5 Easy to Make Last Minute Christmas Gifts

Choc-Orange Luscious Lip Balm

My recipe for this is in my book (which you can download – in PDF form – for free, or you can buy the paperback or kindle versions if you prefer).

It’s very simple and contains beeswax, coconut oil, grated cocoa or shea butter, honey, cocoa, natural vitamin E oil, and orange essential oil (optional). If you don’t have all those ingredients on hand, as I said in my book, the basic recipe for lip balm is 1 part liquid oil to one part beeswax by weight, so why not experiment with what you do have?

Just be aware that not all essential oils are comfortable on your lips!

Whipped Shea Body Butter

I followed this recipe (now linking to the way back machine since this site is gone), except I used apricot kernel oil instead of almond oil, and for an uplifting combination of essential oils I used lavender and orange (yes, there is a theme here – I love orange oil).

Ingredients I used: 1/2 cup organic coconut oil, 1 cup organic shea butter, 1/4 cup apricot kernel oil, 3 capsules vitamin E oil and 20 drops each lavender and sweet orange essential oils.

You can also substitute cacao or mango butter for the shea butter. I’ve never used mango butter, but cocoa (or cacao) butter is much harder than shea butter, which might explain why Katie at Wellness Mama uses 1/2 cup of liquid oil in hers, rather than 1/4 cup. I found 1/4 cup was plenty in mine though.

Lotion Bars

This is the easiest recipe yet. I have a printable I can send you, just ask in comments, or join my VIP group on Facebook, where I have a bunch of printables in the files. I used coconut oil, shea butter, and beeswax (use equal parts of each by volume, eg a cup of each) and natural vitamin E oil for a preservative, though they didn’t last long enough to need it really! They would if you made a batch for yourself I guess, but not when giving them out as packs of one or two. I also used lavender essential oil for a soothing scent.

This year I am going to use this anxiety blend from Eco.Modern Essentials which has sweet orange, lavendar, ylang ylang and frank incense.

The only issue with these is I’m never sure how to store them for gifts. I make them in a silicon muffin tray and just pop them out, and you use them by just rubbing lightly over your skin. The question is, where do you store them, since they aren’t in a jar? I just wrapped them in cellophane and tied with a ribbon and left it up to the recipients to figure it out!

Invigorating Peppermint Sugar Body Scrub

I haven’t made any of this this year (yet) but I’ve made it before with white sugar, a mix of almond and apricot kernel oil, and peppermint essential oil. This also makes a great foot scrub. I used the instructions here at rambling tart.

The basics for a sugar scrub are 1 part oil to 2-4 parts sugar (depending on the oil you choose and how oily you like it), and about 10-15 drops essential oil per cup of sugar. Again, this is dependent on taste and totally up to you.

For a Christmassy smell, you can make this into a cinnamon and orange body scrub by adding 1 tsp ground cinnamon and using 10-15 drops of orange essential oil. Mix the cinnamon and sugar together thoroughly before adding the oils. You can also substitute brown sugar if you like, though it’s not quite as “scrubby”.

Divine Homemade Bath Salts

Bath salts make a great gift for almost anyone, especially if you can choose the right scents. I made these ones from Planning with Kids, except I didn’t bother with the food colouring. I prefer my salts plain white, and just dressed up with a nice jar and fabric cover or ribbons. Ingredients: Epsom salts, sea salt, powdered milk, essential oils.

I used my favourite blend of EOs here, lavender, orange and frankincense. If you want to save by getting a pre-made blend (frankincense is pretty exxy), I like this anxiety blend from Eco.Modern Essentials which has sweet orange, lavender, ylang ylang and frankincense.

Now over to you:

Do you have a favourite DIY Christmas gift to share? Feel free to tell us about it in the comments.

_{(Note: this post first published 23 December 2013, but fully updated 2023)}