Lovely Luxury Christmas Food Treats?

[smellylittleorange]

I'm determined not to buy too much foodie stuff this year last year I was kicking myself for buying eating lots of celebrations just because they actually don't taste that nice anymore ...this year I will buy a small box of William Curley chocs to enjoy on the day ...quality rather than quantity . I always try and do homemade stuff but run out of time so luxury/indulgent /quality item recommendations would be great please !?

Christmas Pudding? Had a brief look at Fortnums ..what about Bettys of Harrogate?
Nice meats?
Liqueurs?
Nibbly bits, crackers Tec
Cakes/biscuits?

Anything else you can think of that you great treat yourself to at Christmas?

We had Cole's Stollen Christmas pud last year - OMG it was sooooo good. More amaretto tasting than brandy, so it seemed lighter but was still as unctuous and gooey as a standard one. (we are getting 2 this year )

www.colespuddings.com/product-range/christmas-puddings/37-coles-stollen-christmas-pudding

Our favourite cheap - but tasty - treat in a tub are those cheeslets - or "treeslets" as they are called at Christmas

Ooh they look great Beyondthepage DH not a fan of marzipan but I really like the look of some of the others..MIL likes a lighter pudding so some of those will be just right exactly what I'm looking for as I doubt I'd be able to find that kind of thing myself despite extensive googling

My DSil loves Christmas pudding and said the one from Harrods was the best she'd ever had.

I totally agree with you- quality over quantity every time

I've never tried Bettys Christmas pud but I'd imagine they'd be lovely (plus you can stock up on other delish things while you're there!)

Nibbly bits...I love the rosemary crackers in the black and white box from Lidl or it could possibly be Aldi (sorry not much help, my mum gets them for me every year!!); Wensleydale cheese is always a must - goes well with crackers and Christmas cake; Bath Oliver crackers are delicious with cheese; M&S honey roasted cashew and peanut mix always goes down well; Bendicks bitter mints are another must; Willie's salted caramels are amazing... will post again if I think of any more!

The Booths Christmas stuff is fabulous, and their (year round) pork pie type selection is fabulous. They deliver nationwide for christmas stock.

And the catalogue is one of the most beautiful things in the world!

The florentines from Aldi are absolutely gorgeous.

Bettys do the most gorgeous ground Christmas coffee. When they start to stock it at christmas time, I buy in bulk.

I'm on the South coast so very far away from a Bettys yes to Aldi Florentine love those! I think I shall go and order a Booths catalogue! Never heard of Bath over crackers so off to google

I love all the M&S Christmas food.

for sweet stuff i buy for the dc, a few tubes of buttons, jelly tots smarties etc and a tub of celebrations, i only really like rafaellos and shoko bons so buy them for me and dh. i much prefer savoury nibbles, and i make a batch of proper roasties every day over Christmas, asda had some nice nibbles last year, my fave were the pulled pork pastry spoons with crispy onions

Ah, yes. The Booths book is beautiful (as is the food!).

I make my own mince pies but for those who don't the Bettys ones are gorgeous.
The only Christmas chocs I want are from Hotel chocolate.

Betty's do a mail order service for those of us down South.

Betty's Christmas coffee sounds amazing. I'm guessing it's only available online closer to Christmas?

I checked already

Im slightly miffed that I cant order Bettys mince pies yet!

Yep only around Christmas time for the Betty's coffee - the rarity makes it so much more delicious :-)

Drooling at the thought of the Betty's almond (frangipane??) mince pies. The window displays are something else too

I think a trip to York is on the cards.....just to make sure I get some of these goodies from Betty's!

@blacksax I wish you hadn't be mentioned them because now I have a craving!
They work out so expensive when you add up the cost of replacing them every time you eat the whole lot on the journey home.

Might have to try and be less organised with the Christmas goodies this year!

Aldi did amazing mince pies last year - my favourite were the salted caramel and the orange chocolate ones. I could demolish a pack of those right now, or any given day tbh.

Do you think Betty's will have Xmas things in by October half term?

I don't think so Holly, as they do loads of Halloween goodies around that time so will be maximising on those.

I think christmassy stuff comes in mid to late November

I know OP has said marzipan isn't a favourite, but Lidl stollen bites... I have to take them into work, where we generally eat a packet a day. I always hope the checkout staff assume I'm catering for a party!
Aside from that, Tesco salted caramel liquor - I haven't yet found the "perfect" Baileys, but am enjoying the selection process;
M&S party food, especially the little scallops in their shells;
Thomas J Fudge cheese biscuits; Waitrose (and other places) do packets of smoked mackerel, ready to eat, but wonderful warmed in the oven, and eaten with fried potato etc. - one of my favourite lazy winter meals; I'll happily spend extra on nice wine, and if anyone finds a red wine called "hot to trot", from 14 hands winery, please tell me where, as I had some with a meal last year and really loved the spicy Christmassy flavour.

We always get one if the pates in a nice terracotta pot or jar at Christmas - just feels more special ! And usually a bag of m&s seasonal crisps.

This year instead of all the usual boxes / tubs of choc, just going to buy one (albeit large) box of charbonnel et walker pink Marc de champagne chicks!

Blooming auto corrects... chocs