Cooking traditional foods is an excellent way to involve youngsters in the gift-giving, and to give them a little history on their heritage. If you have a handed down family recipe, all the better. But if not, recipes from all over the world can be found on the Internet and beautiful tins are readily available at thrift stores, flea markets and garage sales. If you don't have any tins, use some holiday fabric, a little lace, and a glue gun to fashion a beautiful cookie tin from old coffee cans. Collect and make recipe books.
Kids love to assemble things, and any cook is sure to love another collection of recipes.
Find recipes in magazines or on the Internet. Copy them on the computer and print out on Christmas stationary. Make a nice cover for your recipe book. Create Old World Santas for the mantle with old paper towel cardboard. Use cotton for his beard, felt or scrap plaid materials for his hat, pink felt for his nose, and black construction paper for his belt.