Last-Minute Christmas Ideas (You Can Sink Your Teeth Into)

A homemade Gingerbread Kit from Clay's is one way to delight children and adults alike with not only a sweet treat but a holiday experience they'll always remember.  The basic kit runs $23.99 and it comes with the house already built.  Anyone who's ever decorated a gingerbread house knows just getting the walls and roof to stand and set in place can be the most-challenging and least-fun part of the process, especially if you have younger children who really just want to get down to the decorating.

Clay's kits include the pastry bags and frosting as well as candies and decorations for your gingerbread house. The gingerbread is made right at the bakery and it's fresh so you can actually eat the house if you want. Bakery co-owner Denise Bones says the tradition in many families is to break the house apart and eat the pieces on New Year's Day.

From one end of TE to the other there are delicious local, last-minute options

Oasis Juice Bar in Devon (next to Ella's Bistro, around the corner in the shopping center with Acme and K-Mart) offers not only healthy options but also sweet chocolate creations, all made right on the premises.  From peppermint bark to one and two day juice cleanse kits the store, which opened just a few months ago, offers something for every taste and eating style.

Whole Foods Devon is home to the chain's Holiday Cake Contest winning cake.

Whole Foods is home to several locally-made products including Kelly Greer's irish Whiskey Espresso Cake.  Greer is one of the decorators at the Devon WHole Foods.  Back in August she entered her cake recipe in the Mid-Atlantic Whole Foods contest and won.  Her chocolatey, sweet creation has been featured in 40 stores in the region.  It's a four layer chocolate cake.  The cake is soaked with espresso topped with a chocolate ganache.  In between each layer is a whiskey pastry cream.  Greer says each cake has the equivalent of about one shot of whiskey in it.  She tells Patch the alcohol burns off and leaves a subtle flavor in the buttercream icing.

Greer says she was shocked and thrilled when she got the call telling her that the lead decorators from stores all over the region had selected her recipe as the winner to be featured through January in ever Whole Foods store from Maryland to North Jersey.

Panicking in the Kitchen? HomeCooked in Paoli to the Rescue

HomeCooked in the Paoli VIllage Shoppes offers meals ready to heat that are all homemade. From soup to dessert, the shop features everything for your holiday meals.  They're also got breakfast items like to-die-for french toast.  The shop is open until 1 p.m. on Christmas Eve.

Tell us about your last-minute shop local favorites in TE. 

• If you're a small business owner here's your chance to get in a free last-minute plug for your shop.