4 Easy DIY Communion Gifts You Can Make

If you have the patience and tools to do a little beading, making a rosary can be a wonderful gift for a boy or girl at his or her first communion. You’ll need beads, loops, eye pins, a cross, rosary center and chain. Needle-nose pliers, flat-nose pliers and wire cutters will help attach everything together. Looping and joining the beads isn’t tough, but it does require focus and a little time, so be prepared to work on this project for at least an hour or two. If you choose the beads and cross with the recipient in mind, the finished rosary can be nicely personalized.

Depending on how experienced you are with a piping bag, iced communion cookies can be simple and undecorated crosses and chalices or have a lot of details and frosted lettering. The above video by Haniela demonstrates how to ice the butter cookies (the chalice template is available on her blog), but if you’re not comfortable working with decorative royal icing, the cookies are still yummy without the gloss. If you’re planning to make the cookies for an event, be safe and allow time for the icing to dry overnight.

You’re going to need to break out the hot glue gun for these party favors. Of course, you’ll need to purchase enough mini mason jars or bottles for this project as well as ribbon, crosses and any other embellishments you want to attach. In the video, the creator uses a fingertip-sized grape trinket. Once finished, the bottles can be filled with candy, rosary beads or any other appropriate party gift. If you want to underscore the sentiment of the day, you may want to add a personal note quoting a psalm or favorite bible passage. You can also write congratulations on the occasion.

While succulent party favors aren’t specifically for communions, they can work well to symbolize growth and work nicely as a reminder of the sacrament. To assemble these favors, you can buy succulents already potted in terra cotta pots or buy the pots separately and plant everything yourself. Tiny white pebbles are poured on top of the dirt to keep give the area around the plant a polished look. The pots are wrapped in hessian and tied with twine for a rustic finish. You can also add paper tags with a mini clothespin or twine for a little more personalization.

Of course the ideas for first communion gifts don't stop there. Many party favor ideas that work well for weddings and showers can also be suitable for communions. For example, folded boxes filled with chocolate can also be a great party giveaway. Some attendees like to give bottles filled with seed paper (which is a little complicated, but very impressive). As long as you keep the recipient and sentiment in mind, the gift will be warmly received.