Written by Christmas will be here sooner than we’d care to think. Stores are already shifting to their merchandising to Christmas and it will only be a handful of weeks until Christmas music starts being played.
We’ve already talked about planning a Christmas party for your leaders, but have you figured out a gift to get them? I am huge proponent of two things when it comes to gift giving:
1. A gift doesn’t have to break the bank.
2. A homemade and personal gift often resonates more with the recipient.
That brings me to today’s gift ideas. The two gift ideas are ones that are homemade and tasty.
The first idea is making Christmas cookies for your team. I would highly suggest using a homemade recipe and not a snap-and-bake style. When you make homemade cookies you can taste the love and care that went into making them.
Even if you aren’t a baker, you can find a simple sugar cookie recipe that you can make fairly easily or you can make Oreo Truffles that feel super elevated but are very easy to pull together.
My recommendation for the sugar cookies is to always make sure to add a little extra vanilla as the vanilla makes the cookie richer and more flavorful. And for the truffles, you can utilize different flavored Oreos with matching extracts (1-2 teaspoons) to create more unique and holiday-focused truffles.
If you’re a bit more of a seasoned cook or are willing to try something that’s more labor intensive, you can make homemade apple butter and put them in mason jars as a fun holiday gift that everyone is sure to love. Elise and I just went apple picking and we ended up with close to twenty pounds of apples.
As much as we love apples, we won’t eat all of them before they start to spoil. Throughout the years, whenever we pick apples I’ve made applesauce and apple butter. I’ve experimented with various recipes for the apple butter and have finally landed on one that people seem to love.
Utilizing something that you have in abundance to make gifts is a huge win. You can jar them and put a nice tag on them, and all of a sudden you have a personal and edible gift ready to go. So, if you’d like to try this recipe out, I’m putting it below for you.
Both of these gift ideas, coupled with personalization and a note or card, are sure to make your leaders feel seen, valued, and loved. Our hope is that these recipes and ideas are ones you can use or that they spark ideas you can utilize to bless your leaders at Christmas time.
Apple Butter
Prep Time: 15 mins | Cook Time: 10 hrs | Total Time: 10 hrs 15 mins | Servings: 40 | Yield: 5 cups
Ingredients
- 5 pounds apples, cored and cut into pieces
- 1 ½ cups white sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1-2 teaspoons salt
- 2-3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ⅛ – 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- ½ – 1 teaspoon ground allspice
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup water
Directions
- Place apple pieces into a large slow cooker. Add white sugar, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and vinegar. Add water and mix well.
- Cover and cook on High until apples are starting to soften and release liquid, 1 to 2 hours. Reduce heat to Low and cook, uncovered, until all the apple flesh is dissolved, 5 to 6 hours. Stir occasionally.
- Puree using an immersion blender until smooth. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until darkened and thick, about 4 hours more. Pass apple butter through a strainer if desired. Seal in a glass container and refrigerate until cool.
