The holiday season has long been over yet the gift giving still doesn’t stop. All year round I find myself pulling at my hair whilst thinking of great gift ideas for different occasions – weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, baby showers, graduation, Valentine’s, the list just seems to go on forever. See, it’s not just the items for giving that I have to worry about but also the appropriate packaging. But as they say, it’s better to give than to receive.

It wasn’t until last Christmas that I figured food was indeed a no-brainer gift. Come on, who would not be thankful for fruit or meat pies in custom tin containers, caramel fudge brownies in colorful boxes, veggie or fruit preserve in clear plastic jars and homemade cakes in custom tin boxes. What’s nice about giving out goodies from the kitchen is that the receivers would surely put them to good use. Whether they would share the sugar cookies in custom tin packaging with the rest of their family or keep the apple crumble all to their selves for the taking, either way you’re sure that the gift was well-appreciated and your money was well spent. I could only wish I found out earlier!

We were pretty much Mr. and Mrs. Claus, givers of sumptuous gifts straight from the heart of our home – the kitchen. My husband took a sabbatical from being head chef of his restaurant uptown that he had time to cook up some homemade treats for giving out. In his words, “nothing really fancy” just a couple of heartwarming Christmas staples like cranberry pecan pie, old-fashioned mincemeat, Amish ginger cookies and pumpkin roll to name a few. Okay, it was a bit of a stretch to say it was nothing fancy; he’s too much of a braggart when it comes to cooking. If it weren’t for the spirit of giving, I would have licked clean the custom made tins of the baked gastronomical delights.

Not blessed with cooking skills, I opted to go down the easier road of our gift preparations which was wrapping. You bake, I wrap – I told my husband early on. Wanting to be up to par with his gourmet skill, I tried some gift-wrapping techniques of the pros. If I may say so myself, our gifts were like those from specialty gift shops what with the fancy containers I used that were designed using offset color printing. For embellishments, I got away with trim covers, burlap, twine, brown packing paper, and ribbons in Christmas colors – red, green and gold. I must say the joy of preparing the gifts was only half the delight of seeing our family and friends looking very grateful indeed.

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