E.J. Armstrong / Submitted photoWhite Chocolate-Dipped Pretzel Logs from “The Christmas Table: Recipes and Crafts to Create Your Own Holiday Traditions” by Diane Morgan (Chronicle Books).

Giving a gift of homemade food or spirits is a creative and thoughtful way to show affection for family and friends during the holiday season.

Food and drink are always important parts of any celebration, of course.

Food writer M.F.K. Fisher wrote in her 1943 essay collection, “The Gastronomical Me,” that food is “something beautiful to be shared with people instead of as a thrice-daily necessity.”

Because everybody enjoys delicious treats, we found four recipes that you may like to make and share during this gift-giving season: frosty-looking white chocolate-dipped pretzel rods; sweet, crunchy and buttery meringue-coated pecans; chocolate pumpkin loaf; and cranberry vodka (accompanied by a recipe for a cranberry cosmopolitan cocktail).

The pretzels and pecans come from prolific and award-winning Portland-based cookbook author Diane Morgan. Both recipes are in her book, “The Christmas Table: Recipes and Crafts to Create Your Own Holiday Traditions,” from Chronicle Books, 2008.

For almost three decades, Morgan has made her Christmas pecans for friends, relatives and colleagues. Years ago, people started to beg her for her recipe, but she declined, wanting to give them as gifts each December.

She writes in “The Christmas Table” that this is the only recipe she never shared.

In this cookbook, Morgan decided to gift everyone with her beloved Diane’s Christmas Pecans recipe.

“Served along with dessert, they are a superb finish to a holiday meal, and if you ask my husband, he’ll tell you they are perfection served with a tumbler of bourbon straight-up,” Morgan writes in “The Christmas Table.”

Speaking of adult beverages, it’s surprisingly easy to make flavored vodka at home, and cranberry vodka has the added benefit of being a naturally beautiful and festive shade of red from the fresh cranberries.

If you make a batch of cranberry vodka today, it’ll be ready to give as a gift on Christmas Eve. It needs a couple of weeks to develop its best flavor.

Chocolate Pumpkin Loaf, a recipe from “Gifts of Food: 160 Delectable Recipes and How to Wrap Them,” by Susan Costner (Crown Publishers, Inc., 1984), can be made in little loaf pans or the standard size.

It’s a moist, pumpkin pie-spiced cake that would go well with morning or afternoon coffee or tea, and it’s a good dessert for those times everyone wants a break from the holiday cookies.

White Chocolate-Dipped Pretzel Logs are not only fun to make with children, writes Morgan in “The Christmas Table,” but they’re also “a delightful gift to give to children. Long, clear cellophane bags work best for wrapping the logs,” she adds.

This year, start a new tradition of giving food gifts that will nurture the people you care about in a very personal way. They’re not only gifts from your kitchen, they’re gifts from your heart.

— Reporter: ahighberger@mac.com