Try these easy DIY gift ideas you can finish in under an hour.
December 25th: I struggled to push the needle through the thick layers of flannel, pulling the rows of shiny pink embroidery floss through behind it.
I was trying to complete a special gift for my then 1-year old niece. The face of the stuffed bunny was slowly revealing itself, but I only had minutes left before it was time to leave for our family gathering.
I love doing DIY Christmas gifts so much. They’re a great way to give something thoughtful and unique, full of meaning, yet still within my small Christmas gift-giving budget.
Still, they do have a way of adding stress to the holidays, don’t they?
Well, since then I’ve found a couple of ways to help ease the flurry of Christmas morning sewing. One of those is by finding simple projects I can do in under an hour.
I’ll get to the other one in a second, but first, I wanted to share some of my favorite DIY Gift Ideas you can make in under an hour.
Make this the year that you stay on budget and out of debt! Check out the whole budget Christmas series.
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Homemade Vanilla Extract picture used with permission from Pistachio Project.
140 Easy DIY Gift Ideas You Can Finish in Under One Hour
Easy DIY Gifts for the Kitchen
- Homemade Spice Blends – There are many ideas and recipes for making your own spice mixes to give as gifts. If you have a special secret ingredient or flavor you love to use in your cooking, this gift would be especially personal and fun.
- 10 Easy Ways to Turn a Canning Jar into a Christmas Present – I especially adore the first idea on the list. I might have to make some for myself! All of these would be really cheap and easy to make. (Not all of these are for the kitchen.)
- Edible Gift Ideas – Continuing with the jar theme, there are lots of ideas for edible Christmas gifts, which are not only yummy but also tend to disappear quickly. Love the layered cookie mix! So cute!
- Homemade Infused Cooking Oils and Vinegar – Add yummy flavors to oils and vinegar. Anyone who loves to cook will enjoy this one!
- Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix – I love these ideas for spicing up cocoa mix. It’d be fun to give a couple of different varieties as a gift. Yum!
- Homemade Vanilla Extract – I actually received this as a gift last year, and I loved it! It’s really great because it’s consumable, so it doesn’t add any clutter to your home.
- 15 Homemade Food Gift Ideas – There are even more cute DIY food gifts here. I want to try the no-knead bread mix in a jar. So impressive!
- Maple Candied Walnuts – These look sooo yummy!
Easy DIY Gift Ideas for Kids
- Soft Woolen Bunny Sewing Pattern – This was the free sewing pattern I was making for my niece on that Christmas morning. The original pattern was for a wool bunny, but instead of wool I used one of her flannel receiving blankets from when she was tiny. It took me more than an hour with all the re-cutting pieces, seam ripping, and resewing thanks to working with my own toddler on my lap. However, if you have more quiet in your life right now, it’d be a simple and sweet gift for any little one.
- Natural Christmas Playdough – This post includes instructions for making Christmas colored and scented play dough for kids. I am so delighted by the idea of adding yummy smells to play dough for a more sensory experience. This would be extremely cheap and easy to make, and any kid will love it!
Image used with permission from Pistachio Project.
- 21 easy gifts you can make for kids – These are all really cute ideas that are easy to make, and many have links to tutorials for exactly how to make them. I especially love the idea of making a hand puppet for my kids. I have always wanted to do that!
- DIY Lip Balm Kit – Little girls will love making their own natural lip gloss with this gift. They’ll also love spending time with you as you help them use it. What a great excuse to spend time with your favorite little ones.
Image used with permission from Learning & Yearning.
Easy DIY Gift Ideas for Babies
- Baby’s First Ornament – This is so precious. Mom and baby will love putting this ornament up each year.
- 18 gifts to make for babies – Most of these could be made in an hour and include links to turtorials to show you how.
Easy DIY Gift Ideas for Families Friends, or Neighbors
- Gigantic List of Christmas Gifts Kids Can Make – This list has gifts for absolutely everyone on your list, but of course the grandparents will be most appreciative of these cute designs by your little ones.
