Holiday Food Gifts: Recipes & Wrapping Ideas Featuring Plastic Containers

Pieces of coordinating scrapbooking paper and fluffy cotton balls come together to make a whimsical Santa atop a plastic storage container.

1. Fill a large, flat rectangular plastic container with appetizers.

2. To make a Santa, cut coordinating pieces of scrapbooking paper into a mustache, hat band, and stocking cap. Adhere all the pieces of the paper to the top of the container using a glue stick.

3. Using crafts glue, attach one cotton ball at the peak of the hat and nine, pyramid-stacked cotton balls underneath the mustache to create a beard. See the next slide for a materials list.

Recipe Ideas:

What You'll Need:

Large flat plastic container, scrapbook paper, scissors, glue stick, crafts glue, cotton balls

Editor's Tip: If you have scrap pieces of scrapbooking paper, this is a good place to use them up. You'll need long narrow pieces for the mustache and hat band, and a larger piece for the hat top.

A rectangular plastic storage container can be transformed into a piece of art with simple craft supplies and a headband.

1. Fill a rectangular plastic storage container with the cookies. Cut a triangle of brown felt the width of the lid. Attach the triangle to the top of the container using fabric glue.

2. Add two googley eyes and a large black pom-pom for the nose using fabric glue.

3. To create the antlers, twist a 3-inch piece of brown chenille stem around each end of one long brown chenille stem (about an inch down from the top). Twist the long chenille stem around a thin brown headband and stretch the headband over the width of the container. See the next slide for a materials list.

Recipe Ideas:

What You'll Need:

Rectangle plastic storage container, brown felt, scissors, fabric glue, googley eyes, black pom-pom, brown chenille stems, child's brown headband

Editor's Tip: Look for an inexpensive, thin headband to create the antlers. Test it out before you purchase it as it needs to be flexible enough to stretch the width of the container.

With easy assembly, pieces of felt transform into a darling tree on a tall snack container.

1. Cut three equal-size triangle from each piece of three shades of green felt. Cut a piece of brown felt into a thin rectangle.

2. Adhere the brown felt to the container (filled with snack mix) using fabric glue, then stack and glue on the green felt triangles to form the tree.

3. Use colored string to tie a metal-frame gift tag around the lid. See the next slide for a materials list.

Recipe Ideas:

What You'll Need:

Tall plastic container, brown and green felt, scissors, colored string, metal-frame gift tag

Editor's Tip: If you don't find colored string your supply of craft materials, use yarn or thin ribbon to tie on the gift tag.

Decorated and stacked, matching plastic containers in three sizes give the illusion of a frosty winter guy.

1. Using crafts glue, attach one large button to one side of a large square container; fill the container with holiday snacks (we used corn chips).

2. Attach two buttons vertically on one side of a medium-size container. Fill the container (we filled it with salsa).

3. Glue two small buttons horizontally onto a small (1-cup-size) container and fill with another dip or snack mix stir-in.

4. Stack and tie a ribbon around the base of the top container to be the snowman's scarf. See the next slide for a materials list.

Recipe Ideas:

What You'll Need:

Stackable plastic containers in three sizes, crafts glue, assorted buttons, ribbon

Editor's Tip: Using mismatched buttons adds character. If you don't have a button jar filled with extras, check out fabric stores, thrift stores, antiques stores, or flea markets for buttons in various shapes, sizes, and colors.

A container of homemade jam (or flavored butter) takes cover with a sweater sleeve and a tie-on spoon.

1. Cut the sleeve off an old sweater 1 inch longer than the height measurement of a plastic container filled with jam or flavored butter.

2. Slide the sleeve over the container.

3. Tie on a small jam spoon to the front of the container with a ribbon.

4. Attach a paper snowflake to the top of the lid using crafts glue. See the next slide for a materials list.

Recipe Ideas:

What You'll Need:

Old sweater sleeve, 2-cup plastic container, ribbon, vintage jam spoon, paper snowflake, crafts glue

Editor's Tip: You can opt to use a sterilized small canning jar instead of a plastic container. If you use a small jar, use an old child-size sweater for a snugger fit for the sleeve.