Homemade Christmas Gifts With Essential Oils and Raw Festive Cake Recipe

Christmas is a special time for giving homemade gifts.

This spiritual occasion is always at risk of being over-commercialised in spite of our best intentions. With 24 hour Christmas trading hours on offer, have you ever found yourself hitting the shops in your daggiest clothes and joggers at the eleventh hour, beating down feelings of gift-giving inadequacy with your credit card and blowing all your careful planning in a storm of toxic BPA-laden receipts and a caffeine high?

So much for budgeting.

Homemade gifts save you money and save your gifting dignity thanks to their intrinsic value. In a crazy busy world, time is ever-increasing in its commodity value. Giving something that’s cost you sands in the hourglass is a flashing beacon of “You are special to me.”

There’s a catch, however. They need to be thoughtful gifts!

Making a production line of doohickeys for people who aren’t into doohickeys won’t leave the recipients with a warm, glowing feeling, that’s for sure.

Even if you aren’t overly handy with making things that could scrub up well as ‘significant gifts’, you can create handy stocking stuffers. So crank up your diffuser, add some Young Living Christmas Spirit™ or Abundance™ essential oil (and a dab of authentic frankincense on your wrists) and have some fun with these natural DIY gifts.

Sweet Petal Bath FizzBall Stocking Stuffers (makes 4)

• 4 tsp organic dried flower petals (optional)
• 1 cup baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
• ½ cup citric acid powder
• ½ tblesp organic almond/olive oil or Young Living V-6 Vegetable Oil Complex
• 10 – 15 drops Young Living Sensation™ essential oil (or any combination of authentic essential oils of ylang ylang, geranium, jasmine and orange)
• Moulded silicon cupcake tray with 4 oz cupcake capacity
• Water in a spray bottle

If using dried petals, sprinkle them evenly into the silicone moulds.

Combine baking soda and citric acid in a large, completely dry bowl.  Whisk until combined.

Add essential oil and your vegetable oil of choice then mix very well with a dry spoon.

Moisten with just a few light sprays of water and continue mixing well with the spoon, adding only enough water to make the mixture the consistency of slightly wet sand so it clumps in your hand when you squeeze it.

Transfer even quantities to your moulds with a spoon and pack tightly.  Allow to sit for several hours (or overnight).

Turn carefully out of the moulds, package up in cellophane or nice glass jars, tie on a gift tag with handwritten ‘how to use’ instructions and festive ribbon and some of Santa’s work is done.  How to use: run the bath first then drop in a fizzball as you’re ready to step into the water.

The Gratitude Gift

Ok, this isn’t homemade as such, but it’s along the same lines.

Buy an attractive hard-bound journal or sketchbook with unruled pages.  Include a nice pen. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Think of something that suits their personality. A glitter pen? Classic black ink or something more colourful?

Inside the cover, write the word, ‘Gratitude’. It doesn’t matter how neat your penmanship is.  It’s more about keeping the handwritten word alive. Make it as simple or fancy as suits your personality. Don’t try to be something you’re not.

Print or write this and finish it in your own words: “I am grateful to have you in my life because …”

If you have a nice photo of the two of you together, paste the photo onto the page alongside your message.

On the next blank page, write the word ‘Date:’ so they will get the gist of starting each entry with the date, and on the line below, write, “I am grateful for”. That’s all you’ll need to give them the hint as to how to use their gift.

Young Living’s Gratitude™ essential oil blend is a beautiful one to include with this. If you can find a nice packaging box to keep them all together and tie it up with ribbon, that’s a beautiful finishing touch.

Gifts from the Kitchen

Raw Nutty Sesame Balls

Raw Chocolate Wolfberry Pops

Raw Ginger Date Balls

TLC Pack for Gardeners

• Natural unscented handwash/shower gel
• Natural unscented body lotion
• Young Living Purification™ essential oil blend (or a combination of melaleuca alternifolia, lemongrass, lavender and patchouli) which is great for cleansing and also great for deterring insects
• 2 x attractive pump bottles

Put 30 drops of essential oil blend into each pump bottle.  Half-fill one with hand wash/shower gel and the other with body lotion then give the bottles a good shake to help the oils blend through.  Finish topping them up and give them another shake.

Make labels with your own witty and clever description of the Post-Garden Handwash and Pre-Garden Bugs Away.  Add some gardening gloves and a pair of secateurs depending on your budget, put them into a terracotta or galvanised metal pot, tie some cellophane over the lot and ribbon it up and you’ll make your favourite green thumb very happy.

And we haven’t forgotten about food for Christmas Day.  Just in case you forgot to boil up your traditional pudding or cake ahead of time, this raw Christmas Cake will save the day.

Raw Festive Cake

• 2 cups organic mixed fruit and nuts
• 1 cup Young Living Organic Dried Wolfberries (splash through enough NingXia Red® or pomegranate juice to moisten lightly beforehand)
• 1 cup organic sultanas
• 1 cup dessicated coconut
• 1 orange, peeled and roughly chopped into quarters
• 2 tblsp Young Living Blue Agave nectar or rice malt syrup
• 1 tsp organic vanilla bean paste (or equivalent of organic vanilla extract)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground clove

Grease and line a small cake tin with baking paper.

Pulse all ingredients together in your food processor until the mixture comes together.

Press the mix into the cake tin, cover and pop in the fridge for at least two hours before removing from the tin and serving.

Decadent serving options: serve sliced with lashings of lightly salted butter or cut into larger wedges, wrap in foil and warm in the oven then serve with a pouring of pure cream.

Enjoy the good oil daily.

The information on this site does not constitute advice. Please consult with your health practitioner. When using any of the products mentioned throughout this site, please be sure to read the labels and follow their suggestions for safe use. We make commissions from sales via many of the products we recommend but we only suggest products we genuinely enjoy and want you to benefit from.