- DIY Photo Coasters Tutorial – These are one of those DIY gifts that are actually cute and useful, and hard to mess up. Definitely a must do!
- 8 Gift Ideas for Families – It can really save money and time to give one family gift instead of a separate present for each person. For anyone that you give one family gift, especially neighbors, check out these ideas. The fifth one would be really really cute, and incredibly simple!
- 7 Gift Ideas for Book Lovers – This one includes links to lots of tutorials. I love the idea of the ring-bound journal. It would be so easy to make, and so cute!
Easy DIY Gift Ideas for Women
- Moisturizing Honey Vanilla Body Polish – Pamper your loved ones with this lovely body scrub recipe. It only has four ingredients, and would be extremely affordable and quick to make. Put it in a lovely jar and it will be a great gift.
- Soothing Lavender Hard Lotion Bars – With the dry air of winter coming on, this is one gift I’d love to receive. You have to check out how beautiful these are!
- Moisturizing Hand and Foot Scrub – This is what every woman needs for Christmas, a little pampering. I can just imagine how good this would smell!
- Nourishing Sugar Scrub – I love this particular scrub recipe because it only has 3 ingredients, all of which I have at home right now, and it’s very healthy and natural.
- 100+ DIY Beauty Products – If you love the idea of giving a little TLC to the other ladies in your life, this is a great resource. My favorites? The bath bombs and bath teas. How luxurious!
- 14 DIY Gift Ideas for Women – Check this out for all things girly from chocolate to fancy bath products, including tutorials for each one.
- Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh DIY Christmas Gift – This is a cute twist on the very first Christmas gift.
- 15 DIY Gift Ideas for Crafters – As a knitter, I would love to get the handmade stitch markers in this post. I have always admired these on Etsy, but have never quite gotten around to making them for myself. There are lots of other ideas for gifts related to just about any other craft, and chances are any crafter will really appreciate a handmade gift.
- Natural DIY Cleaners Gift Basket – Now, I know not every woman would like getting cleaning products for Christmas, but I’ve actually had requests to make my DIY Cleaning Recipes before. So this would make a cute gift for the right person.
Image used with permission from richlyrooted.com
Easy DIY Gift Ideas for Men
- 9 DIY Gift Ideas for Men – There are some super classy and some totally fun gift ideas for the men in your life. Not all of these could be done in an hour, but still some great ideas here!
Easy DIY Stocking Stuffer Ideas
- 28 DIY Stocking Stuffer Ideas – All of these ideas are really simple to make, and there is a link to instructions on how to do them all. There are also ideas for including them in a DIY gift basket.
Image used with permission from Pistachio Project.
Easy DIY Gift Wrap Ideas
- Recycled Paper Bows – You’ll never pay for ribbons again after this tutorial. So cute!
- Printable Gift Labels – Print these adorable gift tags free right from your home computer.
Easy DIY Christmas Decoration Ideas
- Activity Based Advent Calendar – I absolutely love this take on an Advent activity calendar for kids. Not only is it a really fun tradition for the kids, but you’ll love how it looks decorating your house too!
Image used with permission from ecokaren.
How to make Burlap Christmas Ornaments – Here’s a tutorial for making the cute burlap “FA LA LA” ornaments pictured above.
How to Simplify Your DIY Gift Ideas
One other way I have been taming all of my wild DIY gift ideas is my trying hard to pick just one major project per year. Last year of course, was the imfamous bunny project.
The rest of my DIY gifts I am trying to limit to things on this list, so that I can still be a fun mommy come Christmas morning.
When I saw my sweet niece many months later with the tattered bunny clutched lovingly under her arm, the ear now completely lost, I knew it had all been worth it!
But next time, I think I’ll pick something just a bit simpler to make, so we can both have a fun and relaxed Christmas morning.
I hope you’ll find the same peace with this list of easy DIY gift ideas this year. Happy Christmas!
