The Best Homemade Food Gifts for Christmas

December 10, 2018

Hot chocolate mix in mason jar and rustic gift boxes on gray table and white brick wall.

Looking for a quick and simple solution for holiday gift-giving? Are you short on time with a long list of presents to buy? Try a few homemade food gifts this holiday season from Stauffers. They’re easy, they’re personal, and they’re perfect for teachers, neighbors, and co-workers. They also make great grab-and-go hostess gifts!

DIY Food Gift Ideas

One of the easiest DIY gift ideas is homemade Christmas food gifts in a jar! With a selection of mason jars, jelly jars, or spice jars and a few pantry staples, you can quickly whip up presents that look as good as they taste!

Hot Cocoa Jars

Mix 1 cup sugar, 1 cup powdered milk, and 1 cup unsweetened cocoa together in a bowl. In a mason jar, add a layer of your hot cocoa mix and a layer of mini marshmallows. To create even more layers you can also add chocolate chips, crushed peppermints, or other hot chocolate toppings.

Baked Goods Jars

Baked good jars can include anything from chocolate chip cookies, brownies, muffins, or cakes. The possibilities are endless. Choose your favorite baked good recipe and assemble the dry ingredients, in layers, in a jar. Be sure you add a tag with instruction on the necessary wet ingredients and how to bake the sweets.

Spice Jars

Choose some of your favorite spices and buy them in large containers. Then, using a funnel, pour them into smaller spice jars. Create a set of three to five jars for an easy homemade food gift. To make this gift more personalized, choose different spices for each recipient. For a baker, use cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. For a BBQ enthusiast, choose paprika, chili powder, and garlic powder.

Granola Jars

You can create a very simple granola by mixing:

3 cups of old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup of honey or maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup almonds

Bake at 300°F on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper for 20 minutes, stirring at the halfway point. Once the baking is done, toss dried cranberries or raisins into your granola and pour into your jar.

No matter what goodies you include in your DIY food gift, finish it off with some holiday spirit. Add a festive ribbon or twine around the lid, or try wrapping burlap or ribbon around your jar.

Gourmet Food Gift Ideas

Don’t really have the time to make homemade food gifts? No problem. Stauffers to the rescue! Visit our Fresh Food Stores and you can pick up a fresh Stauffers Signature fruit basket or create a gift basket of your own.

fruit basket with oranges, apples, grapes, and pears

Fresh Fruit Baskets

Fruit baskets are a classic holiday tradition. Each Stauffers fruit basket is packed by hand and contains premium-quality produce, including extra fancy Royal Gala apples, seedless navels and oranges, pink grapefruits, and D’Anjou pears. Larger baskets also include fresh pineapple, candies, and jellies.

display of organic and natural snacks on wooden background

Build Your Own Basket

Whether you’re buying for a coffee enthusiast, a chocolate lover, or a baked goods sweet tooth, you’ll find so many options in our aisles to build a gourmet holiday basket of your own.

Let us recommend building an organic snack foods basket with snacks from popular natural food brands we love:

Que Pasa
Newman’s Own
Late July Organic
Blue Diamond
Green Mountain
Green & Black
Justin’s
Tate’s Bake Shop

To purchase a holiday fruit basket from Stauffers, stop in and pick one up from our wide selection on display or call one of our Fresh Food stores to pre-order a basket.