Last Minute Mason Jar Gifts

#1 – Cookie Kit

Put all the dry ingredients needed for your cookies of choice into a mason jar. It’s a hassle you can remove for your friend by portioning out the dry stuff. Find a tag and write down the directions, as they’ll probably need to add their own wet ingredients and baking time, but this makes a fun activity for your friend to do later down the road. You can do this with soup, brownies, etc. Tailor it to the recipient.

#2 – Compound Butter

You got some garlic? Or maybe some dates or raisins? You can make easy whipped Garlic Butter, or a sweet Cinnamon Raisin Butter, or fruit equivalent. There’s lots of recipes online, and mostly you just need to whip butter together with some simple ingredients and put it in a jar. Bam. Don’t you look fancy now? You’re welcome.

#3 – Hot Cocoa Kit

Like the cookie kit, you just add hot cocoa and some marshmallows. Or maybe some candy canes. Then just write on the card what the water to cocoa ratio is. It’s great gift for kids or families, and you can gussy up the jar with stickers. You could also do this with apple cider, and drop some cinnamon sticks in.

#4 – Snowman Starter

We’re really scratching the bottom of the barrel here, but if you have a friend with a sense of humor, get yourself a jar, fill it with snow, or ice, (or heck, water) and put a tag on it that says “Snowman Starter”. If your friends have a sense of humor they’re gonna get a kick out of it.

#5 – Homemade Potpourri

Potpourri is a bit of a lost art, which is perfect, because no one will know if you did it wrong. Well, they won’t know right away at least. Raid your spice cabinet for Cinnamon sticks, whole cloves and star anise, lavender twigs, toss a pinecone in there, or even a few clippings from your Christmas tree. For color you could do dried apple or oranges, or orange peel. Or, you know, you can just add in a few drops of essential oil and pretend like all those sticks you tossed in there were intentional.

#6 – Infused Honey

Deceptively easy. Get your spice of choice, a dried twig of rosemary, sage, lavender, whole cloves, ginger bits, cinnamon sticks, vanilla beans, dried orange peels, dried peppermint leaves, anything dry and edible, or a mix, and put them in the jar with honey and close it up. The honey will infuse with whatever you put in it over time. Just make sure that it’s dried when it goes in.

#7 – Put a plant in it

Grab a clipping from one of your plants and toss it in. With any luck, it’ll get some roots on it, and you’ll have a little clone to give to your friend who loves plants. Name the plant before you give it to them so they become emotionally attached to it.

#8 – Mini Christmas Tree

Go outside, I know I know, it’s a lot to ask, but see if you have any baby volunteer coniferous trees in your yard, and give em a little clip. Put it in a mason jar with a little bit of gravel and water. Now you have a mini Christmas Tree. This will also work if you clip a small branch off of a fully grown tree, or from the back of your own Christmas tree, if you find one that’s a good shape.

 #9 – Jar Candle

You can get wax making kits and make your own candle to pour into a mason jar. Or. You can find one of the candles laying around your house that has a wick that’s the right size and melt that into your mason jar. That’s your candle now. You made that. You can even make a franken-candle by melting multiple almost-dead candles, melt that candle into the mason jar with a wick. Just make sure the scents match or your franken-candle really will be a monster.

 #10 – Sourdough Starter

Nothing says Happy Holidays like giving your friends another chore to do. Admittedly, this one requires you to have a sourdough starter yourself, or a bit of time, but with some flour, milk, and a starter, you can get your friends their own little science project that might net you some delicious fresh bread yourself in a few weeks.

Bonus! – Mason Jar

Just give them a mason jar. Some people just love mason jars. Some people even get paid to talk about how much they love mason jars and all the weird things you can make with them. What a world we live in.