Now is the time to get started...

Now is the time to get started on holiday gifts.

Here are some that cooks can make.

MULLED WINE SACHETS

Flavored wine is as old as time. Make mulled wine sachets with your own spice mix and let your friends toast the holidays with a mug of one of the oldest traditions. Given the proportions, you might as well make at least a dozen sachets while you’re up.

You’ll need one orange, two lemons, six cinnamon sticks, 72 cloves and 48 allspice berries. To make the sachets: two yards cheesecloth, one yard plain burlap, about a yard of string and one package of raffia. To decorate 12 bottles, half a yard red burlap, half a yard green burlap and 12 pieces of paper for labels, each 2 inches by 2 1/2 inches.

* Making the Sachets

With a sharp knife, slice the colored rind from the orange and lemons, making 12 pieces of rind from each fruit. Place the pieces on a baking sheet and bake at 200 degrees until dry, about two hours.

Leave the cheesecloth doubled as it comes from the package and cut it into 12 pieces, each 6 inches by 8 inches. Break the cinnamon sticks in half. Put half a cinnamon stick, six cloves, four allspice berries and a piece of rind in the middle of each piece of cheesecloth. Pull the corners of the cloth together around the spices and tie tightly with string. Use scissors to trim the excess string and cheesecloth, making a neat ball.

Cut the plain burlap into 9-inch squares. Wrap each sachet in burlap and tie with raffia. Also tie a strand of raffia around the neck of each bundle and form a 3-inch loop with the free end.

* Labeling the Bottles

Cut the burgundy burlap into 12 square patches, each 4 inches by 4 1/2 inches. Cut the green burlap into 12 patches 3 inches by 3 1/2 inches. Print the recipe that follows on each paper label.

Smear the back of a patch of burgundy burlap with white glue and center it on the bottle. Repeat with a patch of green burlap, centering it on the burgundy burlap. Finally glue the label and center it on the burgundy burlap.

Use the 3-inch raffia loop to hang the sachet from the bottle’s neck.

MULLED WINE

3/4 cup water

1/3 cup brown sugar

Spice bag

1 (750-milliliter) bottle red wine

Nutmeg

Place water and brown sugar in pan over medium-low heat and simmer until sugar dissolves and syrup forms. Add spice bag and and wine and simmer. Do not boil. Serve hot with nutmeg to taste sprinkled over top.

POINSETTIA WRAP

Any host or hostess would be happy to have a beautiful plant plus a new holiday towel for next year. Simply replace the foil on a potted poinsettia plant with a decorative Christmas dish towel. They’re widely available and sell for less than $5.

PEPPER SWAG

This year, instead of buying a wreath of holly and fruit, try making a pine and pepper swag. All you need is florist wire, pine branches from a flower shop or Christmas tree lot and fresh peppers. I bought everything--a bunch of short-needle pine, one of mixed pine and some decorative peppers--from the downtown L.A. flower mart and made two swags for about $10. You can use peppers from a supermarket if you find nice-looking ones. By the way, the peppers florists sell aren’t for eating, so don’t bother to dry and save them.

With florist wire tie one sort of pine (say, short-needle) to a short of the same type so the tops are in opposite directions. Cut a 6-inch piece of wire, bend it into a loop and attach it to the back as a hanger. Tie some of the other sort of pine (say, long-needle) toward the bottom of the swag.

Tie peppers to the middle and tie with florist wire. Use the two small pine pieces from the mixed pine and tie to the top in an upward position. I used some little dried white flowers I had in my kitchen to add softness. Then just tie with a bow.

--TRACY CROWE MCGONIGLE