Food Gifts for Christmas

Last Updated on November 3, 2025

Our annual guide for the festive season

As November rolls around, you may be starting to plan your Christmas events and gift lists. Many people find the annual gift shopping to be stressful, but I have found that food gifts are always well-received. Even if those on your list are not self-identified foodies, there are food and beverage gifts that almost anyone would be happy to receive. Who doesn’t like the excitement of opening a hamper, for example? This year, I have been gifted and have tested a great selection, which I hope you will find inspiring.

Hampers

Don’t you love the anticipation of opening a wicker hamper filled with delicious items to eat and drink? To my mind, little says ‘I love you’ more than sending a friend a Christmas hamper. This year, I have two to recommend.

Fattoria La Vialla: The Grand Tasty Teetotaller

This magnificent hamper is one of many options from Fattoria La Vialla, a farm and wine estate in Tuscany. It is an organic and biodynamic-certified, family-run farming enterprise that grows and produces everything itself, with an ecologically sustainable footprint. Their exclusive products are not available in supermarkets or delicatessens.

The Grand Tasty Teetotaller sells for £124. It includes 20 specialities, delivered in a large red box with a vast green bow. There are three bottles of unfiltered sparkling grape juice, stackable bottles of EVOO and balsamic vinegars, two wedges of  6 months aged Pecorino (one with pepper), a string of Tuscan fennel sausages, jars of caponata, olives, artichokes, datterini tomatoes with olives and capers, spicy cherry tomato sauce, bags of spaghetti and pappardelle,  and finally, cantucci, dark chocolate truffles, and viallini (biscuits with raisins, pine nuts and walnuts). There is also a beautifully photographed Handbook with suggestions of recipes and serving methods.

The website offers a wide range of hampers and individual items. Their olive oils are excellent, and they also have a comprehensive wine collection. Delivery is free on items over £75. For orders below £75, there is a transportation charge of £8.55. Browse the website – https://www.lavialla.com/en-GB/  or visit the farm yourself if you are travelling in Tuscany.

Fattoria La Vialla, Via di Meliciano 26 – 52029 Castiglion Fibocchi, Tuscany, Italy

Snowdonia Cheese Co.: Let it Snow Decadent Cheese Hamper

This is a beautiful gift for cheese lovers. Presented in a gorgeous, deep blue wicker basket, the hamper includes six cheeses, wax-wrapped in jewel colours. Black Bomber is so deliciously creamy and mature that my husband and I polished off the entire round in one sitting with the Wholemeal and Extra Virgin Olive Oil crackers, which deserve their Great Taste Award.  The other cheeses include Truffle Trove, fruity Bouncing Berry with cranberries, spicy Red Devil, naturally smoked Beechwood, and Red Storm. Two dinky bottles of traditionally made chutneys – fig & apple and balsamic caramelised onion add to a cheeseboard that will please all takers. To balance out all that savoury goodness, two single estate chocolate bars from Willie’s Cacao are included.

Would it even be Christmas without a cheeseboard? Not in my household. This gift is perfect for the festive season and not just on the big day. Canapés with the neighbours, a cheese-and-wine evening with friends —always a great selection is appreciated.

The Snowdonia Cheese Company was established in 2001 and creates a luxury range of Welsh cheeses. Let it Snow Decadent Cheese Hamper sells for £57 and is available at https://www.snowdoniacheese.co.uk/

Gifts to make your dishes glow

Hokan Bowls

Hokan means storage in Japanese, and gifting these beautiful bowls will certainly gain you plenty of brownie points. These stackable, stoneware bowls are not only good-looking, but they are super practical as they can be used directly from the freezer into the oven. Many people are looking for ways to reduce plastic use in their kitchens, and the Hokan bowls are designed for both storing and serving food. No more need for plastic storage when stoneware looks so good. Using the same bowl for storage and reheating cuts down on washing up, too. They can also be used in the microwave and dishwasher. They are available in a wide range of colours. Choose a colour that enhances your kitchen, and you may want to leave them on a countertop; they are attractive enough to do so. Cook in them, eat from them, store leftovers and reheat in them. These Hokan bowls will soon become an indispensable part of your storage solutions.

The set of bowls comes in small, medium and large sizes. Each bowl has its own lid, and as all the lids are the same size, it cuts down on storage space. You can buy individual bowls or as a set of three. A set of three stackable ahokan bowls sells for £9,0 and you can also buy individual bowls in large (£35), medium (£30), or small (£25). Free delivery for orders of £90 and above. Have a look online at the gorgeous range of colours at https://hokanbowls.com/

Olive Oil Guy Sommelier’s Selection

I have long given up buying flowers for friends when I am invited out. A bottle of good-quality extra virgin olive oil lasts much longer and is the perfect food gift for friends. Over the festive season, you will be a most welcome guest if you arrive with this beautifully packaged, luxury gift box from the Olive Oil Guy. You might well want to find this set, gift-wrapped with your name, under the Christmas tree.

