Homemade Gift Jar Ideas

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The older you get, the more you appreciate homemade gifts – it’s what they say. My experience is, however, that many people, regardless of age enjoy homemade gifts. It’s not just about receiving lovingly made arts and crafts. (Which is also very nice, though) but people tend to appreciate the natural ingredients and the lack of artificial stuff, when it comes to home made gifts. Earlier this Christmas season I shared ideas for home made skin care gifts – and they definitely fall into this category. This blog post will go down the homemade gift jar ideas route: DIY things you can fill pretty little Mason jars and they look presentable. Don’t think about very complicated ideas, on the contrary! These homemade gift jar ideas are simple and easy to execute, look beautiful and make perfect little gifts.  

But let’s have a little ponder around homemade gifts first…

Do People Actually Like Homemade Gifts?

Handmade presents can be a mixed bag. But I would only gift safe things that I can’t go wrong with (like foodie treats) and not to people I don’t know enough. Meaning, I’d only give homemade presents to people I know well. 

But, I asked my family and friends to answer honestly and many people seem to respond to this question the same way:

• I love them even more!
• It shows you put a lot of thought and hard work into the gift.
• Anyone can just buy something off the store shelf, but it takes a lot of heart and effort to make gifts by hand.
• Love the thought, even when don’t particularly love the gift, it fill you with love.
• And a lot of people echo the same: I wish there wasn’t so much pressure on gifting, it makes Christmas too stressful.

Even if it’s not perfect, it takes not only effort and skills to make something but getting over mixed feeling like self-consciousness or anxiety over how it’s going to be received – I think home made gifts bring out the best parts of human relationships.

What Are the Best Homemade Gifts?

Most people tend to appreciate home baked goods because 1) everyone loves a yummy treat. 2) It’s probably the easiest thing to make. One thing though, you need to take note when gifting consumables is dietary restrictions and allergies.

• bakes, sweets and treats
• homemade pickles/chutney, sauces and jams
• homegrown herbs and flowers

Apart from edibles other popular gifts can be:

• soaps and skincare 
• candles
• crocheted and knitted items
• arts and crafts

Homemade Gift Jar Ideas

Gift Jar ideas have been popular for a while for a reason: they look impressive, easy to make and fill with homemade goodies.

Whether you’re gifting for birthdays, or Christmas, or just because – you’ll find some great gift jar ideas here. 

Nuts and Dried Fruit Gift Jar Ideas

1 BBQ Chickpeas

Roast the chickpeas with homemade BBQ spice mix and fill the gift jar with them. You can find the recipe for the best BBQ chickpeas, just click on the link.

2. Maple roast nuts

Simply make a mixture of maple syrup, some butter, margarine or coconut oil, ground cinnamon and mixed raw nuts you need for this.

3. Dried fruit and nuts mix

Mix any of the recipient’s favourite dried fruit and nuts and add to the gift jar.

4 Flavoured popcorn

Buy popcorn kernels in a bag and pop them in a pan, the old way of making popcorn. When they are popped add drizzle of salted caramel or chocolate syrup, natural food colouring, seasonal sprinkles or anything else you like. You’ll need a large jar for this.

Cookie and Cake Mix Gift Jar Ideas

Decorate with a simple festive ribbon and a cookie cutter hanging on it! Really pretty.

5 Gingerbread mix

Layer the dry ingredients for a gingerbread recipe and print or write out the whole recipe as well as highlighting the wet ingredients that the recipient need to buy to make the gingerbread.

6 Choc chip cookies mix

Similarly to the gingerbread mix – layer the ingredients neatly and supply the recipe and list of wet ingredients.

7 Oat cookies mix

Same as above: another great idea for layering cookie jars.

8 Brownie mix 

Very easy to make: just sugar, all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder. Plus the recipe and list of wet ingredients.

Bakes and Treats Gift Jar Ideas

Small, bite-size treats are ideal to fill gift jars:

9 Rocky Road Bites

12 Hot Chocolate Mix

You can make it dairy-free/vegan by swapping milk powder for a vegan alternative. Working in cups is easier than measuring these in weight.

• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 1.5 cups muscovado or dark brown sugar
• 2 cups powdered milk 
• 1/2 tsp salt
• mini chocolate chips, grated chocolate, marshmallows, crushed peppermint or cinnamon

13 Salted Caramel Sauce

17 Soup Mix

Simply put a mixture of dried rice, pasta, barley, split peas, and lentils and print the recipe.

18 Homemade Granola

With the total freedom of what you want to put into the granola mix – here’s a granola gift jar idea and you can swap things out as you fancy:

• 125ml maple syrup (or honey or golden syrup)
• 25g caster sugar
• 25ml sunflower oil
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 500g 2oz jumbo rolled oats

Add as much or as little of seeds, nuts, dried fruits, cinnamon etc.

19 Sourdough Starter

If you are lucky enough to have a good recipe for a sourdough starter – help your friends and family start making their own, homemade, delicious sourdough bread.

20 Homemade Pesto

Here’s my vegan pesto recipe but I also have other pesto recipes on the blog to choose from. Perfect as a gift jar idea.

• 50g fresh basil, packed
• 3 tbsp pine nuts
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 3-4 tbsp water
• salt and pepper to taste

21 Homemade Pasta Sauce

Here’s my homemade veggie pasta sauce recipe: https://captainbobcat.com/6-vegetable-healthy-pasta-sauce-recipe-vegan/ 

22 Tea Mix

Bulk buying tea leaves or getting them from your zero waste shop is always a good idea and you can make tea mix gift jars.

Skincare Gift Jar Ideas

These skincare gift jar ideas really are for everyone. 

23 Rose or Lavender Sugar Scrub jar

• 2 cups of sugar
• ¼ to 1 cup coconut oil
• 10 drops of rose or lavender
•  Vitamin E oil
• Dried rose petals or dried lavender added into the mixture will make it look and smell even more amazing

24 Relaxing Bath Salt

• 3 cups of Epsom salt
• 1.5 cups of coarse sea salt
• 1/2 cup of bicarbonate of soda (or baking soda for my American friends)
• 25 drops of essential oil of your choice (this site has a lot of options for that)

29 Homemade Playdough Jar

Homemade playdough is fantastic because it’s simple to make (here’s my homemade playdough recipe) and non-toxic, so it’s great for small kids! You can layer the colours, make a single colour per jar etc.

30 Homemade Slime Jar

Another fun gift jar idea for kids. Here’s a basic slime recipe:

• 100ml PVA white craft glue
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• food colouring
• 1-3 tsps contact lens cleaning solution (must contain boric acid)

31 Terrarium Jar

You just need a glass jar, a few layers of basic materials, and some carefully chosen plants, you can create a miniature ecosystem that thrives with very little maintenance.

I hope you enjoyed these gift jar ideas and found some inspiration to make some.