What would you like to receive in a hamper?

[Fcukthisshit]

Hi all,

So our Christmas party at work has been cancelled and I’ve been given the job of putting together a Christmas hamper for each member of staff. Budget is about £70 per hamper. I’d like to do something a little bit different to pringles and mince pies (although absolutely nothing wrong with them) so tell me - what items would you be really delighted to receive in a hamper at Christmas time?

Thanks in advance!

Typos!!

Taste and assess not tear.

Themed not turned.

I would rather have £50 voucher/ gift card then £70 hamper. I don’t do candles; prefer to choose my socks, tea, coffee, chocolate, wine, etc myself and bake my own biscuits.

I'ld prefer a voucher or a smaller hamper and voucher. If it was a hamper we would like:

Prosecco
Hot chocolate but no mushrooms please
Posh fudge and / or chocolates (milk preferred)
Nice cheeses can be good if you have space to refridgerate
Pickles, biscuits etc to go with cheese

I love retro sweets as well but that may be just me.

Cash!

Some really nice booze, personalised to the person. I hate gin and prosecco but would love a nice bottle of whisky. I also suggest gourmet popcorn, you can get sweet and savoury flavours.

I'm a bit of a fussy sod, don't want chocolate or sweets because I'm diabetic, drink very little, hate tea so much it makes me wretch when I smell it, don't want a random book because I have a kindle and don't want any random smellies (but a Lush gift set would be nice!).

The best gift I ever got from work was a duffle bag. I still use it 20 years later. It wasn’t fancy, but it was well designed and had lots of useful pockets. You could pair that with a reusable water bottle.

If going the nibbles route, cured meat, cheese, chutney. Flavored popcorn. Hot chocolate. Maybe mixed with something longer use like a travel mug.

I just had to google because I thought the hot chocolate with mushrooms was an autocorrect from marshmallows. Mushrooms?!?!? I am still in disbelief.

I agree with later posters about seeing if you could find one or two local producers to work with. A hamper made up of lovely local products would be really enjoyable and a good way of helping the small businesses bounce back. For example, a book from an independent bookshop, maybe including books for their children too (they will be the experts at choosing books for you too), then a bottle or two of something from your local brewery or distillery, something from the local farm shop, etc.

My ideal gift, if you had that amount to spend on me, would be a nice bottle of white wine and a £50 Waterstones gift card. A lot of people are saying similar, but you seem wedded to the hamper

Have you been given time to do this during the working day? Making that many personalised hampers will take a fair bit of time.

I'd just buy everyone's Christmas day meat - turkey, beef, nut roast etc.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

Give people a choice of alcohol/non alcohol hampers.

Defiantly this. Also Kitty's Ginger Wine is a lovely nine alcohol option.

Second a voucher! 🥳

"buy everyone's Christmas Day meat"

I usually have lasagne or pizza on Christmas Day. I hate Christmas dinner.
Personally I would scrap this idea. I can just see soooo much of it as unwanted or not interesting to the reciever.
The more I think about it I would have zero interest in a hamper.

Me too, I won a big hamper at a school Christmas fair and most of it went back to the summer bottle tombola and charity shop. The meat idea would be tricky, some will be away for Christmas, some alone, some feeding 20, some feeding a small family. Vouchers for local businesses would get my vote.

For the vegetarian and the vegan, you can buy posh jelly sweets that are really nice.

@Skyliner001

Second a voucher! 🥳

thirded - much prefer a voucher if no cash available - for a lot of people a hamper would be a waste of money

Oooh I would love a hamper. Dh got one from work many years ago and a lot of it didn't get used. My idea of a nice hamper would be small packs of different chocolate /truffles, some posh crisps and a selection of alcohol, miniature spirits and some wine/fizz. I would personally prefer lots of different things so smaller packs/bottles would be brilliant for me.

if You can get away with a £49.99 voucher without tax then I’d do that and maybe a separate advent gift or voucher on 1st December for £20 (or split £30+£40 etc)

Maybe give a choice of vouchers - the local supermarkets, Marks, John Lewis, a local garden shop or any other food/wine/etc local shops that you know are nice and not likely to go bust in the short term.

That way you get people what they want, no tax to bother with. The advent ones you can hand out with an advent calendar (not a fancy one, just a standard fun chocolate one) that people can either eat on work or take home to have with their kids. But if they’re expecting a voucher it makes it a bit different to have the advent calendar to unwrap on the day and they’re fun to have in the office or take home.

For the second voucher do the same but put in a little gift bag with a bag of chocolate coins and a small bottle of fizz (or non-alcoholic equivalent) so that there’s a little bit of a gift to be unexpected while still getting pretty much the full value of the vouchersincludong some to use in advance for Xmas treats should they want.

I am pretty certain a gift voucher involves lots of tax and Ni admin!
People are trying to be helpful I know, but there is a reason the op was asked to do hampers!

But there's a huge amount of effort in personalised hampers too, so it's just exchanging one huge lot of work for another.

@TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross

My ideal gift, if you had that amount to spend on me, would be a nice bottle of white wine and a £50 Waterstones gift card. A lot of people are saying similar, but you seem wedded to the hamper

Agree with this!

Either you do individual hampers for each person which will take SO much time and effort, or you do standard hampers for everyone and run the risk of a lot of the contents being wasted.

Although it may not look as impressive, I think a gift card is the best idea. If everyone drinks, I’d suggest buying a bottle of everyone’s favourite with a max budget of £20 e.g. nice bottle of wine/Prosecco or gin/whisky/vodka/baileys wrapped in clear gift wrap and tied with a bow, along with a £50 gift card.

I think it really depends on how well you know the people you are buying for. If it is just a few well know office colleagues, then just make sure not to include alcohol, meat etc accordingly.

Personally, I would prefer a bottle of champagne or alcohol free equivalent with a Love2Shop gift card. this is easier to get home too if they travel into the office on foot or by bike!

DH has advised breaking the budget down into modules. So you could have a £25 alcohol module, £25 Savouries, £25 sweet treats. then the modules could be swapped by you, or by recipients. It might make the planning easier (you could contract out some of the work).

@wibdib has nailed it - most of the money goes split between two vouchers but both come with a small bottle / Advent chocs / a posh bauble / something else Christmassy. So people feel a bit spoilt but have extra vouchers to spend on what they like / gift on for someone.
Perfect!

Chocolate
Big candle
Hand moisturiser
Fluffy socks
Nice mug
Make up brushes
Little bit of jewellery (not expensive, studs from H&M type thing)
Nice nuts/nibbles
Bubble bath