Appropriate age group(s):
Preschool and Younger
Elementary School

Estimated time to make this gift:
depends on the number of jars made

Materials:
8 tsp. cinnamon for each cup of sugar

Instructions:
A cinnamon cloud can "burn" the eyes, so suggest that kids help with measuring sugar, and adults measure the cinnamon. Pour half the sugar into a clean 16 oz. jar or "shaker" with a tight-fitting lid, add cinnamon, and then the rest of the sugar. Attach lid, and shake, dance, do the cha-cha around the kitchen. Let the jar sit (that cloud again) before you transfer the cinnamon sugar to its "gift jar", which can be any clean, decorated jar, but the kind with shaker tops are extra convenient! Customize your label with your family name or a child's name (ex: "Benji's Cinnamon Sugar") and brief instructions: "spoon over/sprinkle onto hot buttered toast."

Other comments or suggestions to consider:
You might be tempted to mix big batches, but it does not seem to save any time, because the stuff wants to mix unevenly. Consider making multiples over a period of days, in spare moments, because it feels too much like "work" for little kids if it is done all at once.
Garage Sales/thrift shops are good sources of jars. My jars this year are the l'il brown jars that yeast is packed in; anyone with a bread machine goes through several of those in a year. I will spray paint the lids, of course, and we'll decorate the jars in other ways, too. The Computer Genius in the family designs a custom label (that can be an older child) so it can be a sweet and simple gift made by many hands. In looking for the ratio of sugar to cinnamon, I finally found it in a Betty Crocker kids' cookbook dated 1957.
People we have given this to (family, teachers) all seemed appreciative, and it is one of the easiest things a small child can produce, wrap, etc.
Teachers especially like it; they tend to eat breakfast on the run...and it's just one of those "Old Fashioned" comfort foods few people mess with on a regular basis. And...it is cheap!! Cinnamon can be bought in bulk in some stores (by the pound) or in extra large containers, and that cuts cost considerably. I can't remember where I got the humongous unbreakable jar of Crescent cinnamon; it is about gone! No matter; I will find the stuff someplace.