Holiday Gifts for All Your Child’s Teachers

Every year, I’m thinking through good gift ideas for all the people pouring into my child’s life–something thoughtful to say thank you and bring a sprig of joy into each educator’s life. So today I wanted to compile a list of good ideas and crafts that your child can help you put together!

 

 

Holiday Gift List for ALL Your Child’s Educators

Gift Cards – Gift cards are probably the most welcome of gifts, since the person can buy what they want or need. But I find them quite impersonal.  Not only that, they can easily be lost, misplaced or forgotten.  However, if you buy a gift card, amp it up by adding a personal touch and create something special to go with it–a note written in your child’s hand, a hand-drawn picture or some homemade goodies!

Make/ Give something Edible and Clever – There are hosts of ideas for this, so here are just a few!  Pinterest is loaded with ideas, as well.

Snowman Donuts – Difficulty: easy!  Buy some powdered donuts and decorate with ribbons, paint pens and construction paper.  Add a little notecard to the back with a recipe card for Snow Cocoa (recipe below) hand-written and signed by your child.

Mason Jar Goodies – Difficulty: easy! Layer gourmet cocoa mix (recipe below) with toppings at the top and add a ribbon with a special tag of instructions for making a scrumptious cup of cocoa from the mix. This recipe and picture is from Start Simply Cooking.

Make/ Give something Useful

Hot Corn Bags – Difficulty: hard, but worth it! 

We make and give a form of this every year.  It is handy to heat in the microwave to stay warm in the winter or keep in the freezer in the summer.  I often hear great feedback for these!  They are excellent for sore muscles, as well.

Ebook or Hand-made Printed Book – Difficulty: medium

Have your young child sit down and tell you a story or have your older child write or type it out.  A grouping of stories or poems are always great gifts, even better with illustrations.  Another idea is to have them create a recipe book of your family’s favorite recipes (this gift is handy for the whole extended family, as well!). Once they have written it out.  Put it in a word document and save it.  Then print it to a pdf document.  In this format, you can upload it to Kindle to create your very own ebook!  Or just print it out at home.  Either way, this is a super special gift!

Give a Gift “in Honor Of” – Difficulty: easy!

This is probably one of our favorite ideas.  There are many charities that help families in need, so you could sponsor a child in your teacher’s honor or give a one-time gift to provide for a family. Give a fruit tree or a dairy animal in your teacher’s honor, as well.  It’s such a rich idea to overflow help to others. Then make or buy a card for your favorite teacher and let the teacher know all about it!

 

 

Recipes to Add

Snow Cocoa

6 cups milk
2 cups heavy cream or half and half
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 ounce bar Ghiradelli white chocolate

On medium heat in a large stock pan, steam milk, cream, sugar and vanilla extract (do not bring to a boil). Cut bar into little bits and add to the steaming mixture, stirring constantly for 5 minutes. Take off heat and serve with marshmallows in your favorite winter cup! Makes 6 cups.

Gourmet Cocoa Mix

4 cups instant nonfat dry milk
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
2 cups powdered French vanilla nondairy coffee creamer
2 cups powdered chocolate milk mix (the store brand works just fine)
1 5-ounce package cook-and-serve (not instant) chocolate pudding mix
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa

Combine all ingredients and stir well.

Alternate toppings at the top of the mix:
2 cups miniature marshmallows and/or miniature chocolate chips
Crushed candy canes.

Put on Tag: To serve, place ¼ cup mix in mug or cup. Add ¾ cup boiling water or hot milk and stir well.

For more variations and add-ons for this recipe, be sure and check out Start Simply Cooking’s post here.

 

As for what not to give, I have heard through the teacher-grapevine that they do not need more cups or mugs. Ha! Well, whatever you give, always write a personal note of thanks from your child.  It is simply the icing on top!  Happy gift giving!