Ahhh, the teacher’s life. Christmas is the time of giving gifts and having fun for teachers, but we are also on a teacher’s salary. We want to give our students a little prezzie, but it has to be affordable and easy for us because one, us teachers don’t have much money to spare and two, we also don’t have much free time, what with planning and end of term reports and such.
Well my friends, I’ve got you! I have saved you some time This festive period because here is a list of things I have given my student’s in my 12 years of teaching. I’ve kept it cheap and cheerful and best of all none of these gifts for your students are candy!
Some of these ideas are homemade DIY gifts and require a little time, don’t worry, not too much time though, And some of these ideas you can buy straight from Amazon and be done with it.
One thing is for sure, this list of Christmas gift ideas for school will save you time and money. So what are you waiting for? Read it, save it for later, share with your teacher buddies and pin it for everyone to see!
*Disclaimer -This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission. Thank you!
First up Homemade DIY ideas….
DIY salt dough Christmas ornaments
These are awesome for Xmas and you can make many of them at the same time, meaning you could also give them to your teacher friends, neighbours and even family too. I love making these salt dough decorations because when I give them to my students I don’t paint them (saving me some time again). I don’t paint them so the students can design and paint them themselves, giving them something to do over the holidays and allowing them to be creative and have fun.
Easy to make and kids love them. Simply make the salt dough, use cookie cutters to cut the shapes, put a hole for the ribbon and leave to go hard. Add ribbon and give out to your kiddos. Cheap, simple and cute! Salt dough recipe here.
Hot chocolate bags
I have made these a couple of times in the past and made them slightly different each time. The first time I took white paper cups, tied a ribbon around the middle and drew eyes, nose and mouth to make a snowman, then in the cup I included a sachet of hot chocolate powder, a small packet of biscuits and some marshmallows. The other times I have made this I changed it to a reindeer and using a triangular icing bag. For this I used a big tub of chocolate powder (making it cheaper), put the hot chocolate in the bag first, then a spoon of chocolate chips and then a couple of spoons of marshmallows. On the bag I put two googly eyes on the bag and a red pom-pom at the tip of the triangle for the nose. Finally I tied it together with a brown pipe cleaner at the top to look like the antlers. Both ways are fun and the kids loved them, but I preferred the reindeer one.
DIY Shrink plastic key rings with personal message
I love, love, LOVE this gift idea. Why do I love it so much? It uses recycled plastic, reducing my waste, making it cheaper and it can be personalised for each child or class. All you need is this sheet plastic, the kind that croissants and cakes come in from the supermarket or takeaway trays, some sharpies or similar marker pens, some key ring chains (I get mine here ES and here for the US) a hole punch and scissors. Cut the sheet of plastic (quite big as it will shrink, remember) and write your message and draw your design. Put a hole in one of the corners and put in the oven at 175C for a total of around 2 mins. Be sure to watch them. In the first minute they will warp and crumple up but in the second minute they will shrink and go flat. Then take them out, wait for them to cool and add the key ring and there you have some beautiful personalised Christmas key rings for your students.
( I haven't got any photos of this one yet, but click here to view others examples)
Bead bracelets with names
This one takes a bit more time but is super cute and your students will love them. You will need string/cord, coloured beads and letter beads. I actually do this as a classroom Xmas activity and let the kids do it themselves, letting them keep it afterwards and pairing it with a small gift such as a Christmas pencil, but you could also make them and give them out too.
Recycled crayons
Another great opportunity for you to recycle and produce less waste in your classroom whilst still creating a pretty amazing festive gift for your class and all you need to do is get all the small broken bits of crayon leftover and too small to use. Remove the paper from them, put them into a Christmassy silicon mold just like this one ES or this one USA and put in the oven at 200c for 10 minutes, or until melted and then use a thin stick to move around the colours. Then let them cool and peel them out of the molds.
Colourful, bright, original gifts for your kids and cheap too!
Do you need some cool gifts but really don’t have any free time to make them?
Here we have 5 cheap and cheerful student gifts for Chrstmas.
Invisible ink set ES https://amzn.to/3T3uS1i USA https://amzn.to/3zyEHgw
16 for €19.99 or $19.99
These are super cute and my students absolutely loved them. We also used the pens in class to do different tasks too! Soooooo Much fun and value for money.
Colour yourself superhero backpack ES https://amzn.to/3DuMvkC
25 bags €33.90
I used these with my younger years and boy did they enjoy colouring them in and showing them off wearing them to school. They have many designs but I liked the superhero ones best as they are gender neutral.
Mini Pop it key rings ES https://amzn.to/3FCbENa USA https://amzn.to/3DR0LWk
8 for €12.99 30 for $11.99
Do your students love pop its? I know mine do, and so these bracelets were a big hit for my older students. It’s cool, it’s hip and a very nice Xmas gift making you the best teacher around.
Play Doh! Mini tubs ES https://amzn.to/3SUcvvx USA https://amzn.to/3TXzRBE
15 for €9.49 65 pack for $21.99
Ahhh the smell of play doh! These special bags are designed for sharing and so contain many small pots making them great value for money!
Rubix cubes ES https://amzn.to/3TTWtTv USA https://amzn.to/3DupBdh
24 for €26.45 21 for $9.98
Want to give your students a challenge? I gave mine these fabulous Rubix cubes! They are a low cost affordable way to buy a present for the whole class and they are SO MUCH FUN!
With these outstanding gift ideas for the classroom you are sure to find something that your class will love and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg! Win - Win in my books!
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