A great way to save money each holiday season is to give homemade candy. I have received homemade candies as gifts and I always love it when I do. It gives me a chance to try new candies and appreciate the fact that the giver spent time on me! How thoughtful! I have also given homemade candies as gifts and found it to be a fun tradition.

With all of the following packaging ideas, be sure your candies have cooled first before packing them. If you don't, they will stick together and become a mess. As a bonus, include the recipe. Write it out on a pretty recipe card, or print from the computer and include with the candies. Be sure to include a note with the recipe that it is the recipe for the candies you gave them whatever year it is.

There are many ways to present candies as gifts, a couple I'll mention here. One way is to save coffee cans large or small; clean them, decorate them (if you wish), line them with wax paper, then fill with fresh cooled candy. You can decorate the coffee cans with a coat of spay paint and holiday stencils, or wrap it with wrapping paper. Just use your imagination or search the Internet for ideas.

Another great container for candies is a tin that previously held something else such as tea, purchased cookies or candies, etc. You may have some already, but if not, thrift stores have an abundance of them (many are decorative) for very reasonable prices. Clean first of course, then line with wax paper and fill with cooled fresh candy. These are great because there's a variety of sizes that will suit your giving needs and if you look for decorative ones, you will not need to do any decorating yourself... just add a bow and voila!

Pretty plastic holiday plates will also work. Just neatly present the candy, cover with colored plastic wrap and top with a bow.

Here's a delicious candy recipe to get you started:

Buckeye Balls

24 ounces powdered sugar
16 ounces crunchy peanut butter
1-cup butter or margarine -- softened
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon shortening

Position knife blade in food processor. Add half each of powdered sugar, peanut butter, and
butter; top with cover. Process until thoroughly mixed. Shape into 1-inch balls. Repeat process.
Combine chocolate and shortening in top of a double boiler; bring water to a boil. Reduce heat
to low; simmer until chocolate melts. Dip each ball in chocolate until partially coated; place
on waxed paper until chocolate hardens. Store in airtight container in refrigerator. Yield:
about 7-dozen (4 per serving).