Gift-giving has always been difficult for me. I over think it.

Every Christmas I find myself wandering the malls and window shopping, trying to find the mythical perfect gift.

But this year, I’m giving up. Oh, not on the giving part. The perfect part.

Gifts in a jar. They’re everywhere and I love them.

But first I needed Mason jars. I did a quick search on a few used sites and managed to pick up a box of jars for $10. Score!

Online there are roughly 100,000,000 different ideas for gifts to put in jars so it’s not difficult to find ones I can manage. I narrowed in on five to try out: cookies in a jar, scarf in a jar, sugar scrub in a jar, coffee in a jar, and apple butter in a jar.

Cookies in a jar

Basically you mix and layer the dry ingredients for the jar, then send instructions for the rest:

• Empty dry contents into mixing bowl.
• Mix.
• Add half a cup of margarine, an egg, and a teaspoon of vanilla.
• Roll into balls and place on cookie sheets.
• Bake at 375 degrees for about 12 minutes.

You can garnish the jar with fabric and ribbon. I had some trouble keeping everything together so I glue gunned it all over the place. Which looks nice but will be a bit of a prank on the recipient.

Scarf in a jar

I wanted to give some knitted gifts this year but I also wanted to stick to my jar thing. So I gave it a shot!

I needed a bigger jar.

The pattern I used for this infinity scarf was a simple lace pattern and about 150 stitches. I think it was from a recent magazine but unfortunately I can’t remember much more than that.

Once I actually got the scarf in the jar I thought about how fun it would be to take out of the jar. It would be like those never-ending scarves the magicians pull out of their sleeves. Brings back great memories.

Sugar scrub in a jar

Last Christmas I received some swanky sugar scrub and love how soft my skin feels when I use it. All exfoliated and stuff.

Anyway, apparently you can make it with a couple cups of sugar, a cup of extra virgin olive oil, and a few tablespoons of lemon or essential oils.

Mix it up really well and then put it in the jar.

The yellow colour coming from the olive oil is a bit off-putting, which is why I made the bow on this one extra large.

Coffee in a jar

OK so this is pretty much just transferring the coffee beans from one place to another but you have to admit the jar gives it a certain something something.

These beans are a bit special because a friend of mine roasted them with his special blend and I wanted to do something nice with them.

Another direction you could go with coffee beans is also provide a latte or mocha dry mix. Now that would be a nice on an early Christmas morning.

Apple butter in a jar

This autumn a friend convinced me to pick crab apples with her. While the picking was pretty fun, I wasn’t sure what exactly to do with the apples once I had them.

They were kind of sour.

So after some boiling and pureeing I discovered I could make apple butter. And that’s not sour at all.

Fruit butter is so amazing. I only wish I could find the recipe to Trader Joe’s cookie butter. Do you think it exists?

My five jars came together after quite a bit of research and some false starts. And I’m happy with them. But they took too long. I have, like, 10 gifts to go. Just hoping the next batch goes a little smoother.