DIY Christmas Present: Festive Cookies in a Jar

I've been loving all the Christmas related pins on Pinterest recently (follow me here!) and thought this Cookies in a Jar gift would be fun to make on a lazy Sunday afternoon. These jars are often for sale at Christmas markets for around £10 but it's so much cheaper to make your own! I think this cost me less than £2 to make and it makes the perfect gift; the best thing is that you can personalise them using any kind of packet mix to suit whoever you're making it for.

You will need:

• A packet of cookie mix 
• A medium to large sized jam jar
• A small piece of wrapping paper or festive material
• Some festive ribbon

You can buy all the dry ingredients individually (flour, sugar etc) which is great if you're making a few jars but if not, a packet mix from a supermarket is inexpensive and works perfectly. If you're looking for a gift for someone who doesn't like baking you could fill the jar with hot chocolate powder and add a layer of marshmallows and chocolate chips to the top. To keep the cost down i've chosen to use a jam jar but you could also use a clip top Kilner style jar if you prefer.

To achieve the same layered effect as the jars you see in shops simply sieve the chocolate chips out of the mix and add them in on top. I've seen Gingerbread mix in a few supermarkets so if you want to keep to a festive Christmas theme this would be a good choice - you could also attach a gingerbread man cookie cutter to the jar too.

I used a small square of wrapping paper to cover the top of the jar (with cling film underneath to keep the mix fresh) but festive material would also work well too. To measure how much wrapping paper i'd need I drew around the bottom of the jar and then cut around it in a square shape leaving about a 1cm gap around the edge.

For the label simply print the instructions from the packet out in a nice font and stick them inside a festive gift tag and attach it with some festive ribbon. Alternatively you could write the instructions on some brown textured paper or card for a real home made effect.