Each year the hunt for an easy DIY Christmas gift for teachers begins! The more teachers, aides and support people your children have, the harder this job can be.
I am always trying to keep the work minimal and the costs down. But at the same time, you want to give your teachers something awesome. After all, these people have been helping and encouraging your children to grow.
Even though I like to keep costs down, to be honest, I don't think I could put a price on the value of a good teacher who works hard to encourage and motivate my children to be the best version of themselves. If I could afford to pay off the mortgages of my kid's teachers then I totally would! Sorry, Teach, for today, you'll just have to settle for these personalized water bottle gifts haha.
Trying to come up with unique DIY Christmas gifts for teachers every year can be difficult. Particularly if your child has the same teacher or support staff with them year after year. Last year I made an easy teacher gift using a fun pun and chocolate Smarties. I thought that was fun and thoughtful given it was personalized. I tend to work from the idea of giving something personalized which I think takes the gifts from being just another gift to something more special. Like these water bottles!
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Table of Contents
Reasons These Are Great Gift Ideas for Teachers
Many of us are looking for slightly different things when it comes to buying or making gifts for our beloved teachers. For these personalized water bottles, I have come up with some benefits of the project:
- A great teacher appreciation gift for bulk recipients
- A practical gift that your teachers can actually use
- The fun of personalization just for your teacher
- An inexpensive gift without looking cheap (the personalization helps with that too!)
- A quick and easy project
- You can make these with a Cricut but if you don't have one, don't worry because I got by without one too!
DIY Christmas Gift for Teachers: Supplies
Below I'll run through some options and alternatives for the things that I used.
Water Bottles
Think of the colour water bottles that you would like to buy, this will require some research for the personalized labels (below) before purchasing too. You will need to know what colour water bottles you can source along with the colour labels before you go ahead and buy/make them. The aluminium water bottles I purchased were approximately $5 AU from KMart. They don't seem to sell them now however here is an alternative drink bottle.
Personalized Name Labels
When I made these DIY Christmas gifts for our teachers, I didn't own a Cricut. I'm happy to report that I have since joined the exciting (and somewhat daunting!) Cricut club. So if you have a Cricut or other similar cutting machine, you can make these yourself. Just be sure to use the correct permanent vinyl for washing.
If cutting your own labels isn't an option, you can do what I did and buy some from Etsy. Mine were a beautiful script font in metallic rose gold (I'm a sucker for rose gold!). You will need to have an idea of the size of your water bottle before ordering.
If the labels I suggested don't work for you, or you need something shipped sooner, you can search Etsy for other suppliers. There are so many small businesses selling these personalized labels that you're bound to find what you want. Be sure to use the location filter on Etsy search if you need your labels quickly.
Finishing Touches
If you want to take your DIY Christmas gift for teachers to the next level, decorating them with some extras is a great way to get that! I used some red organza ribbon (50mm) to tie a pretty bow around the top of each bottle. Given I'm a crafter, it's quite easy to just whip out some ribbon so you might also have some on hand too!
I then customized some Christmas tags and printed them on my home printer. These are tags that I sell in my shop and are great for adding your own personalized message. Another option for you would be to download these cute free printable tags from my Freebies Library.
DIY Christmas Gift for Teachers: Alternate Products
Since I mixed all of the links above, here's a quick snapshot of the supplies I used:
Don't just limit your project to personalized water bottles though! This project would also work for the following types of products:
- Coffee Mugs
- Glass Tea Infusers
- Travel Mug/Tumbler
- Straw Tumbler
- Stemless Wine Glasses
- Candy/Mason Jars
Final Thoughts
I popped my personalized water bottles into a gift bag for each of our teachers, support staff and therapists. If you want, you could also include a little treat (I have chocolate wrappers that match the gift tags too) or some home-baked goods in there too.
At this time of year, there is always so much going on so I was really pleased at how quick and easy these DIY Christmas gifts for teachers were. All it took was a little research for products ahead of time. Hopefully, I have been able to take that task from you with the suggestions I've given.
I live in the third most isolated city in the world so I need to make sure I plan these things ahead of time. I've even lived in more isolated country towns. You, however, might be lucky to get things delivered the next day or even the same week. Oh, how nice would that be… a girl can dream of these things, can't she?!
With any luck, I've helped to alleviate just one of the small Christmas stresses from you. I would love to know what DIY Christmas gifts for teachers you have made in the past. Comment below to let me know… also I really do need more ideas for myself!
Other Resources You May Like:
FREE PRINTABLE: Santa Christmas Wish List
FREE PRINTABLE: 3 Printable Kids Puzzles
ARTICLE: 59 Activities for Kids to Do at Home to End Boredom
ARTICLE: Thanks for Making Me A Smartie Pants Teacher Gift
FROM MY SHOP: Cute Animal Christmas Tags + Candy Wrappers
