With the holidays just around the corner, I’ve got plenty on my mind, from gifts to decorations to menus. Planning holiday get-together menus is one of my all-time favorite things to do. Not only do I love the opportunity to prepare long-time family favorites like my mother’s cheese potatoes,  holidays are for me an opportunity to try out new recipes as well. From Betty Crocker to Martha Stewart, I enjoy browsing magazines, online sites, and recipe books to find unique and interesting recipes that I can try.

For the past couple of years, I’ve been intending to do 2 things come Christmas-season: 1) make a digital scrapbook style calendar to give away to family and friends as a Christmas gift and 2) make a recipe book of ‘the years favorite recipes’ to give to them as well. Sadly I must report, life being what it is, I have yet to do either.

The other day, I was in Lowes and stopped to browse the magazine section while my husband paid for our two bundles of dried cornstalks (for our fall yard display). Now bear with me, I know this is really starting to sound like I am telling snippets of several completely unrelated stories that stop short before I get to the ending; but alas, I am not. This is going somewhere, I promise. While browsing the magazine section, a Farmers Almanac calendar on an adjacent display caught my eye. It wasn’t your typical Almanac calendar, after all.

For each month of the year, this calendar included not only a photo, but a corresponding recipe as a suggestion to try (aha, now it’s starting to come together, right?). What a fantastic idea I thought! I can combine my two gift ideas and go from ‘I’ve done neither’ to ‘I’ve managed to do both in one!’ All I’ll have to do is take a recipe layout appropriate for each month (and I’ve done plenty of these already) and plop it on top of a center-fold calendar. Below is an example of what I mean, using my mother’s cheese potato recipe. For this layout, I used the Snow In Love collection from Snickerdoodle Designs:

Perfect for a December calendar month topper, don’t you think?

If you love this layout idea (and Snow In Love), then you’re sure to adore the other kits and collections Karen has in store for making simple recipe/calendar layouts with too (check out Hay Day, Balancing Act, and Cheez The One for November, April, and February for example). Ah, but there’s a catch. Two of these loveable collections, Snow In Love and Ginger Magic, are soon retiring. For a limited time, you can grab each kit and collection at 70% off in Snickerdoodle Designs‘ shop here at theStudio. 

For even more gift ideas, browse the full collections (Snow In Love, Ginger Magic) – you’ll find printable gift tags, word art, and more that would be perfect for crafting your other holiday gifts too!

If you do make a calendar topper, recipe layout, holiday card, or….we’d love to see it. Leave a comment here with a link to your gallery posting and share your ideas with us too!

As always, I’ve got a freebie for you made using Ginger Magic. Just click on the preview below to download. Happy Monday to you!