Christmas is an expensive time of year, and many of us are feeling the pinch of the cost of living crisis. Teacher gifts can be another expense that you don’t need, especially if you have more than one child and have multiple teachers! But it’s lovely to honour teachers at this time of year.
Luckily, you don’t need to spend a lot to make an impact. Here are some low-cost, mostly handmade Christmas gift ideas for teachers. They require a little more time, but they’re fun activities to do with your children on a rainy weekend, and they make lovely gifts for the important adults they want to thank at school.
Slow cooker fudge
Slow cooker fudge is a Christmas gift classic – we’ve made this several times over the years, and it’s delicious, low-cost, and super easy. You’ll need:
- Condensed milk
- White chocolate
- Dark chocolate
- Light brown sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Vegetable oil
- Toppings – like a chocolate orange, or Aero balls
- Cellophane gift bags
All you have to do is set the slow cooker to low and throw in the ingredients. It will cook for an hour, and require stirring every 15 minutes to prevent it from sticking. Once that’s done, you can pour it into a lined baking tin and dot the top with toppings (Aero balls are delicious, but chocolate orange segments crumbled up work well too).
Then you can pop it into the fridge, chill for 4 hours, and then cut it into small pieces and distribute it into cellophane bags, tied with a small ribbon. It keeps in the fridge for three days, so you’ll need to make it the night before you hand it over and include instructions on the label about keeping it refrigerated. You can find the full recipe on BBC Good Food.
Cookie jars
Homemade cookies are always popular, and they’re fun to make with your children. For a particularly Christmassy vibe, I’d recommend white chocolate and cranberry cookies – the BBC Good Food’s recipe is a good place to start.
These cookies look lovely stacked in jars – mason jars are especially good, and you can usually find bundles of these on Amazon. If not, a cheaper option is cellophane bags and ribbon, or recyclable boxes, which can be decorated.
Chocolate slabs
Another simple option and it is really fun to make. To make chocolate slabs, you need to melt chocolate (I’d recommend doing a batch of white, dark, and milk, so each teacher can have a piece of each type) and then spread it into a lined square tin.
You can then sprinkle on your toppings: Crushed candy canes, gold star sprinkles, and dried fruit work really well. Leave it to set in the fridge, and then smash it apart into large shards. These can be put into cellophane bags with a simple tag attached.
This is one of the easiest options and one of the most fun for kids to make. You can find a full recipe for it on the BBC Good Food website.
Hama bead decorations
If you’ve got a box of Hama beads around the house, you can make some simple budget-friendly gifts for teachers.
You can find some good patterns online for kids to follow – the website Hama Bead Patterns has a whole Christmas section – or your kids can make their own patterns. My son made hearts with his teacher’s initials on them last year.
Just thread a ribbon through the top, iron the beads together, and you’ve got a lovely handmade gift that your child has put love and thought into.
Clay decorations
A block of air-dried clay can go a surprisingly long way. I’d say this is only a cheap option if you already have paint and glitter in the house. If you have primary-aged kids around, chances are you already have them. If not, you may need to make an initial investment of paints, glitter, and something like Mod Podge, along with the clay. The good news is you can use these for other Christmas crafts, but it’s something to keep in mind if your budget is really tight.
A block of air-dried clay can be used to make any kind of decoration. This is easier if you have Christmas cookie cutters. Even a simple star shape will do. It can be tricky to work with, so you may need to pre-soften the clay beforehand (I know this from experience!). Once it’s softened, the clay can be rolled and cut.
You can use a paintbrush dipped in water to soften the rough edges, and use the handle of the paintbrush to make a hole at the top to thread some ribbon through. Once they’ve hardened, you can paint them, add glitter if you like, and seal them with varnish or Mod Podge. There’s a good tutorial for this on YouTube.
Cosy night in packages
A simple gift that is surprisingly cheap is a Cosy Night In package. You’ll need:
- A pair of fluffy socks
- A sachet of hot chocolate
- A chocolate bar
- A candy cane
You can then wrap these together with a wide ribbon, and add a hand-written note from your child wishing them a cosy night in over the Christmas period. If you do have more room in your budget, you can add other things – a face mask or a lip balm would be a good addition – but these are lovely enough on their own to be a sweet present for a teacher.
