The weather’s getting cooler, Halloween and (Canadian) Thanksgiving are behind us and stores have started putting out their Christmas displays. That can only mean it’s officially time to start planning your holiday crafting. If you’ve got school-aged children, you may also have a few teachers on your gift list. To help you with your planning, I’ve assembled 25 of the most thoughtful and easy DIY Christmas gift ideas for teachers that you can create in an afternoon.
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Teacher gifts can be tricky because for the most part, we don’t know the personal preferences of our kids’ teachers. So the magic is in creating a thoughtful gift that shows our appreciation for the hard work teachers do, all while not knowing a whole lot about them.
A lot of these DIY Christmas gift ideas for teachers would also be perfect for neighbours, sport coaches, bus or delivery drivers. Basically, for the people in your life who you appreciate, but don’t necessarily know all that well.
Most of these DIYs can also be assembled with the help of your kiddos, which I think is always a nice personal touch.
And if you’re looking for even more DIY Christmas gifts, I’ve actually written 4 others posts on the subject containing an additional 100 ideas! Here are the links:
25 DIY Christmas Gifts for Friends
25 DIY Gifts for Family
25 Unique Handmade Gifts for Christmas
25 Christmas Gift Ideas to Make and Sew
Alright, let’s dive in!
DIY Christmas Gifts for Teachers
1. Mason Jar Tea Kit
I’m crazy about this idea! Tuck a few tea bags, treats and sweets into a mason jar, and the jar becomes the tea cup! Love it.
2. Caramel Apple Kit
If you’re handy in the kitchen, you can make a big batch of homemade caramel and portion it out into small jars to make a whole bunch of these delicious kits to give out!
3. Stovetop Simmer Satchels
This is a lovely idea for making a space smell divine! The tag is a free printable too.
4. Eye Mask
This is a simple DIY sewing project. You could include a sassy comment about how teachers need their rest!
5. Soup Mix in a Jar
I just think you can’t go wrong with an edible gift. And it’s nice to have a savoury option like soup as well as all the sweet ideas!
6. Salt Dough Ornaments
This is an easy DIY ornament idea that you can get the kids on board to help with. You could use small letter stamps like these to personalize the ornaments even more to each teacher.
7. Mason Jar Gifts
A jar full of sweet treats, what’s not to love?! This post has a few different treat ideas with matching printable tags.
8. Apple Candle Jar
Your whole house might be covered in red glitter by the time you finish this project, but I think it’s well worth it. Look how cute that little apple is!
9. Crochet Coffee Sleeves
Absolutely adorable!
10. Hot Chocolate on a Stick
The variety pictured is a salted caramel hot chocolate I believe. You could get creative and come up with a whole bunch of flavour combinations! These striped wooden spoons would be perfect for this DIY teacher gift idea.
11. Personalized Tote Bag
I love the simple stitched design on this bag! You could also stitch the name instead of using a Cricut like is pictured here. All you need is an inexpensive blank canvas tote bag and a few colours of thread to create this personalized teacher gift!
12. Apple Pretzel Bites
These are adorable! I personally loooove chocolate and pretzels together.
13. Succulent Ruler Planter
This is really cute, and an easy way for teachers to add some plants to their classrooms! You can grab an inexpensive bulk amount of wooden rulers here. And check out this post of DIY felt succulents if you’d rather go that route!
14. Teacher’s Emergency Stash
This is cute! I should make some “Mom’s emergency stash” for my friends…and me…
I’ve spotted containers like this at my local craft store for organizing threads, but I found some online here too that have removable dividers so you can make perfect sized compartments.
15. Personalized Suede Keychains
These are so simple and sweet!
16. Resin Bookmarks
Teachers have a lot of books; stands to reason they’d need a lot of bookmarks too! And these are so pretty!
The resin molds you’d need to make these bookmarks are very inexpensive as it turns out. I’ve never tried resin crafts, so I’d recommend further research to make sure you purchase the correct supplies, but this set looks good to me!
17. DIY Word Magnets
Teachers love words! And most teachers have filing cabinets or other magnetic surfaces in their classrooms for these words to stick to. It’s a fun way to encourage some silly poetry creation. 🙂
18. Pencil Sign
This is a lovely and thoughtful DIY Christmas gift idea for teachers. You could use DIY felt flowers instead paper if you prefer! 😉
19. Teacup Candles
You could have so much fun searching through thrift shops to find beautiful tea cups for this project!
20. Pencil Jar
Well, technically it’s a pencil pencil jar. lol
21. Felt Apple Coasters
These are so cute that I wish I had come up with this idea! Oh well. I did design these lemons though!
22. DIY Kleenex Pouch
Another simple sewing project. Teachers always need to have kleenex on hand and this is a little more decorative for pulling out of a pocket than a crinkly plastic bag.
23. Ouch Pouch
So cute. So so cute. I can’t even.
One of these would be so handy for a teacher to keep in their desk with a few first aid supplies inside to help soothe the inevitable bumps and scrapes that happen in a day.
24. DIY Abstract Painted Mugs
Gift one of these mugs with a selection of teas and a cookie treat. It’s basically my ideal gift!
25. Teacher Ornaments
You need a Cricut to be able to make these, unless you are a skilled painter. But I wanted to include them because they’re delightful! I spotted this style of flattened ball ornament at my local craft store, but I also found them here.
I hope at least one of these DIY Christmas gift ideas for teachers resonated with you. But if all else fails, my handmade letter ornaments are always a great option too! 😉
Comment below with some of the things you’ve done for teachers at Christmastime, I’m always on the lookout for fresh ideas!
Happy holiday crafting,
ps. I’ve got one more bonus idea to add to this list:
DIY Baked Clay Ornaments
You can whip up a batch of these in about an hour! They’re perfect for attaching to a Christmas card as a little thank you. 🙂
Thank you for including my tea kit in this lovely round up!
Of course! It’s such a cute idea!