Christmas Gift Ideas

Many of you are now probably thinking of gifts to give your family and friends. I'm sure you've been to different bazaars like NOEL Bazaar at the World Trade Center or those in villages. There are a lot of things to find in bazaars.  Iknow because I've been to NOEL twice this week already. You can buy gifts for as low as P50. But if you want to give unusual gifts, then you have to really squeeze your creative juices to come up with something different.

Last December 2012 and December 2013, I posted blogs giving suggestions for unique gift ideas. You can check them out by clicking the links if you want some help. But I also have some new stuff here for you.

1. JARed. Mason jars are in these days. I'm sure you've thought of giving them as gifts. And I'm sure you've thought of different things to put inside them like cookies, candies, chocolates, etc. But my suggestion is to put cake inside. My cousin said she is thinking of putting no-bake cakes. My idea is to put refrigerator cake. I'm not gonna put here the recipe anymore coz I know most of you know that but my suggestion is about 'designing' the cake. Usually you put fruits in your ref cakes, right? For me, a good way would be to put your 'fillings' in neat layers.  After laying down the graham crackers (this is what is commonly used but I prefer using lady fingers or broas from Quezon) at the bottom and pouring the cream, put a layer of crushed nuts. Then lay down the next layer of crackers and cream then add fruits (canned fruit cocktail is good but I'd prefer dried fruits). Then repeat but this time put brown and white chocolate chips (the one used for ice cream toppings). Then repeat. Oh, but you can add a layer of strawberry jam. The sweet-sour taste would be a nice 'breaker' to the sweetness of the whole treat.

Aside from cake, you can simply put lambanog inside especially if you know the recipient likes to drink alcoholic bevergaes once in a while. There are colored lambanog being sold in large, long neck bottles. I think one bottle would fill two mason jars already.

2. TUBEd. If you are thinking of gifts to a group of people like your staff or friends in your book club or whatever, my suggestion would be to buy test tubes. Yes, the ones you used in your chemistry classes in high school. You can put different stuff inside like the lambanog I mentioned above. Or you can put mixed nuts instead. Just put ribbons and your done.

3. POTted. You can give your friends herbs like mint, oregano, basil, etc. Normally, you can buy in presentable pots so you'll just have to put ribbones and you're fine. But you can also transfer them to nicer pots that you can buy in stores. There are colorful ones actually.

So there. I hope that'll help.