Although the original intent of mason jars may have possibly been to can fruit and preserves, creative hipster-type people and marketing execs at Pinterest have come up with a million and one additional uses beyond the preservation of confectionary fruit spreads.

You can pick up a case of Ball mason jars in some supermarkets, or order them online for a bulk discount. I got mine from Paper Mart, which offers the 12-cases in varying sizes.

Try these Holiday “Hacks” to turn a mason jar into a gift, centerpiece, or really just a beacon of holiday hope.

Gift It
There are so many gifts you can put into a mason jar. I personally like food gifts like Hot Cocoa, cookie ingredients, or hot sauce… or non-food things like a DIY sugar scrub! This blog fit a bunch of little peppermint pampering products into a jar. This snow globe cookie jar is a combo of two ideas here (gifting and snow globes), and if you want to get REAL creative and hipster, you can make an Edible Gingerbread Terrarium. Yes I’m serious!Create short vases
A simple use for your jars is to use them as vases. You can keep it easy by simply tying a ribbon around one, or spruce things up by coating it with gold glitter or “snow” made of epsom salt and glue. Try it with white peonies or dark red dahlias.

Make snow globes
A fun and festive idea that is just as fun to make as it is to give or decorate with. Try this DIY tutorial from Lauren Conrad, or this lighted version using mini lights or LED garland. There’s also a waterless globe Anthropologie dupe.Serve holiday cocktails & cocoa
This one is the easiest of the bunch – tie a cute ribbon (or some twine with holiday decor) around the neck at the top, and voila: a rustic but classic “mug” for hot and cold holiday libations like hot caramel cider, cocoa, a hot toddy, or a frozen cran-pomegranate margarita.Float candles & berries to make a centerpiece
I found this one a little while back and it’s been on my Christmas to-do list – you’ll need water, tea lights, cranberries and ribbon. You can use these and some pine clippings to literally spruce up your tablescape.

Fill with LED lights
You can put as little or as much effort into this as you’d like – you can decorate the outside of the jars or keep it simple, and just put the LED garland inside. Use these around the house as sweet holiday luminaries.

Hope you all had a great weekend, and are now inspired with some holiday DIY :)

xx,
Dominique