Home made hampers - naff or no?

[IVFfirsttimer91]

Hi all! We’re expecting our first baby in the new year, so this year finances are a bit strained!

We were thinking that instead of buying gifts this year that we would make our families hampers with home made preserves, chutneys, sauces and sweet bits (fudge - we just started a business making it) in them?

I would be super happy to get something like this, but I don’t know if it’s going to come across as cheap or something? My family tends to throw money around a bit especially at Christmas and I don’t want them to think that we are being tight.

Do you think that that would be something you would be happy to receive? Or should we go back to the drawing board?

So you'd eat the head chef's food if he cooked it for you in his restaurant but not in his own kitchen?

I would be delighted to receive your hamper.

I think that a home made hamper sounds wonderful !
One of my favourite gifts last year was home made fig chutney that my niece gave me, I have never tasted anything more delicious.
Screw the humbugs 🙄

So-people who won't eat anything home made-don't you ever go for a meal at a friend's house? Another bizarre Mumsnet thing....

@CurlewKate nope. But I don't recall ever being invited for a meal in someone's house, I don't know anyone who would have a dinner party.

If your DH is a chef then give actual meals. Much better than chutney. And probably cheaper and quicker.

Get the large disposal food trays and make divine lamb curry or beef casserole or whatever and give that. People will love to have a homemade meal they haven’t made.

Your partner is a head chef?! If I was in your family I’d be saying- please do this every year!! I do love a food hamper though- DH often does one for me as he knows I hate all the clutter of the random other things you get, he doesn’t do anything home made just buys things he knows I love and that are treats, I love it! I don’t really understand the idea of it being ‘naff’- surely it’s just personal preference- of course some people won’t like it but then I absolutely hate being given a scarf or candle or random bowl that I don’t need and have to either find room for or give away- I’m still very grateful to the giver through!

I'm partial to a hamper but I don't think they work out particularly cheap

They're not naff but I don't really want them. Mainly because I make a lot of these things myself so always have lots of chutneys, jams etc and I also love buying nice bits in Waitrose/delis through Nov/Dec so just don't need any more (even if it is given early). Then in NY I generally find I've had enough of rich food and want to eat more cleanly for a couple of months. We don't drink fizz so that's no use either. I did really like it once when someone gave us a giftcard for a posh farmshop and we chose some nice foods a few months after Christmas.

Many, many years ago when I was a bit short of ££ I used to make 'Christmas Chocolates' for my friends and local family, all put together in a cellophane cone (sweet cone style, not that sweet cones were a thing back then), tied with ribbon and a tag.
The problem was my industry at the time (transport) was extremely busy till literally two days before Christmas Eve, meaning no time to make them, so I was known for dropping them off around locally on a Christmas Eve 'Christmas Chocolate Run' via various houses pubs etc, in later years the trip generally involved a car full of hangers on too, bit of Christmas Carol singing and so-on.

Now I know I've not done a CCR for at least 30 years, let alone made any chocolates either but I still get asked 'I don't suppose we'll be getting a CCR this year will we?' and everyone will reminisce how the lemon drizzle or the whisky truffle or the almond liqueur was their favourite..
SO I say go for it, they'll be appreciated and hopefully remembered for being tasty - but maybe you don't need the added expense of hampers unless you can get them very cheaply?

This is a fab idea, if you know what people do and don't eat. I'd love a big lasagne to go in my freezer.

Which kind of brings me to my more general point which is that I think homemade gifts, be they hampers or something else can be lovely if they are properly thought through. But there is nothing intrinsically more thoughtful about them if they are about what the giver wants to give rather than the recipient would like to receive. And I say that as someone who likes to craft and cook! But no point me lovingly making say a fruit cake or a wooly scarf for someone who isn't fussed on fruit cake and finds wool a bit itchy.

I do agree though I would much rather what you've suggested than one of the film night or pamper night hampers that often get suggested on here. Not my bag at all!

