Real Kahlua uses rum(s), so in terms of the "real thing" rum is closer. However the trick would be finding the right balance of rums and that could be time-consuming and difficult. Vodka offers the advantage of being flavorless, so basically the result is a simple coffee liqueur. The thread Ken mentioned has a recipe for a "Kahlua" that calls for rye. You might take a look at that. Carol Here is a link that might be useful: Liqueur Making Questions

In my home any of these "home made" food items that are received as gifts end up going straight to the garbage. I don't want to eat anyone's "experiment" in creativity, especially canned goods. Some people just do not know things like that you don't make chile or tomatoe sauce in a big aluminum pot or you shouldn't use trash bags or lawn and leaf bags to store food products. They don't know proper temps to kill bacteria or to measure the PH of things. They don't wear gloves when preparing things. No thanks. Off to the dumpster they go.

A simple fruit dessert would go well. Pears poached in wine comes to mind, but pears usally need a few days of ripening after they are purchased. It's a little late for that. Cherries Jubilee would be nice, although not really light. Some sort of dessert crepes might be the answer. They can be made ahead and quickly assembled before serving. Or maybe Bananas Foster. Or just some very good fresh fruit, artfully presented with a couple of good vanilla cookies. Brilliant of you to post that link to the Tom Jones film, Arley. I had not seen it since it was in the theaters in 1963. It certainly was the rage back then, if only for that one scene. Now, if that could be recreated at home for Valentine's day...

Wow, lots of neat traditions. I find shopping for gifts wearying. I usually start in October and try to be finished by the end of November. I try to leave time in December for decorating, cookie baking and wrapping gifts. We are also away for about 9 days total in December as our kids play in 2 international junior squash tournaments and so this takes a huge chunk out of our Christmas preparation time and also means we cannot have a real tree as we are away and can't water it. We buy for our 3 kids, in-laws, our staff (about 8 people), couple of aunts and uncles, and assorted family. We have done a draw for the family in previous years so that all the adults names are put in a hat and each person then draws and only has to buy 1 gift. But this has fallen by the wayside as part of the family had moved away and sometimes comes back for Christmas and sometimes doesn't. I am more conscious now in trying to buy gifts that are useful or consumable as we all know how easy clutter comes into our homes and how difficult and time consuming it is to take it back out. Traditionally my DH and I usually buy small gifts for each other, most of which will fit in our stockings, requisite gifts are chocolate bars, socks, paperbacks, I always receive a "For Better or For Worse" comic book and the year's stamp set (Canadian), and a CD, you get the idea. We also buy lots of little things for the kids' stockings. Sometimes there may be one big gift for the family (one year it was a large screen T.V. ) and then, the other gifts will be smaller and fewer. I usually get an Odyssey set of tapes (from Focus on the Family) as one of the gifts for the kids as we do lots of driving trips and the kids like listening to them in the car. Just wrapping all the stocking gifts takes forever, but they are so much fun to open Christmas morning. Christmas Eve, the family goes to Church as our Church does not have a Christmas morning service. Then we open presents Christmas morning, have brunch and relax and then start cooking Christmas dinner late afternoon, in-laws come and another round of gift opening takes place. I really like it that we don't have to go anywhere on Christmas day, it really is quite relaxing. My DH jokes that it's the only day in the whole year when the car doesn't leave the driveway!