Homemade food gifts as christmas presents

[FlowersAndShit]

What do you all think about homemade hampers with things like hm shortbread? Would you appreciate them or would they go straight in the bin?

Some people don't like jam or chutney or gin. Or have dietary restrictions and need labels. And I don't want to have to give my present away cos I can't eat it!! So no thanks from me.

I would bin it or give it away.I just couldn't fancy it.I think I am a bit odd about this sort of thing.

Really interesting reading. I like to receive home made stuff and give it. Both my daughters, now adults, always made edibles which would keep for a few weeks as part of their gifts and so do I. Never made a whole hamper but over the years we have had onion marmalade, gingerbread, fudge, florentines, flavoured olive oil, biscotti, woolly hats , scarves and socks.

I tend to keep the sloe gin for myself. I think you need to know your recipient well enough to know a few likes and dislikes. I cannot stand chutney or jam myself as I just don't eat it but I make it for those who do like it. Luckily I out some feelers out last year before going into Limoncello production and it turned out that my family were not keen.

I hate gifts which are of the Boots 2 for 3 variety - no though whatsoever goes into them and I am probably way more picky about toiletries than food.

I don't know, to me making the same red onion chutney for everyone on your gift list requires as little thought as a boots 3 for 2.

In fact, I'd much rather sit at home and make chutney than battle through the Christmas shopping crowds!

My issue with homemade food at Christmas time is that there is already so much food around that it seems rather wasteful to give more...to me, that is.

I can imagine a home-made hamper of treats would go down very well with someone who perhaps didn't want to or couldn't buy in all the 'extra' bits at christmas.

I do hate all the hype that given a jar of home-made second rate jam is somehow more worthier though. For the end result, you might as well have nipped to tesco and bought a jar - it will probably taste better and be cheaper too.

I don't know, to me making the same red onion chutney for everyone on your gift list requires as little thought as a boots 3 for 2.

Then you'd be wrong!

I just spent the entire evening designing the victorian style labels for the various homemade food stuffs that are going onto my jars! I also spent a lot of time going through recipes to find the right ones that would suit the people I am giving the gifts to, and working out how to put the boxes of gifts together so that no 2 are the same and various diets/intolerances etc are not an issue. I could have gone to Boots, done the 3 for 2 run in half an hour (and tbh, it would probably cost a lot less). But then I know that the people who get the stuff really do like it, judging by the requests for more! (braggy pants! :o )

Also, the point of making preserves is so that they are not a Xmas thing. The chutney I made a couple of years ago tasted waaaay better a year after making it than it did after the 6 weeks maturing time I allowed.

No one is suggesting it is more worthy, simply that the person who made it likes making it and thought you would like some. And why is home made second rate? It takes skill and time to make jam, no one who is going to make a half arsed job of it would bother with the effort involved.

I am surprised that people would rather have a factory produced food item, full of additives and preservatives, than a homemade product made by people that you know well enough for them to be giving you a present.
I would always rather buy a pot of jam from a farmers market or WI stall than a supermarket.

However threads like this are highly amusing MN stuff- I am still chortling over the fact that giving a pot of homemade jam is pretentious!

I rather think you could accuse any gift of being pretentious....surely it's not about the actual gift, but more the spirit in which it's given.
Something given with love, and a little thought that the recipient will enjoy it, is the proper spirit of giving something, whether it's shop bought our home made. Dinner understand the thought behind saying a home made gift is pretentious unless it's given with a chorus our "look how thrifty and clever and worthy I am for giving something I have made myself......!"

One of my favourite gifts last year was home made jam from my best friend and my godchildren....apart from it being yummy, she and the kids had handmade labels featuring photos of the kids helping make the jam. Big smile every time I opened the jar and saw it!

We're making damson gin at the moment, and a little bottle will be going to several friends, not because we're lazy or cheapskate or pretentious, just because it's gorgeous and well worth sharing!

I'm happy to be given home made jam but only when there is something special about it - ie apricots from my friend's country house made into jam in August.

I love home made biscuits and shortbread but I think things like that don't keep at all well - I make shortbread or biscuits for immediate consumption only.

Bobo chuck them in the freezer - biscuits freeze really well.

I'm afraid the fact that food is home-made isn't a cast-iron guarantee that it will be good. My mum helps at a lot of cake/baking sales and it's well known amongst the regular helpers whose contributions are not very nice - dry cake, for example. She passed on a jar of chutney to me once which a friend of hers had made and I eventually binned it. It hadn't been cooked down for long enough and was rather watery.

Having said that, as a general rule, home-made food made with good ingredients and a modicum of care is almost always better than the bought equivalent and as everyone has said you know what went into it.

I adore receiving handmade and/or homegrown goods as gifts. Chutneys, homegrown fruit and veg. Have mediterranean friends who give us their own honey and olive oil. Every lick is savoured. Nectar and ambrosia. Also greatly appreciate handmade crochet and knitted goods.

I would place a premium on these artisan efforts. That is not to say some functional mass produced widget is not also appreciated!

I hadn't considered that people bin home made things. Wow.
You know those people you're worried about, some of them work in factories, restaurants, takeaways, schools, butchers, bakeries, pubs, supermarkets etc. Yes there are regulations & checks but it only takes one person/moment/problem/infection/infestation/lapse etc.
If you wouldn't eat/use it if it was shop bought then that's different I guess but don't be ungrateful.

Lots of people like home made preserves....I've attended 2 fairs this weekend and sold over 100 jars of the stuff...

I've sold at a specialist vegan fair and a farmers market and my hand made stuff went down very well!

To the professionals, I need some 330 ml glass bottles that dont cost an asbolute fortune, any ideas?

Or anyone who has a trade account who could order me some? I only need about 6 and I think thats the problem, if I needed 72 then I could get them!