Christmas Gift Ideas: 3 Beautiful Books for Girls (and a Giveaway)

I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that Christmas is coming around much too quickly!

My beautiful 11 year old daughter is counting down the days to her birthday – which happens to be in the first week of December.

With not just Christmas but seven family birthdays (including my husband, myself and two of our kids) next month, I have to tell you that her birthday countdown is excruciating. Panic-attack inducing!

When it comes to being organized for Christmas, I don’t have a great track record. For several years, we were either having babies or moving house in December, and I’d find myself at the shopping centre, exhausted but determined, on Christmas Eve.

Santa has always managed to find us somehow, but  I have to admit to some of the ‘Joy’ of Christmas being overlooked in the craziness of it all.

This year, life is again busy – and about to get even busier in the coming weeks with hubby’s work – so finding time to be organized for Christmas will definitely be a challenge.

Fortunately, in my internet travels, I found this great Christmas Planner from The Organised Housewife and bought a copy for myself. The planner consists of 45 pages including calendars, Christmas card list, baking plan, gift lists and guest lists that can be printed and placed in a binder and filled in to keep track of all your Christmas plans and purchases.

The Organised Housewife Christmas Planner

Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to work on mine yet! But I will. Pinky-swear!!

What about you? Are you organised for Christmas? Thinking about it? Determined as I am to have a creative and joy-filled Christmas this year?

Hopefully I can help you out with some gift ideas by sharing these beautiful cooking and craft books for girls. My daughter and I have fallen in love with them and we’re pretty sure that you will too!

I’m even giving you the chance to win one, so if you’re yet to cross anything off on that Christmas shopping list (or, like me, yet to even write it!), this could be a great place to start.

And if you need help getting started with that list and your Christmas ‘plan’, Kat  from The Organised Housewife has offered a copy of her beautiful Christmas Planner for the lucky winner as well.

Whether you’re looking for Christmas gifts for your daughter, granddaughter, a niece or friend, here are three beautiful books that the girls in your life are sure to fall in love with:

COOKBOOK FOR GIRLS

by Denise Smart

This would have to be my favourite of all the girls’ cookbooks I’ve seen!

The pages of Cookbook for Girls are filled with beautiful photos and easy to follow step-by-step instructions.

Whether it’s a snack like Nachos or Spicy Potato Wedges, a light meal of Veggie Spring Rolls, or something more substantial, like Sweet Potato Lasagne, the beautiful recipes in this book have got it covered.

For dessert, there’s Raspberry Cheesecake, Mango Pops or Chocolate Brownies. The only difficult thing about the dessert recipes here will be deciding what to make first!

The many recipes for drinks and snacks include Pink Lemonade and Toffee Popcorn. And… perfect for this Christmas season… Coconut Ice and Chocolate Truffles. There’s even a recipe for a Gingerbread House!

The suggested reading age for this book is 6yrs+, but we’ve given it as a gift to friends as young as 3 or 4 who love to cook with Mum,  as well as to 10 and 11 year olds who enjoy cooking – and love beautiful books!

MADE BY ME

by Jane Bull

What Cookbook for Girls is to cooking, Made by Me is to sewing and craft!

The craft activities in this book are so adorable, colorful and beautifully presented that any girl (and her Mum!) couldn’t help but love it.

The many embroidery, sewing and knitting projects in Made by Me include decorating a T-shirt, making a “Hello/Goodnight Dolly”, creating felt Cupcakes, and even making your own knitting doll (just as effective as “Knitting Nancy”).

Stitching and knitting techniques, and the equipment needed for each activity, are clearly and beautifully illustrated throughout the book.

There are even some gorgeous ideas here for creating your very own workbox to store your materials and craft tools.

Made by Me has a suggested reading age of 7+. Again, I think it’s a book that 10 and 11 year olds will love just as much. There are so many beautiful and fun activities to inspire and amuse them!

COOK IT TOGETHER

by Annabel Karmel

In Cook It Together, Annabel Karmel has taken 10 basic favourite ingredients (including Sweetcorn, Rice, Strawberries, Honey and Chocolate) and created easy but delicious recipes that kids can make with a bit of help from Mum.

Along with the recipes and beautiful photographic illustrations and instructions, the book also contains interesting information about where each of these ingredients comes from and how they can be used.

This is another beautiful book, actually written for both boys and girls, but perhaps with a cover that is more appealing to girls!

Cook It Together includes recipes for Arancini (rice balls), Pasta Salad, Apple & Chicken Curry, Honey Cakes and Banana Bites, each with step-by-step instructions and beautiful photos.

The suggested reading age for this book is 5 and up. We’ve given it as a gift to a 3 year old, but the recipes in this are best suited for primary aged kids. I think the illustrations make this one a bit ‘young’ for the over 10’s, but ideal for 5 to 9 year olds who’ll be cooking with Mum.

