Infused Holiday Magic with DIY Gift Ideas

Can a handmade gift truly capture the spirit of the holiday season? Join us on Bite Me as we explore the art of DIY cannabis gifts that promise to surprise and delight. This episode is a treasure trove of ideas for anyone looking to create thoughtful, budget-friendly presents with a personal touch. From crafting mouthwatering infused chocolate bark and caramels to creating soothing body oils and pain-relieving salves, we guide you through the process of making gifts that are as unique as the people receiving them. Plus, discover the secrets to festive packaging and clever ways to communicate potency, ensuring a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone.

Step into the world of homemade cannabis gift-giving that not only warms the heart but also soothes the soul. Whether you're whipping up spiced nuts, infusing hot sauces, or concocting your own cannabis-infused olive oil, these ideas cater to both sweet and savory palates. Elevate your gifting game with personalized spa sets or infuse a little magic into holiday drinks like hot chocolate and eggnog. Throughout the episode, we emphasize the joy of crafting these gifts even amidst busy schedules, offering tips to reduce holiday stress and overconsumption. Your loved ones will appreciate the thoughtful, handcrafted touches that make these gifts unforgettable.

Links & Mentions:

• Chocolate Citrus Nut Bark
• Fudge
• Caramels
• Roasted Nuts
• Hot Chocolate
• BBQ Sauce
• Body Butter
• Pain Relieving Salve
• Body Oil
• Butter & Flower
• Chill A Wine Lover's Intro to Cannabis
• Bite Me Edibles Journal
• Cannabis in Your Kitchen
• Calculator

Happy making!

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Chapters

• 1:09 DIY Cannabis Gifts for the Holidays
• 8:15 Homemade Cannabis Edible Gift Ideas
• 16:11 Personalized Cannabis Gifts and Packaging

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:09

Welcome to episode 279. Today we are doing DIY cannabis gifts from the Bite Me archives. Welcome to Bite Me, the show about edibles, where I help you take control of your high life. I'm your host and certified gonger, margaret, and I love helping cooks make safe and effective edibles at home. I'm so glad you're here.

Speaker 1: 1:32

Welcome back, my friends, to another episode of Bite Me, and this one is coming out at a time where we're getting close to the big day. If it is Christmas that you're celebrating, perhaps it's not. You might be celebrating somebody or another another holiday, of which there are many this time of year, and I hope you're enjoying your holidays, no matter when and where they happen to be occurring. But if you are celebrating Christmas, then this episode is coming out. It'll be out a week before, just actually less than a week before Christmas. So tick tock, my friends, am I right Now? I know there are some of you are listening who have probably gotten all of your Christmas shopping and baking and all these things done by mid-November, and if that is you, well, I commend you for that level of organization. Unfortunately, that is not many of us, and so this episode is to help you folks out there who are needing some gift ideas for the upcoming holidays.

Speaker 1: 2:32

It's going to include food, edibles, of course, and body care products, and I personally think that DIY gifts are really thoughtful, they're fun to make and they're perfect for cannabis enthusiasts and the cannabis curious as well. So don't think that DIY gifts are lesser than a store-bought gift. I personally think they're not. I love getting DIY gifts, like I have a friend who loves to make soap and she'll gift me bars of soap, and I love that because that's what I like to use and it just means that you have poured some of your time, energy and love to the thing that you're making with those people that you're gifting it to in mind, and it's such a special thing to be like hey, that person was thinking of me while they were making this.

Speaker 1: 3:15

So I hope that you can spend some time in the kitchen, put on some Christmas carols or Christmas music or whatever it is that you like to listen to, because I know there's also plenty of you out there who probably opt to not listen to any Christmas music and you know, personally I don't mind some Christmas music. I have a couple of Christmas albums that I love to listen to. Michael Buble and Diana Krall happen to be a couple of them, both Canadian artists that put out fantastic vibey Christmas albums and I really enjoy listening to those. I'm not doing Mariah Carey over here, I'm sorry. I haven't really listened to a lot of it this year, so maybe I'll have to put some of that on myself. Take my own advice, but I do have the Christmas tree up and I'm getting pretty much ready. I still have a few things to do and I have made quite a few DIY gifts already this year, so I'm not as organized as having things done by mid-November, but I'm not also completely unorganized either. So this is to help you and to help me as well.

