Tis a week before Christmas, and all through the state,
the post office is backed up, and packages are late.
As such, it’s pretty much too late to order Christmas presents online and hope for them to arrive on time.
Enter – chicken egg Christmas gift options.
If you’re needing some last minute Christmas gifts for any family, friends, or neighbors and have some extra fresh eggs on hand, these last minute gift ideas are for you!
Holiday Eggs
While laying typically tends to wane during the winter, if you’re blessed with an abundance of eggs then some fresh eggs makes for a great last minute gift. To make them special and seasonal, package them in a cookie tin, basket, or even an emptied chocolate box along with some festive tissue paper, ribbons, or some fresh holly leaves or pine branches for décor.
You can further dress the eggs up by spraying them with edible/food-safe paint, pressing on some gold leaf, or stamping them with a Christmas-themed stamp.
Baked Goods
If you’re a baker then there’s a plethora of recipes online that you can bake which will use up some eggs. And who doesn’t like getting some fresh baked goods for Christmas? (no one!).
Some suggestions:
- Quiche – a good way to use up several eggs in one go and great gift to bring over for breakfast.
- Cookies – whether chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, or gingerbread cookies are your favorite, all are delicious options. Whip out your favorite cookie recipes and get baking!
- Cake – Some festive cake options you could bake and gift include Buche De Noel (aka Yule Log / roll cake), chocolate peppermint cake, or fruit cake (<– this last one’s personally not my fav).
Baked Good Kit
Going further with the gift of fresh eggs, put together a baked good kit. Include pre-measured flour, sugar, eggs and other ingredients along with a recipe card for your favorite holiday baked good. I recommend only including dry ingredients and eggs, and leaving other wet ingredients like milk, water, or oil to the person being gifted. You may have seen similar kits before such as mug cake mixes, brownie mixes etc.
Eggnog Kit
If the person you want to gift eggs to is an eggnog lover, then why not gift them some eggs along with the other ingredients needed for eggnog and a recipe card? You could gift wrap the items along with a cup perfect for drinking eggnog out of. (Keeping in mind eggnog recipes only use the yolks).
This is also a great way to gift some rum to an alcohol lover (alcohol is optional for most eggnog recipes).
My Go-To Eggnog Recipe: (makes 6 servings)
Ingredients:
- 6 Large Eggs
- 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 cup Heavy Cream
- 2 cups Milk (I use whole)
- 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
- 3 Whole Cloves -or- 1/4 tsp Cloves
- 1/2 tsp Cinnamon (plus more for topping)
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- Rum (Optional)
Directions:
- Whisk egg yolks in a large bowl until light yellow on color. Add sugar and continue to whisk until light and fluffy.
- Combine heavy cream, milk, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon in a saucepan over the lowest heat setting. Stir on occasion for about 5 minutes. Increase heat to medium-low and bring to simmer. Remove from heat.
- Pour some of the hot milk mixture into the egg yolk and sugar mixture. Continue to quickly whisk to avoid the eggs cooking and becoming scrambled. Slowly add the remainder of milk while continuously whisking.
- Pour the eggnog mixture back into the saucepan nd cook over medium-low heat, while stirring constantly. Don’t allow the mixture to come to a boil. Continue to cook and stir until mixture thickens slightly (it will thicken up more as it cools).
- Strain the mixture to remove the whole cloves (if you used them).
- Let mixture cool for at least an hour and then stir in the vanilla extract and rum (if using).
- Refrigerate until completely chilled.
- Serve with a sprinkling of cinnamon on top and enjoy!
Egg Ornaments
Eggs that have been blown out and cleaned can make for a quick and easy and beautiful gift.
If you’re into crafts you may already have everything you need on hand for a Christmas egg ornament, but if not a quick trip down to a craft store should be able to provide you with what you need.
Make small holes on the top and bottom of some eggs – I like to use a pushpin for this – and then blow them out. You may need to make the bottom hole a bit bigger in order to force the egg contents out.
Clean the inside of the egg out as best you can. Usually you can get the inside fairly clean by running hot soapy water over it making sure some is getting inside the egg. Shake the hot soapy water inside the egg around to try and get it as clean as you can and then let air dry.
Create some way for the ornament to be hung. You can also buy the metal ornament top fasteners or use one from a broken ornament and glue in place and add a string. -or- Simply use some ribbon/string etc. to make a loop and hot glue one end to the top of the egg (don’t need to get too fancy).
Then decorate the egg in any way you like.
Some ornament ideas (to do alone or in combination with other ideas):
- Die eggs, like you would for Easter, using white vinegar and die tablets. Or you can use natural dies like beets, red cabbage, turmeric, onion skin, etc.
- Coat egg in thin layer of Elmer’s glue (better to add a bit of water so it’s less thick) and sprinkle with some festive glitter.
- Use ribbon to wrap around the egg, glue in place.
- Add sequins for some extra bling.
- Napkin Eggs – Get some festive paper napkins, cut out areas that you would like to past on the eggs, use a light glue, such as Elmer’s to attach the napkin cutouts to the eggs.
- Use puff-paint to paint on some festive designs like snowflakes.
- Add Mod Podge on the outside to secure and seal.
Christmas Egg Candles
This gift craft requires some items you might not have on hand, such as candle wax, essential oils, and candle wicks, but a quick trip to the craft store should be able to get you these.
Crack some eggs by gently hitting the pointy end or using a knife to hit and chip away the pointier end of the eggs. Use your fingers or tweezers to break off more of the shell to give you a large enough top opening while making sure to leave the lower ½ – ¾ of the egg intact to hold candle wax.
Clean the hollowed out eggs with hot soapy water and let air dry, or you could bake them for a bit in the oven at the lowest temperature your oven can do.
Melt candle wax in a pot (that won’t get ruined from melting wax) and add your favorite essential oils. You can also add festive herbs and spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, rosemary or even some glitter to give the wax some bling.
Secure a candle wick in each egg shell then pour in melted wax. You can hold the wick up with a free hand, or use a clothes pin or something else to secure the wick in place as you pour the wax.
Let the wax set for at least 24 hours (the longer the better) then package them up and gift.
