Some of you may have noticed that the page was rather quiet in the lead up to Christmas. This was definitely not the case at our house! I was busily making lots of goodies to our families Christmas hampers. Each hamper consisted of the same or similar home made items and then some personalised items for each person. However silly me in the craziness of it all forgot to take photos of the making of the items, finished products and hampers themselves…. oops. Luckily my sister-in-law took some pictures and was kind enough to let me use them.
So the hampers consisted of:
-Cherry Jam
– Scottish Tablet
– Savoury Mixed Nuts
– Carpet Freshener
– Vanilla Lavender Sugar Scrub
– Ylang Ylang and Lavender Bath Bombs
– Dried Herbs (Rosemary, Oregano, Sage and Mint)
– Beeswax Wraps
We also added in a mixture of beers, coffee beans from our local roasters Dusty Road Coffee Roasters (who by the way have just opened their own espresso bar!), a keep sake Christmas ornament of the kids and the other more personalised things that were purchased for each person.
Each of the hampers were put into what we thought were useful containers. Two of them were in cane baskets and the other two in pots/planters.
I sourced the cherries for the cherry jam off a Facebook buy/swap/sell page. The growers were bringing table and stewer boxes to the area and I jumped on the opportunity to use these for the hampers. I had previously made Mulberry Jam for hampers and loved it. I didn’t use as much sugar as the recipe said but I was happy I didn’t as it is quite sweet already.
The Scottish Tablet is a crumbly, super sweet fudge that is well loved by our family. This was Hubby’s project for the hampers and he did a bloody good job. Anyone with a sweet tooth would love this recipe.
The herbs were home grown (besides the rosemary which we received a stack of off our lovely neighbour) and I dried them out using our trusty old dehydrator. We have been experimenting with different ways of hanging herbs and drying flowers since as our trusty old dehydrator only has one heat setting and tends to cook the more delicate herbs.
I made the Bath Bombs using a combination of different recipes I found online. I really wanted them to be moisturising as well as smelling beautiful so I added coconut oil as well as water to moisten the mixture. I did a test run of one before they were added to the hampers and was happy with the amount of oil I added. It was moisturising without leaving you feeling really greasy.
Making the Beeswax wraps was easy but oh my was it messy! I started by trying to dunk the fabric into the beeswax which was a disaster. I then moved onto using a pastry brush to brush the melted wax on and then placing it in a warm oven to melt into the fabric. This worked well but the wax began to set into the pastry brush and I did catch one of the beeswax wraps on fire after the baking paper underneath caught alight. Once the wax had soaked in I hung them on my old air horse to cool.
We have made the Savoury Nuts on a previous hamper year and I remember them being a big hit with my Hubby. They are sweet, salty and have a kick from the cayenne pepper. They perfectly compliment a bottle of beer. This year we did a combination of Brazil Nuts, Almonds, Peanuts and Cashews.
The Body Scrub and Carpet Freshener recipes I used were from The Essential Life book I have through doTerra. I have never made them before and didn’t think at the time to make some for ourselves whilst making them for everyone else. I really want to give the carpet freshener a try. It’s super simple to make using only bicarb soda, lemon and wild orange essential oils but I honestly think you could use any scent that appeals to you.
I love making these hampers for our family. I LOVE Christmas. I love giving presents and seeing joy on the receivers face. I show love through cooking and food, something I have learnt from my Mum, so I love having this opportunity to send lots of love to our family members. If you make hamper for your family or friends I would love to hear what you make or add to them.