To enter for a chance to win the book of your choice AND a copy of The Organised Housewife’s Christmas Planner:

  • Leave a comment on this post sharing which of these three books you’d most like to win and who you’d love to share it with. 1 entry

If you’d like a couple of extra chances to win:

  • Subscribe to The Inspired Notebook and leave a separate comment letting me know when you’ve done that. (If you’re already subscribed, just let me know in the comments that you’d like another chance to enter!)  1 bonus entry
  • Share this post using the Facebook or Twitter buttons below, and/or “Like” The Inspired Notebook on Facebook. Again, make sure you come back and leave separate comments here letting me know that you’ve done this for your extra chance/s to win (and if you already “Like” The Inspired Notebook on Facebook, you can leave a seperate comment letting me know that for your extra chance to win). Let me know your Twitter or Facebook username in the comment too. Up to 3 bonus entries

Important details:

  • There is no geographic limitation on this giveaway!
  • The maximum entries available per person is 5. Comments not adhering to the above instructions may be removed.
  • The deadline to enter is midnight Monday 21st November Melbourne time.
  • One winner will be chosen at random from the comments and announced the following day, Tuesday 22nd November. The winner will be notified via the contact email provided on their comment form.
  • If the winner does not respond within 7 days with their shipping address, another winner will be chosen.
  • The winner’s choice of book will be posted within 3 days of them having provided a shipping address
  • The Christmas Planner will be sent via email to the winner from The Organised Housewife. I can’t guarantee that this will be within 3 days, but suspect it will be – because, unlike me, Kat is organized!

I’ll look forward to announcing the winners here on Tuesday 22nd. In the meantime, enjoy your Christmas preparations. And breathe!!

76 thoughts on “Christmas Gift Ideas: 3 Beautiful Books for Girls (and a Giveaway)”

  1. All of these books look fantastic. My 12 year old daughter would love any of them. Unfortunately, Christmas always manages to sneak up on me – I don’t think I have ever been prepared for it! I don’t suppose it helps that we go on holiday the week before Christmas so I am in mad panic when we return home. Every year I tell myself I will be better organised, mmm – I’m nothing but optimistic!

  6. I would like to win COOK IT TOGETHER and would share it with my nieces, I baby sit them a lot, this book would keep us busy on the weekend!

  17. These books all look so beautiful. It would be so hard to choose, but I think the “Made by Me” looks especially yummy

  19. I love the Annabel Karmel Cook It Together Book, it would be perfect for Mini Me and I and if she can expand her food selections then all the better! Plus Annabel Karmel is fantastic!

  23. I have shared on Facebook, I couldn’t tag your page for some reason, but shared on my personal profile 🙂

  24. My daughter is a budding cook, the cooking together book would be a great pick me up for her and for me!!! happy cooking :0

  29. ‘Cook It Together’ would be a welcome addition to our cook book collection, as I am lucky enough to often care for my nieces and nephews and enjoy cooking with them. In saying that, they would enjoy any of the above books.

  31. Gosh the three books look awesome, but my daughter would love Cookbook for Girls. The fact that it has some dishes she could make for the family in it would be her style. She is seven and when I was sick last week and couldn’t move and Daddy was at work she really wanted to cook dinner for her brothers and herself <3

    Gosh Christmas never changes dates but that never means I am totally organised for it! My sewing list has about twenty items on it and my present cupboard is still looking empty!

  32. I’d love to win the “Made by Me” book, and I would share it with my daughter 🙂 she’s only little now, but as she grows, I want to spend lots of time doing craft with her.

  35. All three books look awesome, thanks so much for this chance to win one. As my eldest is only 3, I think Annabel Karmel’s COOK IT TOGETHER is maybe more suited to her age group. I do a bit of sewing and crafts with her, but even the simplest cooking takes me out of my comfort zone. I desperately want my kids to grow up being confident in the kitchen so maybe we can learn together through the book.

  45. I’d love the Cookbook for Girls; to share with two of my daughters (the little one is still too small to cook!). It looks like such a beatiful book. Thankyou for the opportunity.

  56. I’d love to win Cook It Together, because I could share this with my son. I think he’d love to look through and choose something for me to help him make. What a great idea for a cookbook!

  59. Definitely ‘cook it together’, as I am just starting to teach my little three year old girl abour baking 🙂

  61. The ‘Made By Me’ craft and sewing book would be a lovely gift for my niece who loves to sew! The projects look really interesting but simple.

  65. The cookbook for girls would have to be my pick as I’m always looking for fun and beautiful things to share with my daughter…

  69. Love the ‘Cook it Together’ book. My son and I love cooking together, and I’m a big fan of Annabel Karmel

  72. A dear friend of mine (your friend Jen) pointed me to your blog and I’m looking forward to reading your posts once I have a little window of Time. Anything that helps de-clutter and make is going to be great for me.

  73. Oh, I’d love “Cook It Together”. My 4yr old son loves to help! I’d share it with him! (and now that you mention that it has recipes with sweetcorn in it, he’d be right there with me! He could eat that stuff all day!)

  75. My daughter has the Cookbook for Girls- it is wonderful…. but I can think of a few girls I could gift this one too! I would love the Cook it Together for my youngest daughter as she is just getting inspired to cook too 🙂 Made By Me would be a wonderful gift for us 3 ‘girls’ this Christmas.

  76. I’d love the Cookbook For Girls- forget the girls bit, my son loves helping me cook. He’s very keen to get ingredients out of the pantry before I’ve even started. Would also help me with my cooking techniques too.

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