Simple Gifts: Passover Coins

As part of Jewish Passover festivities, children ‘steal’ the afikomen (a piece of matzoh), and the adults have to ‘buy’ it back from them with coins or other treasures. Chocolate coins are also a part of Hanukkah when children play dreidel games with coins as the prize.

Our family is not Jewish, so our way of distributing the treasures is to hide them in our pockets, and then when we (or the children) arrive, they must search us to find their goodies. Somehow it is always a really nice little moment when their hands are all over you, reaching into your pockets and looking up your sleeves. The rest of the afternoon is spent with a litter of empty gold foil wrappers popping up here and there around the house. By the end of the day a small handful of the coins appear destined for posterity – slid against the back wall of a kitchen counter, out of sight of the little ones.

You Will Need:
• Chocolate coins wrapped in gold
• Shape 28 label in Caption style, with a close-up photo of the face of each child
• Organza favor bags

Choose appropriate wording. It’s especially fun to rhyme with the child’s name: Caden Coins, Gabriel Gelt, Dylan Dollars, Mike Money, Sheldon Shekels, David Dough, Branden Bucks, Greta Gold, Blythe Bullion, Tiffany Treasure, Nick Nugget, Colin Cash…

Children will love receiving these chocolate coins with their name and photo on them. To make place a photo label of the child on each coin and put into a little organza bag for easy gifting.

Guidelines for Simple Gifts:
• Plan ahead. Think about and decide what you want to do well in advance so you can do the shopping portion of the giftmaking along with other errands. Have all materials and ingredients on hand when it is time to make the gift.
• Packaging. Pretty packaging makes any gift special. Arm yourself with a supply of small boxes or cellophane bags and ribbon. We also recommend having your own personalized tags or labels on hand. Use generic wording so they can be used on a multitude of items. For example, mom’s tags and labels say “with love from Grammie.” With no reference to what the item is, they can be used on anything!
• It is not the item itself that is special; it is the idea that you think enough about a person to prepare something personally for them. Sometimes your gift doesn’t even have to be handmade; but hand-assembled. Follow this monthly series and you will see examples of both.

Jeanne Williamson (138 Posts)

Jeanne and her husband David launched My Own Labels in January of 2000. It was a spin-off of their successful graphic design firm, plus it allowed Jeanne to incorporate her love of baking, making, sewing and creating. Today David and Jeanne continue to be the heart of the operation both creatively and practically.