Looking for something unique to tie together a gift basket this year? Here I am sharing both how to put this Christmas themed basket together and the free printable gift tags that go with it!

So the first question to answer is how do you fill a basket based on a poem? In this case “Twas the Night Before Christmas” (Technically titled “A Visit from St Nicholas”, but would you have had any idea what I was talking about if I had named the post that?) has a lot of Christmas imagery and objects mentioned. If you want to try a spin off theme with a different poem keep that in mind! Otherwise you may need to do a lot of mental gymnastics to turn the imagery into something you can wrap.

To assemble this basket I split the poem into seven pieces, each just after a word I wanted to associate with a gift. I will copy out the poem below with the word I used in bold. Underneath each section I will share what I included with that tag, as well as any extra ideas that might work in their place. At the end of the post I will put all three images in a row, feel free to save them and use them yourself.

Now, on to the poem!

“A Visit From St Nicholas By Clement Clarke Moore

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;“

I chose the word mouse for the first one, and kept it very short because I had the cutest little ornament in mind and it wasn’t very big. You can see what I did below but there are a ton of things you can do with the word mouse. You could knit little Christmas mice, buy something with a mouse on it, or paint it on a card or the cover of a notebook. You could also use the word house from this verse, which has even more possibilities!

“The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter’s nap,”

I will admit that I stretched the metaphor a bit with this one. It would have been much easier to use words like stockings, beds or sugar-plums, but I had gotten it in my head that I wanted to make pajama pants as the larger gift that year. Feel free to make better life choices.

“When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the luster of mid-day to objects below,”

I chose moon for this verse because I had the supplies to make candles and had been waiting for an excuse to try it out. I made a simple melt and pour candle that was round and white, then attempted to sprinkle dried flowers from my garden into a crescent moon shape. Maybe not obviously moon-like to all, but they look pretty and I had fun.

There are lots of other directions you could take with moon, and snow would be an easy one to find inspiration for!

“When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

“Now, DASHER! now, DANCER! now, PRANCER and VIXEN!
On, COMET! on CUPID! on, DONNER and BLITZEN!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.”

I chose toys for this one because almost everyone on my list had either kids or dogs and this was a nice way to include something just for them. It was as simple as buying or making a small toy that each child or pet would enjoy and giving them something to unwrap.

If toys aren’t likely to resonate with your recipient you have other great choices like sleigh, reindeer and leaves.

“And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes — how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

Cherry was a good way for me to include something edible. I chose a baking mix because it could be made a tiny bit in advance and because I could customize it for different dietary needs. You could also use cherry chocolates, cherry print fabric or a cherry scented candle or lip gloss.

Some other great words in this section are clothes, toys and roses.

“His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.”

I chose a bowl full of jelly especially for a little one on my list who is exceptionally fond of jello. (Also because it was just bad enough of a joke to make a few others on my list a laugh!) I contemplated lots of bowl variations and in the end I chose to make bowl cozies as my most useful option. (If this is new to you a bowl cozy is a fabric or yarn bowl shape that you hold a hot bowl of soup with. It keeps you from burning yourself. I have some family who batch cook and reheat single portions later so in our case I felt that would be more useful that a random bowl that didn’t match anything else in their cupboard.)

Bow, snow, pipe and wreath are also great starting points!

“He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT!”

Elf, stocking and sleigh would be excellent choices, but I chose to use thistle. My Mother has a lovely cookie mold with a thistle on it that I borrowed. I used a recipe for brown sugar shortbread in it. I chose this one both because it sounded delicious and because it was made to have a bit more structure. This was my only last minute make but it was worth it to send such a pretty treat.

That’s it! I hope it inspires you to get creative with your gift giving this year. If you have any interest in printing out the tags and giving this a try you can find them again here. They are just simple JPG images. (If you want to save them to print yourself just right click on one of the images and “Save as” will be one of your options.)

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