.)
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   All you have to do is click the button to get the PDF file, print them off and cut them apart with a paper cutter.  Now, you are ready to play!  You're welcome!  Merry Christmas! 
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    So, go ahead, click the button! (Be sure you have plenty of red ink.  Mine came out a little orange.) You could also send them to Staples or Office Max to get them printed if you want.  You can  always use white card stock instead of the Christmas print, but I love the Christmas print. 
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I have to confess that I accidentally printed the rules in landscape at first. I had to reprint that part. But, it turned out to be a lucky thing because I cut out the title of the game and taped it with wide clear tape onto a manila envelope to label the game and store it to use again and again. You could always just print the first page twice, or you could laminate the rules onto the front and back of the envelope. If you make it look fancy enough, this could even be an inexpensive gift to a friend or neighbor with a large family. (By inexpensive, I mean practically free, except for the paper and ink!)
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We even included some blank cards so that you can add some of your own ideas to act out! I already thought of one we forgot, "Deck the Halls." Hmm, how would you act out "Deck" or "Halls" in charades? Could be a tricky one!

I can hardly wait to have a family get together and play this version of Charades! I think it will be a ton of fun! I hope that you will enjoy playing Christmas Charades with your family as well. Let me know if you think of good things to add that we left out!
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     Making your own extracts is an easy process.  Maddy and I got together and made some back in September so that we could give it away this year for Christmas.  Unfortunately, that is the one problem with this project, the extracts need to steep for awhile before using them.  The other option is to make them and add the vanilla beans or almonds to the jars and on the tag, let the receiver know that they need to wait a few months to use them.  

     Whatever you decide to do, let me show you a few things that we found out as we prepared to make these extracts.  If you don't want to make it this year, you can file this post away until next year to make as gifts, or just make it now for yourself! 
       Most people have heard of making your own Vanilla Extract in Vodka, but have you heard of using glycerin?  There are pros and cons to using both.  Have you heard of how to make Almond Extract?  You may be surprised at that process!  Keep reading and I will tell you all about our process and experience making our own extracts!