Christmas is now 5 days away – and if you’ve been super organised you’re all set! However, many online retailers now don’t guarantee delivery by Christmas unless you upgrade to next-day delivery. If you don’t want to face the high street, or pay over the odds for delivery (which may still fail – the number of stories I’ve heard!), or if you’re reading this on Christmas Eve itself, you still have options for Christmas gifts for the foodies in your life.
Get to a supermarket for your ingredients and spend an afternoon making some presents (here are some suggestions from another post). This year the hamper for my immediate family is going to consist of:
- Pru Leith’s Gingerbread (a staple every year),
- Ginger & Lemon Cordial,
- Triple Choc Chip Cookies,
- foie gras (this year I’m doing this spiced recipe which goes well with toasted slices of gingerbread, as well as doing my staple fig and port version – recipe to come),
- and possibly… nougat (I’ve heard it is a tricky thing to make, so we’ll see if it makes it in to the hamper!).
The other alternative is to buy a voucher – the bonus here is that these can frequently be printed immediately so you can get these right up to the last minute. This also means that the recipient can not only choose their preferred things, but can generally take advantage of the January sales, so making your money go further! Some ideas especially for foodies include:
- A wine tasting experience – Vinopolis in London was a really lovely afternoon out when my husband and I went a couple of years ago.
- A cooking lesson – L’atelier des chefs in London, the Underground Cookery School also in London, or Rick Stein’s Seafood School in Padstow (Cornwall) are all on my own wish list.
- A hand written voucher promising a trip to their favourite food shop (examples of some of my favourite places include Liberty’s and Selfridges Food Halls, ChoccyWoccyDooDah and Lakeland) and a guarantee of a certain amount of spending money.
- A Graze snack subscription – imagine getting your snacks sent directly to your workplace so that you can nibble while you type!
- A food or drink magazine subscription (which can either be in print or digital)
- Tickets to a foodie event, like the Taste Festivals. Here’s a list of the foodie festivals happening in the UK in 2014.
The Educated Foodie 