Speaker 1: 4:16

But why DIY gifts? Well, personally, I think you add that personal touch and customization when you're making a gift yourself and, like I already mentioned, people really appreciate the thoughtfulness yourself and, like I already mentioned, people really appreciate the thoughtfulness. They can also be budget friendly while also being meaningful, and you know finances are tight for a lot of folks this time of year and increasingly, all times of year. So why not do yourself a favor and find a way to have that meaning and impact without breaking the bank, because Christmas the holidays is not supposed to be about stressing out and going into debt for Christmas. I'm kind of over that, over consumerism, over consumption that we seem to get pushed more and more every year. I do recall earlier this year, halloween was over, it was November 1st and I opened up a social platform I think it was TikTok on November 1st, and I was served my first Christmas ad. It's too soon, it's too soon, but there was this real focus on buying stuff that people don't need and a way to get around that is DIY gifts, and it's also a great way to share your cannabis knowledge and creativity as well with loved ones who might not otherwise ask questions or use cannabis in this way, and I do love that. If you have folks in your family that are, or friends circle as well, that are not cannabis consumers, you can still gift them topicals, and topicals are such a beautiful entry point into cannabis because they're safe and they are incredibly effective for so many people and they're not going to get high, so it's just one way to be like check out this plant. I know, you know that I use it, but you don't have to use it the way that I do. You can still benefit from it. Diy cannabis. Gifts are impactful in a lot of different ways.

Speaker 1: 6:21

All right, so let's get into it, shall we? First of all, we're going to start out with our sweet and savory treats, because a lot of people love to get tasty treats and if they're infused it makes them even better. Let's be honest. I mean, getting a box of chocolates is nice, although sometimes I may curse a person, because the last thing I need is more chocolate or more sweets that I know I'm going to eat and then I'm going to have to exercise even harder later to work it off. But if it's infused now, now you're speaking my love language, because, one, I love an edible tie and, two, I can't eat the whole box if they're infused, because we all know what will happen if you do that. So a sweet or savory treat that's infused chef's kiss.

Speaker 1: 7:12

Now, the first one I'm going to start out with I did this episode recently was an infused chocolate bark. The one that I did for the Bite Me episode a few weeks ago was a chocolate citrus nut bark, but of course you can tailor nut bark to your audience if you're not keen on. On the citrus, the citrus was a really nice twist, but it's perfect for the sweet tooths and when you cut it up into the nice shapes, it really it really looks like a sophisticated gift or sophisticated treat, and it's really easy to make as well. So it's not going to be something you're going to have to spend tons of time on in the kitchen to make an impressive looking gift. The next one I'm going to recommend is infused caramels or fudge. Now, I've made both of these more than once. I have made probably three or four pans of fudge already this holiday season, and I have none left to gift at the moment. So I'm going to have to make another four pans of fudge already this holiday season, and I have none left to gift at the moment, so I'm gonna have to make another pan. But fortunately, fudge is very easy as well.

Speaker 1: 8:15

Definitely falls into the category of of simplicity, along with the chocolate bark, and of course, you make a whole tray of it and you cut it up into little pieces. It's a lovely gift and you can also modify your recipes to suit suit you and your tastes or the taste of whoever it is that you're gifting it to. Now. Caramels are also a lovely gift. They do require more hands-on time, so they're not as fast, but if you have somebody that you really care about and you have the time, then it's impressive visually because each of the caramels are wrapped in a little piece of parchment paper that you've cut out to look like the ones that you might buy at the store. Of course they don't look like the ones that you buy at the store. They definitely look DIY At least they do when I make them. I am no Martha Stewart, but they still look great. And when you put them in a nice festive container they have that wow factor. And I've had people try the caramels. I haven't made them in a while. I really should revisit them because they also do freeze well and usually the batch makes quite a few caramels. You're not just making a handful, you're making a number of them and I've had people request caramels because they are so good and they make a great treat.

