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Health & Fitness

Gift Ideas for a Merry Crafty Christmas

Not all gifts have to be upscale! Learn how to make money-saving, crafty gifts for everyone this holiday season.

Christmas gifts don’t always have to be store-bought. To save money and time, try making your own gifts to give to people for the holidays.

Making gifts on your own gives you the chance to personalize them to people’s likes and interests. If you are gifting a family, instead of giving them all a separate present, you can give them a gift basket filled with things they enjoy. In the basket, you can fill it with “Cookie in a Jar.”

“Cookie in a Jar” is when you take a cookie recipe of any kind and instead of just giving them all of the ingredients, you measure out all of ingredients and put them all in a jar. You type the directions on how to bake and prepare them on a piece of paper and attach it to the top of the lid. The picture with this article has a recipe from allrecipes.com to assist you in making your own. You can also do this with a hot cocoa recipe. To add to the basket, you can purchase their favorite Christmas CDs and movies. You can add some packages of popcorn and seasoning as well.

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Making your own Christmas ornament can be memorable gift that gives again and again every year. To construct this gift, you can take a light bulb or a clear glass ornament and fill it with regular or colored sand. On the outside of the ornament, you can write on it in Sharpie, or attach little trinkets to it.

Since kids like to help out with everything, why not give them a chance to make a picture frame to give to grandma, grandpa, mom, or dad? Start off with a trip to the craft store and let them choose a few stickers and some paint. You can purchase a pre-made picture frame, or you can make one out of popsicle sticks. You can do this by gluing three sticks together on the 4 sides of the picture. Then, add on the decorations. Another idea is to take scrabble letters and spell out short words around the frame, such as “My Hero” or “Best Dad."

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Editor's Note: Jenna Taimuty is a journalism student at .

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