Great DIY Christmas gifts are a wonderful way to enjoy Christmas on even the tightest of budgets.
But too many of the DIY gift ideas we find use all sorts of fancy supplies and end up anything but cheap!!
They also need craft skills and time most of us just do NOT have.
So this guide is full of awesome DIY Christmas gifts ideas that truly are :
- Inexpensive
- Easy
- And speedy to put together.
It covers cheap DIY gift ideas for all your family and friends including :
- DIY Gift Jars
- Simple Handmade Gifts
- Garden Gifts
- Homemade Preserves
- DIY Experience Gifts
- Gifts Of Time
- Upcycled Vintage Gifts
101 Cheap DIY Christmas Gifts For All The Family
DIY Christmas Gift Jars
Homemade gifts in a jar are a speedy way to make cheap DIY Christmas gifts for your whole gift list.
You don’t need to fork out for mason jars, just upcycle any old jars with scraps of ribbon, yarn, fabric etc.
Then split between them bulk bought contents such as :
Or your own yummy homemade Christmas treats like :
- Bark
- Cookies
- Gingerbread
- Preserves of all sorts from jellies & pickles to salted lemons.
You can also upcycle household bits & bobs to create these gifts :
Or use garden plants, seeds & cuttings to make gift jars with :
- Spring bulbs
- Succulents
- Vegetable garden starter kit
- Dried lavender
- Summer annuals
- Meadow flowers.
For inspiration on how to decorate your gift jars check out these 30 simple mason jar gift ideas.
Very Simple Handmade Gifts
Handmade gifts can get crazily complex but lots of cute DIY gifts are no-sew or need only basic stitching.
And simple handmade presents can be made for free by upcycling fabric from all the old clothes and bedlinen cluttering our closets.
For inspiration & tutorials check out this guide to 25 gorgeous but super simple handmade gifts including :
PLUS for kids you can make …
DIY Gardening Gifts
It is super easy to put together cool but cheap DIY Christmas gifts both :
- For garden lovers
- And from your own garden.
For keen gardeners you can whip up
- Burlap hanging planter baskets
- Plant pots from old teacups, empty paint pots, old toys & soup tins
- Gardener’s kneeling pad
- Gardening gloves
- Gardener’s soap
- Wind chimes
- Mason jar twine dispenser
- Plant markers from wooden spoons, stones, wine corks, pegs.
And from your garden you can gift :
- DIY terrariums
- Mini herb garden
- Pressed flower pictures
- Pressed flower bookmarks
- Teacup fairy garden
- Succulent cuttings in vintage & upcycled planters
- Pots of paperwhites
- Pots of daffodils
- Pots of hyacinths
- Pumpkin growing kit
- Sunflower growing kit.
For more fun garden ideas for the whole family check out this guide to : 35 Inexpensive DIY Garden Gifts.
Easy Homemade Preserves For Christmas Gifts
You may run a mile at the mention of homemade jams, jellies & preserves but they are actually easy to make in as little as 30 minutes.
They can also be super cheap as DIY gifts if you use foraged fall fruit, cheap seasonal ingredients, bags of frozen fruit or even leftovers!!
Every year we gift upcycled jars of jelly made with wild fruit for nothing more than the price of the sugar.
For delicious DIY gifts for everyone on your list make some of these :
- Jellies & jams from frozen berries, cheap BOGOF grapes, wild apples or even sweetcorn
- Pickled onions or gherkins
- Salted lemons
- Candied peel
- Lemon curd
- Watermelon pickle
- Marmalade
- Sweet & spicy pepper relish
- Mint extract.
For more yummy ideas and recipes read this guide to 18 homemade preserves for Christmas gifts.
DIY Experience Gifts
One of the most wonderful cheap DIY Christmas gifts we can give is :
- Ourself
- Our time
- And our special skills.
It’s a no-cost or low-cost way to give people great experience gifts.
And committing to hook up once a week to share a skill creates the space to truly connect with those we love, even if they don’t live close by.
It might seem easier if you’re super crafty and can pass on skills in :
- Sewing
- Knitting
- Painting
- Baking
- Preserving
- DIY
- Furniture Renovation etc.
But lots of us have all sorts of other wonderful skills we can share :
- Guitar Playing
- Car & Bike Maintenance
- Languages
- Tennis
- Ice Skating
- Piano Playing
- Hair Styling
- Singing
- Photography
- Make Up Tutorials
- Swimming.
More than anything these DIY gifts give our kids what so many crave right now : which is for us to slow down & spend time with them.
You could package your gifts with these FREE printable Christmas coupons or gift certificates.
The Gift Of Time
The gift of time isn’t just a hit with kids. It’s also a winner with parents.
In our over-busy world many of us are crying out for “more time” so why not gift some of yours to someone who needs help with :
- Decorating
- Babysitting
- Gardening
- DIY
- Car valeting
- Or even dreaded decluttering!!!
Again you could use a printable coupon book to package your gift.
We can also gift our time to collating those collections we all love but never get round to compiling :
- Photo album
- Digital photo album
- Family scrap book
- Music playlist
- Family history map
- Family tree.
DIY Christmas gifts like these bring so much joy but cost nothing. By sacrificing our time for loved ones we give something more valuable.
DIY Vintage Gift Ideas
Some of these ideas may seem too tiny for a major present but plenty of us do have wonderful DIY Christmas gifts hiding in all the stuff we have stashed away – aka clutter.
Root out forgotten gems for some TLC and pass them onto someone you love who will enjoy them more.
It could be any of these :
- Evening dress
- Gorgeous heels
- Vintage handbags
- Vintage luggage
- Watches
- Jewellery
- Manual camera
- Old video camera
- Record player & vinyls
- Bikes & scooters
- Old framed photographs
- Cutlery, glasses & china
- Furniture like a great chest of drawers, chair or table
- Sewing machine
- Drill or other expensive tool they’ll really get use out of
- BBQ
- Surf & body boards
- Camping equipment
- Fountain pens
- A bundle of well loved books simply tied up with ribbon.
Or for kids any classic toys of yours your parents still have squirreled away in a basement or attic :
- Train sets
- Scalextric
- Barbies
- Dolls houses
- Dolls prams
- Toy garages
- Play mobile
- Table football
- Forts
- Lego
- Skate boards
- Roller skates
- Stilts
- Basket ball nets
Sometimes, these DIY Christmas gifts passed down through our families with love and memories can better capture the true spirit of Christmas.
So go on capture the real spirit of Christmas this year and give some of these simple, cheap DIY Christmas gifts to your kids, family and friends.
And for more simple ideas for a lovelier Christmas on a budget do check out these other tips :
- 75 Fun Frugal Christmas Tips
- 26 DIY Christmas Ornaments
- 26 DIY Christmas Cards
- 30 DIY Christmas Wreaths
- 35 Fun DIY Gift Wrap Ideas
- Budget Christmas Food Ideas
- DIY Christmas Table Decor
- Zero Waste Christmas Tips
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