“What hymns are sung. What praises said. For homemade miracles of bread?”
Louis Untermeyer
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“The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocations of innocence and delight.”
– M. F. K. Fisher
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After an abundant meal, my mother would often say: “Thank you for the elegant sufficiency; any more would be a superfluity.”
She made me smile every time she said it.
One of the celebrative aspects of Christmas is that it is a time of sweets and treats galore–elegant sufficiency indeed.
But, as we know, the sweets and treats galore of the holiday season can also become a significant superfluity.
So, when we take a gift to a neighbor or co-worker, instead of sweets, how about taking the gift of homemade bread?!
Gifts of bread can come in all shapes and sizes – banana bread, zucchini bread or you fill in the ___________ with your favorite recipe.
I have a bread maker, and my favorite recipe is one that my daughter Alicia introduced to me.
An important note: Alicia adapted the recipe slightly by changing both the flour amounts to 1 1/3 cups. And it is perfectly delicious!
For this first loaf, I cut off the front of a grocery bag, and wrapped the bread like I was wrapping a package. Both fun and free!
Then I added some ribbon and a tag that said exactly what I wanted it to say:
Eat your bread with happiness!
This is actually a quote from the Bible–Ecclesiastes 9:7. Some translations use the word “joy”, and others use the word “happiness”. Some say “your bread”, and others say “thy bread”.
I love the thought of eating bread with joy; I even love the poetic sound of the old English “thy”.
Next I walked the aisles of my local Dollar Tree to find other containers for my gifts.
I found this basket, just the right size and shape for my gift of bread.
I also found this red plastic cutting board–the perfect Christmas color and shape for my fat loaf of bread.
And then there is the ever-faithful brown paper bag decorated with scrapbooking paper with a lovely loaf of fresh bread poking its head out of the top.
I have created a free Eat Your Bread with Joy Printable Tag with a variety of fonts, colors, and options for you. I have formatted the pages for landscape and 5×7 pages. I set my printer for the 5×7″ setting and printed the first two pages on pages I tore from a paperback I had picked up free at a book sale. I then cut out the tags and matted them with scrapbooking paper. I printed the last page of the printables on white paper, cut out the tags, and matted them with colored paper.
I am so happy with the results.
By the way, our local Wegmans sells ever so delicious breads in their bakery. If you don’t have time to bake a loaf, who wouldn’t be thrilled to receive a loaf of bakery bread wrapped with curly ribbon and one of these tags?
Yummy…an elegant sufficiency to be eaten with joy.
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For those of you who haven’t met her, the Dollar Store Diva happens to be my Mom, Nancy, who has a special power. She can transform Dollar Store and other inexpensive finds into super fun gifts that would brighten anyone’s day!
See more Dollar Store Diva ideas here.
Where do you get the plastic bags for bread, are they specially for loaves of bread?
Hi Pat, I just wrap mine in Saran Wrap. It fits it snuggly and doesn’t take away from the familiar shape of a loaf of bread.
I love this idea! I’d so much rather this than a plateful of sugary treats!
I’m thinking a loaf of French bread paired with some homemade pesto… mmmm….
French bread paired with homemade pesto–Yes, indeed!
WOW–thank you so much! This solves my dilemma about what to make for our neighbors….which I’ve been obsessing about for waaaaaaaay too long. 🙂
So glad that this solved your dilemma–I’m sure your neighbors will be delighted!