Speaker 1: 9:25

Now, of course, if you are gifting to people who are not really into the sweets, what about those folks? Well, this is where I think your spiced nuts really comes into play. I did a sweet and spicy nut mix before for this episode, for this, for Bite Me, the Show about edibles and you can put that in a nice little jar, again very simple to make. These are all ideas that are relatively simple to make because, of course, when we're a week out, you don't have a ton of time and I know you folks are all busy anyway. So, even if it wasn't the holidays, you're all busy, you're working and you're you're playing and doing things. So, uh, the spice, the uh, the uh, the roasted nuts is another nice way to give the gift of edibles.

Speaker 1: 10:13

Now, of course, you could also infuse a favorite hot sauce or barbecue sauce to somebody who's into that kind of thing. That would make a really nice gift as well, so somebody who's looking more towards the savory end of things. So don't forget about infusing sauces and hot hot sauces, because that can make a fantastic gift too. And finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention eggnog and hot chocolate. Now, these might not necessarily be gifts, although what you could do with the hot chocolate is prepare a jar with all the ingredients and then include a little vial of the infusion that you would add into it to make it an infused hot chocolate. That could be kind of fun to do. But if you're having company over for any kind of festive celebrations, then hot chocolate is nice, but I love, love, love.

Speaker 1: 11:06

I don't know if I can express to you how much I love eggnog, and I don't buy the store-bought stuff. It's not quite the same. I figure, if I'm going to enjoy all that fat and sugar combined together, I might as well make it myself, and it's pretty easy to make. Actually, often I am one of the few people imbibing in it. My dad has partaken with me before, so I have to be mindful of how I'm infusing it. Of course, depending on who's going to be enjoying it.

Speaker 1: 11:35

You can spike it or not. I tend to not spike it if I'm infusing it with cannabis. But you could always make two batches and spike one with the booze and spike one with the cannabis and see who wakes up at the hangover the next day, although you'd have to drink an awful lot of eggnog for that to happen. So you know, tread lightly, of course, but I love eggnog. There's just the combination of all those flavors with the spice. That's just so good. But you know, I drink it pretty much like two days out of the year and then that's it. I mean, I don't buy it. Like I said, I already don't buy it, but I'm not making jugs of eggnog before Christmas, like I am fudge. So there's that.

Speaker 1: 12:21

Now, if you're looking for other ideas, don't discount the idea of pantry staples. You could gift honey or maple syrup infused Beautiful, perfect for people who like tea or who are using honey or syrup on a regular basis in their diet. Tea just comes to mind because that's a lovely way to use honey or syrup and of course, you can just put it in a nice jar. But that makes a lovely gift. Also, what about cannabis infused olive oil? A gift of that? That would be lovely. Or cannabis infused butter. But the olive oil is kind of nice because it doesn't necessarily have to be like refrigerated or anything like that. Nothing necessarily have to infuse or refrigerate the butter, but you probably should. Same goes, you could do a coconut oil as well.

Speaker 1: 13:11

But there's something nice and sophisticated, I think, about the infused olive oil. And you can get a nice, a nice olive oil, infuse it and you could put it back in the same bottle. You just got to make sure you would label that bottle. But those are two ideas that would make really nice gifts because, as we know, there is some time time involved in making an infusion. You have to decarb that weed. You have to. You have to get the plant material in the first place, then you have to decarb it, then you have to infuse it and then strain it and then bottle it. But it can be used in so many ways. And, of course, why not? If you're going to go the route of an infused olive oil, you could consider pairing it with a small loaf of homemade bread or some nice buns or something like that, and maybe a holiday recipe card. So it gives them some ideas of how to use that olive oil once they have it. So it gives them some ideas of how to use that olive oil once they have it.

Speaker 1: 14:20

Next, like I mentioned at the top of this episode, body. This is a wonderful way to introduce them to how fantastic cannabis can be. So why not think about making an infused bath salt or soak? I've done that before for the show. I believe I've also done bath bombs, but if you're running short on time, you need, do need to get molds for the bath bombs, and you can find them pretty easily, probably like a craft supply store or Amazon, of course, but you're running out of time, I'm going to say so the bath salts, actually, if you put them in the right container, can look just as pretty and impressive as a bath bomb, and then people can use how much, however much they want to use, to use, and you can customize it. Of course you could customize the bath bombs as well, but with your favorite essential oils, and that's a really lovely gift. But I would say, when it comes to the bath bombs of bath salts, the bath salts are probably going to be better. That's what I would suggest for that. Go with the salts.

