I love Christmas.  It is seriously my most favorite time of year.  I love when the city streets are lined with twinkling lights and there are festive decorations adorning all the buildings.  I can't carry a tune at all, but I love Christmas carols and how even people who can't sing (like me) can still sing them.  I love the the thetre productions like the Nutcracker and A Christmas Carol.  The joy and hope this season brings is so heart warming it makes me smile the entire time.  And of course, one of the best things about Christmas is giving gifts.  I love shopping, but I love buying things for other people even more.  So needless to say I am already starting to plan.  I don't have that many people to buy gifts for, but I am trying to think of good ideas.One of the biggest challenges I have is that we have to get gifts for a lot of people that are "friends" but not close enough friends to know what they would actually like as gifts.  Every year I try to come up with one gift that satisifies a) I can make in bulk, b) almost everyone likes, and c) isn't over the top expensive.  Last year I made 6 kinds of cookies, packaged them in little christmas-tree-printed chinese takout boxes and then tied them with a big red bow.  That went over well, but I want to come up with something new to do this year.Here are my ideas so far:

• Package up loose tea in cute baggies with a packet of one-time-use tea bags
• Put together hot chocolate and marshmallows; or apple cider in cinnamon sticks
• Make some fudge, cut into little square and package it in a cute foil lined box with a box
• Make little baskets of Christmas themed muffins or bread and package them with a bow
• Make custom stationary or cute note pads, add a nice card
• Make a Christmas mix CD in cute packaging (this is currently my favorite idea)

Any other ideas?I am going to add links to websites when I find ones that are useful or have more great ideas.