So it’s nearing that time again, whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or Winter Solstice or Boxing Day or ALL OF THE ABOVE. Regardless, you’re going to need to give gifts to some family and friends so they don’t disown you and hate you forever. But, as poor college students, gift giving can be hard! For those of you unaware, I am the craftiest human being on the planet, so I’m here to help you make super simple and super awesome gifts.
FOOD.
Everyone loves food. Unless it’s something dumpy like stale fruitcake, just about everyone will eat and enjoy food as a gift. You know those jars of baking ingredients everyone buys/makes and gives out as gifts? I still have one sitting in my house from when I was a baby. When it comes to your gift receivers actually DOING SOMETHING, it’s generally a flop.
 |
| what, I actually have to MAKE these cookies you’re giving me? |
BUT. What about hot chocolate? It’s the easiest thing to make ever, just put hot water in it and bam, instant coziness. You can even get fancy and add MARSHMALLOWS or CHOCOLATE CHIPS or PEPPERMINT. I was inspired by this cute recipe, but if you’re especially lazy, you can forego making your own hot chocolate mix and use Swiss Miss or something. Then you pretty up the jars with ribbons and goodies and fanciness and it looks like you put a ton of effort and thought and love into these gifts.
 |
| note to any of my friends reading this: I put a ton of effort and thought and love into your gifts, I swear. |
Speaking of peppermint, everyone loves PEPPERMINT STICKS and candy canes and whatnot. Instead of getting a cheapo pack of candy canes from WalMart and tossing them out to everyone, you can put a tiny bit more effort into it and make them at least 600%* better.
*not an actual estimate
Inspired by this recipe, you can get whatever stick-like candy you desire (even pretzel sticks!), dip it in any melty sweetness you want (chocolate? caramel? FROSTING?!) and roll it in some sort of small topping, like jimmies or sprinkles or those fancy gold flakes. As far as the gifting process, you can be all fancy and generous and give people batches of them in nice gift boxes with pretty tissue paper and all that; or just get those dumpy cellophane bags, shove a couple in there, and tie it with some ribbon. Boom. Roasted. Candy.
 |
| DELICIOUS |
NOT FOOD.
Just about everything in life can be separated into two categories: edibles, and non edibles. Edibles are the important wonderful things in life, and non edibles are just there so we don’t eat everything in the world.
Anyway! An old time favourite gift from back in the day is mix CDs. They’re so much easier nowadays than in the time of mix tapes where you had to manually and painstakingly record songs onto cassettes; now you just make a playlist in iTunes or Winamp (does anyone use that anymore?) and boom, ten minutes later it’s burned onto a CD. Make a nice personalized mix for your close friends and actually put some thought into it, or maybe just mass produce a sweet party jam and make it rain CDs.
 |
| everyone can jam out on their discmen like the old days |
CHALKBOARD PAINT. It’s the latest craze. Pick some up and go nuts. Found a cheapo dumpy mug for a dollar? PAINT IT. Random tiny picture frame? PAINT IT. Tape dispenser? PAINT IT.
 |
| if you happen to have an old TV laying around, PAINT IT. |
So! I hope I was helpful in giving you some cheap, easy ideas for gifts this holiday season. Pinterest is always a great resource if you’re feeling crafty, or just want to look at a bunch of pretty things you’ll never be able to make/have.
Good luck with finals, and have a great winter break friends!!
Love,
Trudy