Speaker 1: 15:17

Now, of course, you can also make a cannabis infused body butter or salve. Those are one of the body butter. I make a body butter all the time. I use it pretty much year round, but it is a godsend in the wintertime because my skin gets so dry and I'm sure that's the same for many of many of you out there, especially if you're in those cold climates that your skin can just dry out and you feel like you're a crocodile or something like that. The body butter is rich and it's emollient, but the one that I make, which I will link to in the show notes, does not sort of soak into the skin too well. It does sit for a while and some people like that feeling and other people don't. One way that I love using it is I will, I will put it on my feet and then put my socks on and my feet have never. I've been doing that a lot lately and my feet have never been softer. And it's so nice and you just don't worry as much about how it doesn't soak in as fast when it's on your feet. But I love doing that.

Speaker 1: 16:12

And a salve? I do have one, a pain-relieving salve that a listener sent to me quite some time ago that I did an episode around and that's just a very simple pain relief salve that you can put in a nice little tin and give to somebody that you care about that you know might be suffering from some arthritis or other kinds of aches and pains, and that's another lovely way to show someone that you care. And introduce them to cannabis as well, if they're not regular cannabis consumers. If you don't think that the body butter, if you think that that might be a little bit too thick for someone, a body oil or massage oil is also a wonderful gift. I use the body oils all the time. I've been using like a face oil on my face, but the body oil is great for when you do want something to sort of soak into your skin faster but you want to really fight that dry winter skin. And of course, you can create scent combinations depending on what essential oils you have or can pick up, and that makes a really nice gift as well.

Speaker 1: 17:13

You can also, if you want, to create sort of home spa gift sets. You can have your infused products like a body butter or a body oil or your salts, and then maybe you go to the store and you get a bar of soap and a loofah or something like that, just to make it all come together. Maybe you're going to throw in some of your fudge or your spiced nuts or whatever it is. But creating combinations is also a great way to sort of put some of these together in an attractive package for somebody that really deserves it this year. And you know, baskets, gift boxes, reusable bags there's a lot of different ways that you could sort of put those together to make it look really nice. Finally, how are you going to present and package all of these? Well, ideally if you can use eco-friendly or festive packaging Now, that's getting easier these days to do.

Speaker 1: 18:02

I went to the dollar store the other day to get some cardboard boxes. They had festive ones, they had plain ones that were for other times of the year, I guess, and festive can mean very Christmassy, with like Santa Claus on it or something. But there's plenty of options too that are more wintry, which I sometimes like to go for instead of the overt Christmas stuff. And the dollar store also carried a lot of glass jars, and some of them were like just really nice glass jars with a bamboo lid and like a rubber stop. So those are nice options as well. But there's all kinds of things you can just pick up the dollar store for just a little bit of money and it can really take your your, your topical, your body care product or your edible and make it look wow. For not a lot of money you can get pretty creative with that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1: 18:52

The other thing I would mention is personalized labels. That's another way to make your edibles or your body care products really stand out, and you can go to an office supply store and pick up blank labels and then design something online that you can print, and it just adds that little professional touch. And why not consider also including recipe cards or how-to notes along with the products that you're gifting, because that way people will receive them and they'll know how to use them if they're unfamiliar or if they're new to edibles, because some they might not know that when you apply a topical it can sometimes take up to 20 minutes for that topical to really start to do its magic. A card that would include a little bit of that information would really help, and sometimes it's nice to you know, just talk about the fact that you made this and maybe you grew the weed or or whatever the case might be, and like show that farm to table kind of journey or or just personalize it to the person who's receiving the gift. And this is also important as well If you're going to be including edibles gifts with people where you're maybe unsure of their tolerance as well.

Speaker 1: 20:00

So do be sure that you're doing the math on anything that you're gifting. I can't stress that enough, and I of course have a calculator over at bite me podcast that's free to use and you can figure out the potency of whatever it is that you're making with a reasonable amount of accuracy. I mean, you do have to consider if you don't know the potency of your cannabis your starting material is going to. You might be guessing a little bit, but it gives people at least a benchmark of where they're at and you can say well, if this thing is 20 milligrams per piece of fudge, let's say, then you could include enough fudge so that, if they want, they can cut that piece into up to four pieces and then they can go from there and then you know work from there.