I love a well chosen, personal hamper!
For all those saying that they are more expensive than just buying a present - well, they can be, but if you're buying things that keep (chutneys, jams, beers, etc) then you can spread the cost by buying a few items every month leading up to Christmas, which means you don't notice the money as much as if you were buying it all in one go.

No - I absolutely would not. Being a head chef is irrelevant to the cleanliness of someone's home kitchen.

We did this last year and everyone we gave one too said they really enjoyed it. I think it's a lovely idea and far better than shop bought stuff. Although I've been really shot this year and will be buying stuff

Do you never go to dinner with friends? The people getting the hampers are op’s friends and family, not some randoms!
They’ll already be well acquainted with the state of op’s kitchen.

That’s really rather paranoid! So the fact that he’s had a considerable amount of food hygiene training makes no difference? Nor the fact that OP and DH run a food business from home (the fudge) and will have to meet hygiene standards for that? And the fact that these hampers are for family and friends who I’m guessing have been invited round before and probably consumed stuff in their house? I’d be with you if we were talking about mystery stuff at a school bake sale potentially poked by unwashed toddler fingers🤢 but that’s not the case here at all!!

Often on threads like this where someone says they would never eat food that another person has made at home, they seem to suggest that they would have no issues in eating food prepared in a catering establishment or in a factory. At this point people who have worked in such places usually pop up to say this faith is sometimes misplaced.

Given how common health anxiety appears to be on MN, with people worried sick about eating food made in somebody else's kitchen, food that spent ten minutes outside the fridge on the way home from the shop, and so on, I do genuinely wonder when this sort of anxiety first appeared. A hundred years ago very few people in the UK would have had a fridge, use by and best before dates didn't exist, most people wouldn't have been cleaning their kitchen with bleach or using different chopping boards for meat and vegetables, many wouldn't have had unlimited hot running water to keep washing their hands, never mind the rest of the kitchen - and yet people didn't die from food poisoning in large numbers. The human race would never have survived to the present if our digestive systems weren't able to cope with some challenges.

Presumably this curtails your social life though?

I can’t imagine having my life so dictated by a hygiene obsession that I wouldn’t eat at my friends’ houses. It would be awful. Sitting chatting over food and wine or cake and a cuppa at my friends’ houses is the loveliest thing.

Thanks so much for all your replies!!! I really appreciate everyone’s thoughts and input.

The hampers will be filled with things that keep a while so don’t need to be eaten straight away at Christmas :) and our kitchen is clean and we have had to have a food hygiene cert and rating for the fudge.

Plus it’s all for family and they are well acquainted with my home and kitchen and have happily eaten and stayed with us on numerous occasions 😊.

Thanks again everyone!

I think I would throw the food back at you if I get it as a Christmas present. Not everyone has a huge freezer, most fridges are filled to the brim and a large casserole/curry which needs immediate eating/freezing is the last thing I want.

I personally wouldn't like it, I've no problem with eating food made in home kitchens, I just don't like chutney, pickles, jam etc.
Also, by the time you've bought baskets, jars, packaging and ingredients and factored in time and energy costs I can't see how you will save any money.

Hampers should imho include top of the range produce you don’t buy in your regular weekly shop. So would work out v expensive if done well.

Id do some homemade fudge in pretty cloth or nice tea towel and ribbon and say not doing big gifts this year as saving for baby. If people think you’re cheap, they aren’t really friends or worth buying for anyway.

It sounds like what you make will be done really well, so I would love this! I think if you could deliver the hampers a few weeks before Xmas though that would be even better- so recipients can avoid buying similar items to those they receive from you.

My MIL makes us a hamper every year (not home-made but nice versions for foods she knows we like). It truly is one of my favourite presents but she brings it with her on Xmas day which means (as we never know exactly what's in it) we have inevitably already got a version of the foods in there. If she gave it to us when she saw us a few weeks before it would be even better, and I would look forward to eating the contents on Xmas day (sadly she won't hear of it - all Xmas presents must be opened together on xmas day)

I would love to receive that, but I don't think it will save you money if you are adding in decent wine and other bought products.

I'd love this.

Time and effort goes into homemade hampers. It really shows someone cares.