Lots of people are feeling the pinch this year, but that doesn’t mean Christmas gifts have to be off the cards. There are plenty of DIY gifts you can pull together from items you’ve already got lying around at home, or materials that are cheap to buy. Homemade gifts aren’t just cheaper to give, but more thoughtful and better for the environment too - a win-win for everyone involved. Make a personalised candle Once you’ve got the hang of candle-making, you’ll never want to buy one again. For this gift, you just need a handful of materials, including wax and a wick. For a container, you can clean out and repurpose any old jar. There are several tutorials on making Christmas candles at this website. If you can’t get a hold of the materials you need to make your own candle, you could instead jazz up or personalise a shop-bought candle with ribbons, paint, card or glitter. Home-made jam or marmalade Jam is a cheap, easy and extremely tasty gift to make for your loved ones this Christmas. There’s a flexible jam recipe here which requires just three ingredients to make. You can decant the jam into any leftover, cleaned-out jars which you can again decorate as you wish. You may want to add a label detailing ingredients and best-before date. If your loved one is more a marmalade fan, you can find another three-ingredient recipe for Seville marmalade here. Give the gift of a fun afternoon baking For the baking enthusiasts in your life, bake-in-a-jar gifts are a cheap and cheerful idea guaranteed to be a hit. The idea is that you measure out all the dry ingredients for baked goods - brownies, cake, fudge - in a large mason jar and attach instructions for easy baking. The BBC has a recipe for brownies in a jar here, while you can find the ingredients for cookies in a jar here. Make your own bath salts or bath bombs Forget pricey upmarket bath products - there’s a huge variety of bathroom goodies you can make at home as a gift this Christmas. You could try making this three-ingredient citrus scrub, or craft your own bath bombs using leftover yoghurt pots as moulds. Alternatively, you could try your hand at making some bath salts, with this recipe for lavender bath salts here. Craft some homemade soap Rarely has soap ever featured so prominently in our lives as in 2020 - so we might as well embrace it. There are dozens of different recipes for soap online which only require a few ingredients. If you’re short of time, this 10-minute milk and honey soap is just the ticket. Flavoured alcohol If you want to gift something more personal than a bottle of wine, why not infuse a bottle of gin or vodka with something special instead? There’s several recipes for infused vodka here, while the BBC has an array of booze-related gift ideas here. Give the gift of Christmas in a jar For an alcohol-related gift with a Christmassy twist, put mulling spices in a mason jar and gift it along with a cheap bottle of red for your loved one to mull their own wine at home. There’s a tutorial on putting the mason jar together here. Infused oils For something a little cheaper, or as a gift for someone who doesn’t drink, you could try infusing cooking oils instead. From chili to garlic or thyme, there are myriad ways in which you can infuse oil - all with delicious results. You can find a basic tutorial here. Dip-dyed canvas bag Tote bags are everywhere these days, and can be bought pretty cheaply. Instead of just gifting a plain tote bag, add a touch of personalisation with some dye using this dip-dyed canvas bag tutorial here. You could also try other methods with dye, such as tie-dying. DIY plant pots There are tonnes of ways you can upcycle old items to make colourful planters for the green-thumbed people in your life. From tin cans to yoghurt pots, this is a huge list of DIY plant pot ideas that just require a spot of paint and some other crafting materials to make.