We love looking for easy last-minute DIY holiday gifts each year that show our friends we care, especially during such a trying time. But not all of us are gifted crafters who can knit a pair of mittens while watching a Christmas movie, or eke out the time for a complex 40-step DIY tutorial while trying to you know, have a life.
So, we’ve searched for some easy least-minute DIY holiday gifts all from crafts that we know we actually can do.
That means you can too!
While Christmas is breathing down our necks, there’s still time to create one of these special, unique, DIY gifts for the best people in your life. Especially when you consider you don’t actually have to have them all delivered by Christmas.
Surely you’ve got a neighbor, a school parent friend, a teacher, or someone else on your list who’d be thrilled to keep a little surprise merriment going right through the entire holiday season.
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Are you still shopping? Yeah, we are too. Here are quick links to all of our holiday gift guides on Cool Mom Picks, Cool Mom Eats, and Cool Mom Tech. May the shipping deadlines be ever in your favor.
Top photos: Pretty beaded wooden coasters, Lark & Linen and incredible book ornament, Lacy Loves Lit
Wonderful last-minute DIY gifts that make for some very thoughtful gifting
Last-minute DIY Gifts for friends: Sugar Spice Scrubs
Featured in our Homemade mason jar spa gift ideas all with safe, edible ingredients post, these three holiday sugar spice scrubs with a DIY tutorial from Hello Glow make great gifts. They smell terrific, scented with either peppermint, cinnamon leaf, or gingerbread to make the best smells of the holidays hang around a little longer. Grab a set of these small mason jars and divide up your creations for all your friends!
Last-minute DIY Gifts for friends: Easy wooden coasters
These easy beaded wooden coasters from Lark & Linen are customizable to match your friend’s room decor, favorite colors, or even sports team colors for Sunday game day. Paint them yourself or order a bunch in the colors you want. And, if your kids are old enough to put beads on string–voila! Helpers!
Last-minute DIY Gifts for friends: Homemade photo ornaments
Keep the kids busy by enlisting their help in decorating wooding frames for these one-of-a-kind holiday photo ornaments from Happily Eva After. Imagine giving this to a friend to celebrate a special moment you’ve had over the past year. I found the prettiest wooden frames for the kids to decorate around a photo for gifts.
If you’re shopping for someone who’s more of an Insta-fan, also check out this tutorial on Cool Mom Tech for DIY iPhone photo ornaments using quick-dry modeling clay, but you could certainly cheat it and use a heavy card stock instead.
Last-minute DIY Gifts for friends: Hot chocolate mix mason jars
The layers in this easy, last-minute DIY homemade hot chocolate mix gift idea from Love Grows Wild look so delicious through the clear sides of a mason jar. There are even two sets of free printable tags–one with ingredients and one without–to finish off your gift. Oh, and if you love the idea of easy edible mason jar gifts you can make, we’ve got loads of them on Cool Mom Eats!
Related: 16 mason jar food gifts your kids can help DIY, from sweet to savory.
Last-minute DIY Gifts for friends: Easy homemade succulent planters
As someone who has subscribed to a succulent-of-the-month club, I adore these easy DIY succulent planters from Hello Glow which make great last-minute DIY gifts — especially if stuffed with a tiny easy-to-grow plant. This no-paint craft uses just polymer clay, glue, and a few basic tools to complete.
Last-minute DIY Gifts for friends: A clever book-filled ornament
Have a voracious reader on your Christmas list? Grab their end-of-year Good Reads’ reading list or some of their all-time favorite books and you can make this amazingly clever mini book-filled ornament from Lacy Loves Lit. Her tutorial video on Instagram is very detailed using clear plastic ornaments and some other supplies, but she makes this look more doable than you might expect for a last-minute DIY gift. You will get allllll the hugs when this gift is opened.
Alternatively, fill it with your favorite Christmas books if you don’t know what they read. Brilliant.
Big h/t to @hadl Hadley Leggett who shared her own results on Twitter and made us think wow, we can maybe even do one for ourselves! With all that free time, right?
Related: See our newly updated guide to 64 cool gifts under $15 for adults that don’t feel like stocking stuffers
Last-minute DIY Gifts for friends: Easy Sharpie personalized mugs
Grab some thrift store or-dollar store mugs and follow the directions to make one of four easy DIY Sharpie mugs designs from Jennifer Maker (make sure you grab the right kind of Sharpies!). Don’t miss all her tips to insure your design lasts a long, long time.
This is one of our all-time favorite last-minute DIY gifts from the kids to the parents and grandparents — but also works for teachers, sitters, tutors, coaches, and even friends. Just tuck in a pack of hot cocoa.
Last-minute DIY Gifts for friends: Homemade stovetop simmer potpourri
Make a big batch of delicious-smelling DIY Christmas stovetop potpourris to hand out at the holidays using any one of six options from Country Hill Cottage. I love the variety of choices using dried fruits and spices you may already have on hand and the ideas for packaging them; don’t miss the free printable labels you can affix for gifting to make them just a little more pro.
Last-minute DIY Gifts for friends: Essential oil gifts
Our own Editor Liz’s favorite essential oils make the most amazing-smelling DIY desk diffusion salts to help make a friend’s home office smell beautiful — even if they have to change the occasional diaper nearby, or have a dog at their feet. This recipe from Aura Cauca uses their frankincense and bergamot essential oils though feel free to experiment with your favorite scents for a really thoughtful last-minute DIY gift for a friend.
We all know the comfy and cozy gifts go a long way this year!
Last-minute DIY Gifts for friends: Home-baked treats
All food makes a great last-minute DIY gift if it’s made from the heart, right? Featured a few years back in our roundup of 9 easy, delicious homemade food gifts for people who love to eat, this gingerbread biscotti recipe from My Ginger Garlic Kitchen makes a wonderful gift, packaged in a tin or pretty box. Plus, we can just imagine how amazing your house will smell as you bake these treats!
Related: We love these 10 festive ways to package Christmas cookie gifts
Last-minute DIY Gifts for friends: Handmade trinket dishes
Transform Sculpey oven-baked clay into these pretty jewelry trays, trinket dishes, or loose change bowls with a tutorial from Lisa Storms. We’ve loved these little trays ever since we discovered them way back in 2014 in our post on 7 gorgeous handmade clay gifts for mom from easy to wow, and they’re still perfect little gifts. Even if you don’t have a lot of time.
Last-minute DIY Gifts for friends: Holiday pillar candles. (No wax-pouring necessary.)
We love how inexpensive packs of prayer candles (these are 12 for just over $40) can be easily transformed into brightly colored, festive pillars of light. Just use the downloadable Christmas neighbor gif pack of printables from our friends at Caravan Shoppe. Along with these candle wraps, you’ll also get a whole bunch of other cool holiday printables to inspire even more smart, last-minute DIY gifts for your friends, neighbors, kids’ teachers, salon…and.anyone who could use a little kindness.
Last-minute DIY Gifts for friends: All the cookie balls!
Packaged in a small white takeout container, I don’t know anyone who would turn down these delicious no-bake peppermint Oreo truffles from Two Twenty One. And if you like these, we have 11 other fun holiday-cookie ball ideas for you to consider! Time to hit that candy cane aisle!
