by Morning Mist

Created on: October 24, 2008   Last Updated: October 30, 2008

At Christmas I create food gift baskets for medical offices that I do business with. I buy baskets on sale at craft stores during the year. They come in every shape, color and weave, are quite lovely and only a couple of dollars. I place two holiday place mats or dish towels in the bottom that drape over the front and back and then add a bit of paper confetti. The centerpiece is a cake that goes back four family generations. People demand this cake on birthdays, and yes they have tried to duplicate it :). I then add six or seven types of homemade cookies and tiny loafs of bread in a mixture of holiday bags, boxes, tins or celophane. I decorate it with candy canes and quality chocolate in holiday colors. I also put in a jar or two of homemade jelly. I then pull the confetti from the bottom up, in between and around the bags for color and depth. I hang Christmas ornaments from the handles on the inside. For gaps just throw in some hard candy, hot chocolate, stretch gloves, chap-stick, lollipops or whatever else you can find that is inexpensive to fill the holes between all that tantalizing, delicious food. The possibilities are endless; in seven years there have never been two alike.

They are fun to design and I love seeing the georgeous end product. I finish it off by covering these goodies with a basket cover that comes in clear or all kinds of awesome prints. Tie a big red or gold wide satin ribbon in a bow to close and hang a nice sized bell, angel or blinking lights below the bow. In less than an hour you will be viewing the snowman, Santa or snowflake place mats sitting all alone - or maybe not - because somebody took them. The CEO tells me that it is the only time that the girls act like scavengers. Fortunately she was able to rescue the cake for a board meeting. After the holiday is over they pull a name out of a hat for the winner of the empty basket.

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