By Elisabeth Kuhn

Are you worried about spending too much on Christmas presents? Don’t be. Great gifts don’t have to cost much at all. Read on for some easy and dollar-stretching edible Christmas gift ideas.

We all need to eat. But sometimes, especially during tough times, we deprive ourselves. And that’s when edible gifts can be especially welcome — cool treats that your gifts’ recipients wouldn’t have made for themselves.

Of course, the traditional way to approach edible gifts was to go to a gourmet store and order a very expensive gift basket. Or order it from a catalogue. I’m sure you know which ones I’m talking about.

But it doesn’t have to be that expensive. In fact, there are some downright cheap Christmas gifts that can bring a lot of joy and pleasure. Here are a few ideas of varying degrees of thriftiness:

1) Store bought goods

One of our most treasured edible gifts when I grew up in Germany was a Stollen, a German Christmas cake that keeps well, ships well, and tastes utterly delicious (especially the kind filled with marzipan — or the ones that are spiked with rum). And it’s not very expensive either. Neither are a lot of other ready-made Holiday cookies or cakes you can buy at the store.

2) Store bought ingredients, assembled at home

You can create your own gift baskets by assembling some choice fruits and cheeses. If you pick well, you can get a great assortment for less than $10. And for a few dollars more, you can create a veritable gourmet feast. Read on for a variation on that concept…

3) Home-made edibles

Of course, you can also bake cakes or cookies, or create other fancy edibles, wrap them nicely, and send them on their way.

4) Home-made do-it-yourself edibles

This last one is my favorite: Home-made do-it-yourself edible Christmas gifts! Just assemble the ingredients, pack them up nicely, attach a recipe card, and send them to the lucky recipient.

Of course, as a nice bonus, you can use the same recipes to make some treats for yourself. In fact, I would highly recommend that you try out everything you plan to make to ensure the result is what you were hoping for. You might even try out several recipes to find the ones you like best.

Another big advantage to the do-it-yourself edible Christmas gifts is that they will usually keep for quite a long time. This means, they will keep until all the perishable holiday goodies are long gone — and can bring back the glow of Christmas even when the snow is but a distant memory!

But where are you going to find the right kind of recipes for easy to assemble edible Christmas gifts? Here’s my FREE gift for you: A huge collection of yummy edible Christmas gift recipes that you can instantly download — so you can get started right away! Just click on this link: http://www.EdibleChristmasGifts.com.

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The Elf on the Shelf Gift Set is a cute rhyming storybook with an accompanying Santa’s elf. The elf is a scout for Santa Claus, and every night he returns to the North Pole to report on who’s been naughty and who’s been nice. When the kids wake up, he’s hiding in a new place each morning. The book has been around for a few years, but I recently learned of it and bought the set based on positive reviews on Amazon.

One parent said, “After hearing from friends and reading reviews how great this was, we bit the bullet and got it. I cannot say enough about how cute this was for our two boys (age 6 and 3). They bolted downstairs every morning to find the elf, and the oldest cried when he touched it accidentally because he thought it would lose its magic. The story and elf was the sweetest thing. Note, however, that parents have to remember to move the elf around every night, or come up with creative excuses for why the elf decided to come back from the North Pole into the same spot! .”

Yes, indeed, if you buy the Elf on the Shelf gift set, be prepared to come up with a new hiding spot every night!! This has been my biggest challenge, as the holidays are a busy time already, and remembering to move the elf every night can be difficult if you don’t make a habit of it. But it’s definitely worth it if you want to bring a little Christmas magic into your house.

More on the Elf on the Shelf Gift Set and Other Elf Toys and Books.

There are a lot of animal lovers in this world, and during the holidays, a great gift for pet owners are products featuring cute Christmas animals. They’re not difficult to find. From cuddly Christmas teddy bears to cute donkeys in a manager, animals are on all kinds of gifts, from mugs to shirts, and mousepads to calendars.

Here are some cute Christmas animals I like on Zazzle and CafePress. The products shown are just samples of what’s available. Like all designs at Zazzle and CafePress, these Christmas animal images are also available on dozens of other gifts. Check the sites for more details.

Santa cat Christmas cards
This cat Christmas card features a cute kitty in a Santa hat. Sure to please any cat lover!

Chinese Shar-Pei T-shirt for Christmas
Funny shirt shows a wrinkled Chinese shar-pei saying “Pah, Humbug!” Great gift for the dog-loving Scrooges in your life.

Christmas Cow Sweatshirt
Who says a cute Christmas animal has to be a housebroken one?
Here’s a shirt to celebrate the farm animals in your life.

Dog Christmas Cards: Chihuahua

If you loved Beverly Hills Chihuahua or just love little chihuahuas, these Christmas cards are for you.