Last December was a difficult time for our family. My daughter and my father were having health issues. I spent my time driving my daughter to Vanderbilt, two and a half hours away, and then driving an hour in the opposite direction when I arrived home visiting my father, who died during the month. Because I spent so much time caring for others, I was especially thankful for friends who sent me unexpected surprises; a card, a bouquet of flowers saying “thinking of you,” or cookies dropped off at my door all helped to give me some cheer during a difficult time. This year, in the spirit of giving back, I thought of people I know who are having a difficult time during the season. Remembering our teradition of “booing” someone around Halloween by leaving a sack of treats at their door. I decided to do the same for Christmas. What better way to do that than to make a Santa Surprise Sack?
These sacks are incredibly easy to make. All I needed was a “sack”, such as a clear treat bag, a small sticker or tag to add to the outside, ribbon for tying the sack and a treat to put inside. I had some jars of Hickory Farms jelly I knew would be well received and decided to add those as the treats. Once I made the treat bags, I carried them to friends and neighbors who needed a pick me up and left them on their doorsteps. If you are fast enough, you can ring the doorbell and run. That seemed like a good way for me to either a) get caught when I was trying to run since I am not very fast or 2) fall and break something.
I plan to add this tradition to our family’s yearly traditions of making reindeer food and cookies for Santa, making a (very lopsided) Gingerbread house, cutting our own tree and purchasing Hickory Farms products. They have a wide variety and have gifts available for every budget. My son has a list of favorites he asks for every year, including the Hickory Farms Signature Summer Sausage, which has been awarded the Masters of Taste Gold Medal for Superior Taste for having the #1 Summer Sausage in America. Also, new this year is White and Dark Chocolate Peppermint Bark. Can you say yum?
What is your favorite Holiday Tradition?
Disclaimer: Compensation and products for review were provided by Hickory Farms via MomTrends. I received a free sample of the product for the purpose of this review and to facilitate a giveaway. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions of Hickory Farms.
Such a great holiday gift idea!
This is a great idea! I love Hickory Farms, especially around the holidays! Thanks for sharing.
I love adding new traditions! I think this would be a great one!
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating gingerbread houses. We do it every year and sometimes we have a competition!
That is such a sweet idea! My favorite Christmas tradition is Christmas Eve when we all wear our new pajamas and cuddle up together after church to watch a movie.
This is such a cute idea. I love giving (and receiving) homemade gift packs like this one.
I always make little gift baskets as gifts for the holidays but I think this year I’ll be making sacks like these! Adorable!! We love Hickory Farm goodies!
Love this! We don’t really have any traditions around food. We have lots around “stuff” like we always have christmas eve pajamas and a book but nothing with food.
What a fun idea! My favorite tradition is baking cookies with my kids on Christmas eve after having chinese food ordered in. Is that weird? We started it a few years ago and I just love it! Christmas day we have the big dinner!
We do not celebrate Xmas, but this snack idea would make a great treat to surprise my husband with in the evenings. It is such a cute idea.
There’s got to be something about this time of year. I blogged this week about my favorite holiday tradition also! That Santa sack is SO cute!
This is great! My favorite holiday tradition is getting and decorating the tree together. 🙂 We used to donate coats to the domestic violence shelter for the moms and kids, but this year we have moved to a warm state. We have to think of something new but equally helpful to do now. 🙂
You know what I like about this? It is edible, adorable, and memorable all in one. I would love to receive this.
What a lovely sack! My favorite tradition is when Mrs. Claus comes and leaves cupcakes on the front porch for the girls Christmas Eve. They are still cold from the freezer. I mean, North Pole 😉
i love this idea… and I would really love some peppermint bark!
We get a bunch of treats from Hickory Farms every holiday season. I love that they are giving back to help feed children.
Such a great idea! My sister in law LOVES Hickory Farms, so we often get her some for Christmas!
Hickory Farms’ summer sausage is amazing! I make sure I buy some every year. My favorite holiday traditions are the simple ones: baking cookies, looking at xmas lights, decorating the tree, etc.,
Sorry to hear that your father passed away last year. I hope your daughter is on the mend too.
My favorite tradition is driving around looking at Christmas lights. We usually do it after we set up on Christmas tree to sort of finish off the night. Love fun traditions.
This is such a fun way to spread holiday cheer. I love Hickory Farms products, especially their smoked sausages!
They definitely have some good snacks. You can always rely on Hickory Farms for good appetizers.
Holiday traditions are always so much fun to re-create every year but just as much fun to start new ones. I always buy Hickory Farms gift packs every year for family and I am glad to see that they are making a donation when you do.
That’s such a fun Christmasy idea! I love Hickory Farms snacks. It would be great to include them in some new traditions.
This is a really nice gift idea that I know a couple of my friends would definitely love. Watching Christmas movies with my family is my favorite holiday tradition.
I love this sack! I make stockings for all the people spending Christmas with us!
That blackberry spread sounds amazing even for more savory dishes. We still do cookies for Santa and veggies for the reindeer even if the kids don’t really believe anymore.
This is such a sweet and thoughtful gift! My favorite holiday tradition is on Christmas Eve, when my mom writes a new Christmas story each year and reads it for everyone. During the story she includes “left,” “right” and “across” and all of us stand in a circle and when she says one of those we pass our gift accordingly. It such a fun game we play and everyone loves it!
Way back then, We used to put cookies for Santa lol. But now we do not do that, I;m just reminiscing the past.
One of my favorite traditions is leaving cookies for Santa. It is such a crazy thing especially now that son is 15 but it brings back memories.
I love this idea so much! We used to make cookies for neighbors, friends, and a local fire station, but it’s been a few year since I did that. I need to go back to it!
This is a great idea. I have a lot of out of town family and friends out of town that I need something I can send. This will be perfect.
So sorry to hear about you father! These Santa sacks are adorable. I always grab stuff from Hickory Farms to use as appetizers during the holiday meals, never thought to make cute little treats like this! Would be a nice change from the smelly dish soaps, lotions and candles that people tend to give.
It’s so lame, but leaving cookies out for Santa is our favorite holiday tradition. I always make sure I make “Santa’s” favorite cookies. 😉
That’s so not lame. Santa won’t leave presents without getting some of his favorite cookies first.
Such a fun idea! My dad LOVES Hickory Farms, so we always get him some at Christmas.