My children have only one week left before the school holidays start. So it is the perfect time for us to start thinking about homemade Christmas gifts. Here is a collection of some of our favourite homemade gifts! We love and use all of these gifts and with help and supervision (and perhaps a bit of clean up) they are all suitable to be made by children 2-5 years. 

Making homemade gifts teaches our children something store bought gifts can't. It teaches them that their thoughts, time and efforts are important. That we can use our hands and a few resources to create, to make something that will be loved, used and appreciated. It also teaches children valuable life skills, it gets creative thoughts flowing and many of these activities are beneficial for developing concentration and fine motor skills. 

1. Above is Handmade Soap Balls (we grated soap, mixed in lavender tea or chamomile flowers or essential oils, add a little water and the children roll them into balls and allowed to dry).

2. Homemade Bath Salts. We make ours with Epsom Salts so supervision is important, you don't want children to consume this/put it in their mouths. 

3. Hand Stitched Pouches. These are perfect for putting little treasures in.

4. Homemade Beeswax Candles. We do this all year round but it is one of our Christmas favourites, it is relatively mess-free and it takes only a couple of minutes! This year we used Beeswax from Luxmi (similar is available here in the US). You can see our most recent candle making here. Three candles wrapped with a ribbon makes a lovely gift! 

5. Homemade jar vases or pencil holders. We've used dried flowers and mod podge here but also love using coloured kite paper or Otis made a cute planter using an old tin, or how about painting a pot and planting herbs.

Other gifts that children in this age group can help make include Christmas cake, cookies or gingerbread! Please feel free to leave your suggestions!