Divide layers of holiday cookies/cakes/candies etc with coffee filters that you plan to ship by mail in a large coffee can. If your foodies need cushioning, use marshmallows and add a small pack of homemade hot cocoa mix and a stir spoon tied with ribbon or even dunked in chocolate and covered with cellophane!
Make the can into another gift by itself by covering the can with a nice wallpaper border of houses in a row or a downtown row of shops. I have mailed cans wrapped like this and I am told that the mailman loves them and expressed awe of them!
Here's one my mom used when she baked chocolate chip cookies to ship to my brother's friend who was stationed in Okinawa. This was back in the 1970's, long before you could go to Staples for bubble wrap and plastic peanuts.
She put the cookies into a plastic bag, placed the bag in a box, and used popcorn instead of excelsior or plastic peanuts.
When our Marine wrote back, he said that not only were the cookies delicious, but that he was just finishing the popcorn as well. Mom was afraid that the oil in the corn might go rancid between here and Japan. It's been thirty years since then, and he's suffered no ill effects, so I guess it was okay. :)
Nowadays, I would recommend using an air popper, or dry-popping the corn in a microwave popping bowl -- I got mine at Target.
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