It’s that most wonderful time of year, where we cozy up, share comforting meals with family and friends, trim our trees and homes with twinkling lights and bake cookies by the boat-load. I wait the entire year for the holiday season, and while I love so many things about this time, three things top my list of favorites: cookies, gifting and crafts. Making jars of cookie mixes combines all three of these loves! 

These layered cookie-mix gifts come together in a snap, thanks to Betty Crocker cookie mixes. At first, starting with a mix felt a little like cheating, but in the end, getting a head start gave me more time to perfect my mix-in ideas and decorate the jars. (And to be honest, I’m pretty sure none of the recipients will know they’re not scratch-made!) In order to share a wide range of flavor ideas, I started with five of Betty's cookie mixes—Mint Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Spice, Peanut Butter, Snickerdoodle and Gingerbread—and to each, added three to four mix-ins. Ideas for mix-ins are truly limitless, so feel free to mix and match to your heart's content, using the ideas below as inspiration.

How to Layer Cookie Mixes in a Jar

To ensure lots of room for mix-in goodness, I used a variety of 1-liter jars. To fill the jars neatly, I used my wide-mouth funnel and the bottom of a flat ladle to tamp down the ingredients. Packing the mix and all the extra goodies into the jars neatly ensures visible layers, minimal shifting, and lots visual appeal—here’s how to do it.

Step 1:

Start by gathering your cookie mix, selected mix-ins, jar and wide-mouth funnel.

Step 2:

After funneling the cookie mix into the jar, tamp it down with a ladle to make an even base.

Step 3:

Then funnel in your mix-ins.

Step 4:

There are no rules when it comes to layering your mix-ins, but your gift will have better eye-appeal if you mix up the colors or textures of the layers.

Step 5:

Screw or clamp the lid on tightly. Now it’s time to decorate your gift-mix with tags and trimmings!

How to Decorate Your Cookie-Mix Jar Gifts

To dress up my cookie mixes, I hit up my local craft supply store and found a ton of supplies to label and decorate the jars.

Then, fold the paper into an accordion, making the end a little longer so it overlaps on top. This is where you will affix your tape-tab later.

Using whatever decorative tape you like (glitter, washi, colored, etc.), tape the top of the instructions to the tag.

Fold it up like an accordion, using a longer piece of tape to affix it to the top, folding the top of the washi tape over onto itself, making a pull-tab. Write a little “Pull Here” above the tape tab and you’re done!

The recipe pulls down easily and neatly…

and looks handsome too!