Speaker 1: 20:47

I like to do stuff like that, because receiving edibles blind, without any kind of idea how strong they are, just doesn't work. And experienced cannabis users, depending on your tolerance, I mean, you might be like, oh, that's fine, because you have a high tolerance, you know that somebody might gift you something. You'd be like, yeah, it's probably not strong enough. I myself don't fall into that category. I have a higher tolerance than some people. I'm about a 20 to 30 milligram kind of gal. But that 20 or 30 milligrams for somebody else might cripple somebody. And of course I know people who could eat 100 milligrams and barely be affected by it.

Speaker 1: 21:27

So don't forget the tolerances very widely and include as much information as you can in a nice way, like including the note and of course, if you're also so inclined, including a recipe card if you're going the route of pantry items, a recipe card or something to that effect can be something nice to include with your gift as well. Don't forget to label everything properly. Just because you're doing homemade labels doesn't mean that it can't look attractive. But when I say label, I'm not just saying, oh here's, you know, margaret's body butter, a label like that, but make sure you have somewhere that it's clearly infused and how much is in it. Now, it's not really so concerning when it comes to the topicals, of course, because you can't get high from topicals, but if you're doing anything that they're going to be eating, you have to include that um potency with whatever it is that you're gifting, um, and you need to be mindful of your recipient's preferences and tolerance levels, and if you're unsure, this is why that becomes even more important.

Speaker 1: 22:27

The last thing I want to mention and this isn't necessarily a DIY, but as a book lover, I love gifting books, and there are several people that have put out books this year that I think are worth sharing, and if this is something that you're interested in, you might be able to pick them up at your local bookstore. That's where I always check first. Then books are also always a wonderful gift as well, and if you know somebody that's really into making edibles, a cannabis cookbook can be a wonderful way to give them some inspiration. Besides, of course, recommending bite me the show about edibles, but let me recommend ann alchin's book butter and flour and stoned. I'd also like to recommend amanda breeze's book that she put out uh, I can't remember the name of it off the top of my head is escaping me. I'm Amanda, but she did a book on making topicals and that's a gift that can keep on giving as well, and I made the lotion bars from her book and they are fantastic. I'll be gifting a number of those to friends and family this year as well, but I use it every day on my back. It's just infused cacao butter with some other ingredients and it's really soft, and I rub it on my back in the morning and I rub it on my at night and also whenever else I need a little relief and it it's magical. So I would recommend that book also.

Speaker 1: 23:48

Jackie McGaskill she was also a guest on the show earlier this year, not that long ago, and she recently came out with a book called chill the wine lovers introduction to cannabis, and that is a book, obviously for wine drinkers who are new to cannabis, and it really shows the parallels between cannabis and wine, and she does that in such an approachable way. So if you have any people that are curious about cannabis, or maybe they're still harboring some of that stigma or some of that propaganda that we all many of us grew up with depending on aging myself right here, dating myself because I did grow up with some of that propaganda and so if you have wine lovers in your life that are curious or maybe they're holding some of that stigma, this can be a really great approachable book to give them, just to get them thinking about it, maybe trying some things out for themselves, like a nice topical. So those are some books that I recommend.

Speaker 1: 24:41

There are so many wonderful cannabis cookbooks out there. I may create an Amazon list and just list some of the ones that I have on my shelf, because I have a number of them now and I do like to collect them, but I also like to have ones that are unique. It's really easy to just end up with a shelf full of all kind of the same book, but I think there's some wonderful authors, many of whom have been guests on this show as well. So that's not exactly DIY, but you are supporting other fellow cannabis creators out there that are doing some cool stuff in the world. So thank you for listening in. I hope this gives you a little bit of inspiration as we get closer to the holiday season, and I hope you're looking forward to some downtime with your friends and family. But take this inspiration, run with it. Tag me in anything that you create online. I would love to see it. And until next week, my friends, I am your host, margaret. Stay high.