Jars of jam with fruit.

Spread Joy this Season: Making Jam as Holiday Gifts

October 30, 2025 Food Preservation, Spoonful, Uncategorized

— By Kate McCarty, Food Systems Professional, University of Maine Cooperative Extension

The scent of cranberries, citrus, and spice signals the start of the holiday season, and what better way to get into the festive mood than by making homemade jam? Jamming for the holidays transforms your kitchen into a sweet-smelling workshop and lets you turn local foods like cranberries, apples, and even frozen blueberries into thoughtful gifts. They are also great to have on hand for holiday parties—grab a jar of jam or chutney, a wedge of cheese, and you’ve got a nice hostess gift or potluck appetizer. Your friends and family will cherish a beautifully labeled jar of something you made with love and effort. It’s truly the taste of the holidays, preserved.

Use local flavors for holiday jam

This year, elevate your gift giving with these recipes full of festive flavors. I like to make the classic Cranberry-Orange-Pear Holiday Jam which is a perfect balance of tart and sweet, brightened with citrus zest (you can also safely substitute apples for pears in this recipe). It’s a bright, crowd-pleasing option for toast or scones. For a touch of gourmet elegance, try the decadent Pear-Cranberry Conserve with Almonds & Crystallized Ginger. This conserve (a preserve that contains raisins and nuts) is complex and warm with crunchy almonds and spicy ginger pieces, making it an ideal pairing for a holiday cheese board or alongside roasted meats. If you prefer a sharper, more invigorating zing, the Ginger Cranberry Orange Marmalade delivers a delightful combination of bitter citrus and warming spice that will cut through the winter chill.

Add spices or extracts safely

You can make your favorite jam recipe festive by adding in small amounts of dried spices, herbs, or extracts (like vanilla or almond). Adding less than a tablespoon of dried herbs or spices won’t affect the safety of the recipe, so feel free to get creative. We like cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger in blueberry or apple jam and strawberry with basil or black pepper and balsamic. Be wary of adding too many spices or extracts as it can overwhelm the fruit flavor or tip the flavors into a medicinal territory.

To add liquor or liqueurs to jam, replace 1/4 cup of mashed fruit with 1/4 cup of alcohol for every 4 cups of fruit. For example, if you’d like to add alcohol to a peach jam recipe that calls for 4 cups of mashed peaches, prepare 3-3/4 cups of mashed peaches and add 1/4 cup of rum or whiskey.

Can your holiday jam for easy gift-giving

Before the jars cool, you must ensure your gift is safe to enjoy all winter long. The key to creating shelf-stable preserves is following tested canning techniques. Always rely on current, research-based guidelines from trusted sources like the National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP). The NCHFP explicitly advises against outdated methods like using paraffin or wax seals. To ensure safe gifts this holiday season, fill sterile canning jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace, and process jars in a boiling water bath canner. This crucial step creates a vacuum seal, making it shelf stable for easy gift giving and storage.

After your jars have cooled, you can adorn them with custom labels, circles of cloth under the screw band, or a curly ribbon. I think decorating the jars is half the fun of gift giving! Whip up a batch of these glorious spreads, add some festive decor, and share the warmth of your kitchen with everyone you love this season.

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