Traditional English Christmas items

[happymummy2010]

I'm trying to make up a parcel to send to a family in Denmark. We have received a parcel from them and it includes lots of Danish Christmas items.. An elf, candle, cookies etc and I want to send them similar English items.. I was thinking chocolate coins etc I Ithought about an London calendar but am now stuck.. Any other ideas of small things I can include ??

Shortbread? A Christmas pudding? I'm not sure what else really, sorry! - no imagination today!

Shortbread is a good idea - thanks

Christmas crackers
chocolate ginger
mince pies
Christmas pudding
tea

A robin tree decoration. Barrels of mini cheddars and twiglets. Roses chocolates. Jellied fruit segments. Brazil nuts in chocolate. Roasted peanuts.

Yorkshire tea bags & Yorkshire tea biscuits
Shortbread
mini Christmas pud
mince pies
mulled wine spices
chocolate log

Mince Pies?
Candy Canes?
Xmas Cake/Pudding?
Crackers?
Xmas Teas? The tea junction do some lovely ones www.thetjunction.co.uk/
Cheeses and Chutneys?
Brandy Butter?
Yule Log?
Xmas Holly Wreath?

Out of ideas now lol

Oh just thought:

Chestnuts?

Lovely

Tea bags
Shortbread
Marks and spencer Brussel sprout chocolates - so cute
Few English tree decorations - postbox or whatever
DVD
Cranberry sauce
English mustard

What about those candied lemon and orange slices? We have them every Christmas but not sure if it's a real thing or just us?

One of those packs of Eat Me dates which no one ever eats
Pickled Onions

Thanks for the great suggestions..

Danish Christmas is hard to compete with, they are Christmas obsessed and have huge numbers of traditonal items all of which tend to look v tasteful and nicer than ours

I'd go with English items not necessarily Christmas linked - mustard, jam, chutney, possibly posh tea bags (I've never met a Danish tea drinker in Denmark). Small Christmas pud would be good as it will be a mystery to them as they have a creamy cold rice pudding as Christmas pudding (sounds awful, tastes divine). You would need to provide the brandy butter. They don't do mince pies either so good choice. Mulled wine spices OK but they have their own version. The M+S chocolate srouts sound amazing as their Christmas is sprout free.

Be prepared though for you to like all of their stuff and them not to like yours! All my Christmas decor is Danish (you can still buy exactly the same items my mum had as a child) and after my mum started doing Danish Christmas dinner to show us what it was like, it started to squeeze out most of the English options as we like it better. Now I'm grown up and do my own, it's an English/Danish mashup lasting several days

Really? I think the UK has lovely Christmas traditions, albeit more sparkly and rich rather than understated and tasteful!

I'd probably send...
Nigella's Christmas book - really lovely writing about Christmas
Then a few smaller things like
Christmas decorations (london taxi, bus, phone box etc)
Chocolate coins
CD of carols from Kings (if you think they'd appreciate it, if not one of the less tasteful collections!!)
Mini crackers

A packet mix for bread sauce, along with a handwritten recipe that you use if you make it bread sauce is pretty baffling to everyone else!

Packet mix bread sauce??!!

But you can't send the real McCoy, and they need to understand about the weird bland gloop that people insist on making but few people eat!

I balanced the packetness with the ponce of 'handwritten recipe'. I really wanted to say 'handwritten family recipe, artfully scribed on a delightful manilla luggage tag in festive red lettering...'

Delia bread sauce - yummy. Packet bread sauce - evidence to the Danes of their own superiority, especially as they probably won't like the Christmas pudding either. Or understand why you drink tea when you could have coffee.

Danes have a large number of tinned/packet foods that form part of their staple diet that frankly are utterly disgusting. I think you have to be born and bred to things like Marmite, baked beans or Paxo to understand them.

This is such a lovely idea.

I was going to say Christmas crackers, but I am not sure you'd be allowed to send them.

Last year, Harrods had tree ornaments that were London landmarks. One was a beefeater, and I can remember a policeman.

Christmas cake and a chocolate orange!

M&S have some London Christmas tree decorations, postbox, red telephone box etc that aren't too expensive.

Stilton

Bennick's Bitter Mints! (Or Elizabeth Shaww mints instead).

Have also just seen some London icon tree decorations (both glass and felt) in my Paperchase Christmas catalogue.

Excuse me! What's wrong with our customs and traditions? Crackers, Stilton, shortbread, bread sauce, cranberry sauce etc etc