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An easy homemade gift idea for Christmas with some cookies in a jar – perfect easy gift for loved ones!

Homemade gifts

When it comes to thoughtful, affordable gifting, homemade cookies are my festive favourite. From gingerbread to shortbread and chocolate-dipped biscuits, baking a batch of cookies is a simple way to spread festive cheer. Whether you’re searching for easy Christmas cookie recipes or starting a new tradition, these treats are personal, delicious, and ideal for gifting.

Cookies are easy to make in batches, and perfect for wrapping in gift boxes or bags. Popular choices include spiced biscuits such as gingerbread, festive shapes like stars or trees, and chocolate cookies topped with peppermint for example. A ribbon, handwritten tag, or reusable tin adds a lovely finishing touch.

Whether you’re baking with kids, enjoying a quiet afternoon, or just fancy something sweet, it’s a cosy way to celebrate the season. With so many Christmas cookie recipes on my blog, there’s something for every taste and skill level – but also, why not swap it all up and just give the cookie ingredients as a gift for people to make at home?!

Easy cookie recipes

Cookie jars have been popular gift items in shops for years. While I often find store-bought versions a little overpriced, I completely understand the appeal. A cookie jar gift is thoughtful, fun, and perfect for anyone who enjoys baking or just eating fresh cookies! Over the years, I’ve gifted my own homemade bakes, and they always go down well. It’s a personal, tasty gift that you can easily customise depending on the occasion or the recipient’s preferences.

This year, I created a cookie mix in a jar using an easy chocolate chip cookie recipe. I specifically chose a recipe that only requires minimal additional ingredients… just butter and an egg (or milk as a substitute) to make it as simple as possible for the person receiving it.

Compared to gingerbread or more complex doughs, chocolate chip cookies are straightforward to mix and don’t involve any sticky syrups or fiddly steps. It’s a no-fuss, delicious option that works well as a DIY Christmas gift or a small homemade present any time of year.

Creating your own homemade cookie jar gift is a lovely way to share the joy of baking in a practical, thoughtful format, and it’s much more budget-friendly than buying pre-made versions in shops.

Jar ingredients

The ingredients in the jar are quite simple, as you are missing the ‘wet’ ingredients that the recipient will have to add… these are standard store cupboard ingredients so it’s nice and easy:

Sugar – I prefer to use light brown soft sugar because it adds a richer flavour and keeps things simple when baking, however, you can make it a mix with white granulated sugar if you also wanted
Flour – I always use plain flour as it contains no raising agents, giving you better control over how much your cookies rise. I also add a little cornflour for texture, but you can bump up the plain flour you use and leave it out instead (25g)
Raising agents – I use just baking powder here because it’s easier, and more reliable to store in a jar for a period of time
Salt – A pinch of sea salt brings out all the flavours, especially enhancing the chocolate’s richness, but you can leave it out
Chocolate chips – I went for a mix of milk chocolate chips to give a bakery-style variety of flavours and texture, as well as some M&Ms for colour in the jar and in the bake. You can also swap these for chunks or pieces from your favourite chocolate bar but smaller items fit in the jars better

What jar do you use?

The most eco-friendly approach is to reuse jars you already have or ones you no longer need. However, smaller jars like jam jars often aren’t quite big enough for this project. I use a jar around 600ml in size, which comfortably holds the weight of all the ingredients.

If your jars are a bit smaller, try layering the ingredients in this order: sugar, flour, salt, cornflour, baking powder, and finally the chocolate chips on top. Press each layer down gently as you go. This way, if you run out of space, you can leave out some of the chocolate chips without compromising the essential ingredients for the cookie dough.

If you find you don’t have jars that work, you can also use food safe gifting bags – as there is less restriction on size and they tend to come in a decent size.

Labelling the jars

When it comes to labelling the jars, it’s entirely up to you what you write. I tend to tie two labels to the jars as I think it looks nice but it also will have enough room for the information you need. I write it how I know the recipients would understand, but you can add as much or as little information as you need so this is just a suggestion.

Label one
- The title of the bake
- Cookies in a jar
Label two
- The additional info
- Makes: 14
- Needs: 125g unsalted butter + 1 egg
- Requires: 2x baking trays
Label three
- The instructions
- Beat room temperature butter on it’s own
- Add egg and beat
- Add contents of jar and mix to a dough
- Bake 11-13 minutes at 180ºc fan

The suggestions on this blog post is purely for a bit of fun, and not advice for selling as a business. There are strict food safety and labelling laws that you will need to adhere to if you are going to sell this as a product.

Baking the cookies

When it actually comes to baking the cookies, the texture can be ever so slightly different to my ‘normal’ chocolate chip cookies because of how the cookie dough has been mixed. This is inevitable, but not a problem.

The reason I beat the butter on its own until soft first and add the egg is to prevent any lumps, and then I mix the jar ingredients in as little as possible to make a dough. The cookies come out gooey, crunchy and utterly delicious all in one go, and they are stuffed to the brim with delicious chocolate chips.

Tips & Tricks

I use jars about 600ml in size – if you don’t have any big enough, you can use food safe treat bags
To make these cookies, you add 125g room temperature butter and 1 egg (or 75ml milk)
This blog post is for a homemade gift, not to be used as advice for a business (please check food safety laws)
If you want to make the cookies chocolate flavoured, you an substitute 50g of flour for 35g cocoa powder
The recipe makes 12-14 cookies out of one jar