It’s December! I hung up the Christmas lights in my classroom last Tuesday, but I made my class wait until today to turn them on! Since I love Christmas lights, I think it actually may have been more difficult for me to wait than for my students!
I am excited to start thinking about Christmas. I love picking out our Christmas tree (I always pick one that is too big), I love hanging Christmas lights and driving around to look at everyone else’s Christmas lights, and I love trying to find just the right gift for everyone!
Sometimes picking gifts is tricky. It can be difficult to know what to get someone. I always want to get something meaningful, and something I know they will like and use.
Up until last year, all of the teachers and staff I work with gave small gifts to each other. For the past couple of years, we began doing a gift exchange, where we only have one person to purchase gifts for.
Since our school is small, there are only about 15 employees or so. But still and all, finding something to purchase for 15 people can be tricky and quickly become costly.
So I started brainstorming a list of gift ideas for coworkers that are useful, heartfelt, and everyone will enjoy, but won’t break the bank!
Personalized Christmas Ornaments
Every year, my mom and I go to a craft fair in the fall and there is one stand there with wooden, hand-painted ornaments that can be personalized as you wait. The majority of the ornaments are under $3, and they are cute! Snowmen, penguins, stockings…there is quite the selection! You could get your coworker’s name written on the ornament, or maybe their family name.
If you are looking for a place to begin, check out Oasis Adornments! The owner hand paints and customizes glass ornaments!
Handmade Ornaments
Sticking to the ornament theme, hand-crafted ornaments make nice gifts as well! In past years, we have made snowflakes from dismantled clothespins, a manger scene from old style clothespins, and folded ribbon angels, along with others that I cannot recall at the moment!
Every year in my class I make cinnamon applesauce ornaments with my first graders. It is a great project for kids, but they would also make good gifts for those around you! (The recipe and directions will be coming soon!)
Filled Christmas Balls
Many stores carry clear Christmas balls. When it gets closer to Christmas, they get more difficult to find. I prefer to use actual glass balls, but plastic may work if that is all that is available at the time. Of course, Amazon almost always has nearly everything available, so if you can’t find any clear glass ornaments at your local craft store, you can find them here.
You can fill these with anything! Coffee beans, dip mix, seasonings, candies, hot cocoa mix, popcorn kernels…basically anything small, cute and useful make great additions!
Canned Goods
Jelly jars of canned goods make lovely gifts! Whether they be filled with jellies, jams, salsa, or this delicious hot mustard from PA Country Crafts, (trust me, you’ll want to give this mustard a try!) tie a festive ribbon around the rim and put a nice round tag on the top and you’ve got a great Christmas gift!
Christmas Mug and K-cups
At school, we have a Keurig machine, and many teachers have them at home as well. If you find out what your co-workers like to drink, (tea, coffee, cocoa, etc.) you could purchase a few boxes of K-cups and split the pods up between festive coffee mugs.
The Dollar Tree (everything costs $1!) has a variety of Christmas mugs available. Fill a mug with a few different K-cups for some happy coworkers!
Seasonings and Herbs
Homemade seasonings are great to give to anyone! There are so many recipes for seasoning mixtures available on Pinterest! I have not tried any personally that I can recommend, so this may be a trial and error process for you! My brother’s girlfriend made a few different seasonings, like a BBQ rub and Montreal seasoning, put them in small jelly mason jars and gave them as gifts a few years back.
There are also these adorable mason jar salt and pepper shakers available that would be cute to use to hold gift seasonings!
If you grow fresh herbs at your home, you could dry some, such as oregano or parsley, and put them in glass containers to give as gifts as well.
Herbal Foot Soak
I thoroughly enjoy soaking my feet in warm water with some aromatics and Epsom salts! I do not do it nearly enough, but I guess that makes it more of a treat!
Foot soaks are fairly simple to mix up. Most contain Epsom salts, essential oils, and possibly some dried herbs, like lavender or peppermint. Here are a few recipes for foot soaks on Pinterest: lavender lemon and peppermint.
Half pint mason jars make great vessels to put these salts in! Sometimes stores like Walmart have some differently shaped jars, which are great to fill with these foot soaks!
I would be happy giving (or receiving) any of these gifts! I hope this post gives you a bit of a jump start on ideas about what to give your coworkers this Christmas season! Each of these gifts are useful, cute, and won’t cost a fortune!
These gifts don’t necessarily need to be for coworkers either! If you like to give a little something to your mailman, garbage man, your child’s bus driver, or anyone else, these would be good gift ideas for them too!
What Christmas gifts do you like to give your coworkers? What are some gifts you have been given by your coworkers? Please feel free to share your ideas!
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I have in the past bought mini Christmas loaf pans($1.00) at Michaels. They are ceramic and reusable, and I have this great pumpkin bread recipe that makes 7 loaves at a time and I would wrap them in cellophane and give them to my co-workers and family Christmas parties!
I love that idea! Delicious and adorable!