These olive oils are not for roasting your spuds. The Sommelier’s Selection is limited to 500 bottles per release, and the collection includes five small-batch cold-pressed varieties sourced from five family-owned micro farms. The oils hail from Greece, Spain, Italy and Lebanon. Each has a taste profile that suits particular dishes. The Picual from Andalucia is fruity and pairs well with tomato-based dishes and bitter greens. The Coratina from Puglia has a stronger peppery pungency and will be perfect for dipping bread or to dress a carpaccio.

The Olive Oil Guy is a renowned sommelier and international judge, Mazen Assaf, and the box of two, 250ml bottles sells for £42 and can be purchased on Amazon or at https://oliveoilguy.com/

Chilli No. 5 Passport Piccanté Hot Sauce

This is a glorious gift for those in your life who enjoy hot sauce. Beautifully packaged in a very smart black presentation box, there are 12 tubes of sauce with a range of colours. It reminds me of the thrill of opening a box of pencil crayons. I love the idea of smaller vials of sauce, which allows you to experiment and taste a variety of sauces rather than buy one larger bottle, which often ends up at the back of the fridge. The sauces can be used as a condiment or a marinade. They range from mild to fiery hot, and 10 of the 12 are Great Taste Award winners. The sauces have been developed with Michelin-starred chefs who have reinterpreted iconic sauces from cuisines including Indian and Mexican. The sauces are gluten-free and suitable for vegans.

Chilli No. 5 Passport Piccanté Hot Sauce sells for £35 and is available to order here

Treats to eat and drink

Pierre Marcolini Advent Calendar

This is the loveliest Advent calendar I have ever seen. It is such a gorgeous gift that I suggest you buy one for yourself, too. Pierre Marcolini is a Belgian chocolatier who creates exquisite chocolates, and this is a gourmet gift with bells on. The Art Deco advent calendar contains 24 chocolates, including pralines, champagne truffles, Petit Bonheurs, hearts and other exclusive creations. The packaging is breathtaking. Double doors open to reveal the Advent calendar within. It feels as if you are entering a hallowed interior from the Art Deco era. The colours are stunning, and opening the tiny doors will be thrilling. I will be displaying the box long after I have packed away the Christmas tinsel.

The Art Deco Advent Calendar sells for £54 and is available at https://www.marcolini.co.uk/en/chocolates/advent-calendar.html

Christopher’s Premium Cordials

This is a great gift for all your teetotal or sober-curious friends and family. With December a swirl of social arrangements, it is always good to have a non-alcoholic option on hand for guests. Those of us who like to limit our alcohol intake at drinks parties used to be relegated to an orange juice at best. All that has changed over the past decade, and now the market is flooded with delicious drinks. Christopher’s Premium Cordials is created by Tom Parker Bowles (yes, the Queen’s son), who has launched three non-alcoholic blends made from 64% pure juice and Kew botanicals. Flavours include blackcurrant & blueberry, gooseberry & lime, and Sicilian lemon & redcurrant. Serve over ice and add sparkling or still water. Not an orange juice in sight.

The mixed trio box sells for £28.50 and the individual  350ml bottles for £9.95. You can order online at https://www.christopherscordials.com/

Birchall’s Tea Collection Box

Birchall’s Great Rift  Breakfast Blend is my daily brew, its depth of flavour having won me over a few years back. The brand has won awards for 13 years in a row at the Great Taste Awards. Birchall is a family-run business that has 150 years of experience and offers the finest tea from East Africa. The company also produces a range of other options, including decaf tea, green tea, Darjeeling, Earl Grey, chai and jasmine teas.

In addition to great flavour, Birchall manufactures a carbon-neutral product – the factory in Wiltshire is solar-powered, and the plant-based tea bags and the outer film of the box are biodegradable.

I love my collection of tea caddies that add a sense of occasion to my tea-making. This year, Birchall has a beautifully designed caddie to add to its African-inspired wildlife collection of mugs and tea towels. This turquoise caddie is designed by British designer, Susan Rose, and makes a lovely gift to add to your tea giving this Christmas. It is one of the prettiest caddies I have seen in some time and is now sitting on the worktop in my kitchen, adding colour and a touch of Africa to the cold London days.

Birchall Tea Caddie, including a box of 80 Great Rift Breakfast Blend teabags, sells for £11.99. You can order yours at https://birchalltea.co.uk/tea-shop/birchall-africa-tea-caddy/

Books for Cooks

You simply cannot go wrong buying a cookbook for foodie friends and family, as you are gifting hours of reading and cooking pleasure. Hopefully, you will be invited to a meal to taste some of the dishes from the books.

Persiana Easy by Sabrina Ghayour

Sabrina Ghayour is a prolific cookbook writer and is hugely popular for her no-fuss, accessible recipes. She uses accessible ingredients, encourages shortcuts, and even leaving out an item if you don’t have it in your kitchen. Her Persian and Middle Eastern-inspired recipes are full of punchy flavours, colourful and always tasty.  Persiana Easy is her eighth cookbook and is packed with recipes for snacks, breads and salads, midweek meals, comfort food, roasts and traybakes, veggies and sides, and desserts. Persiana Easy is as versatile and practical as all her previous books and a welcome addition to home cooks, however new or experienced they may be.

Persiana Easy is available on Amazon and in selected bookshops; prices vary.

Around The Table by Diana Henry

This new book by much-loved food writer, Diana Henry, comprises 52 essays on food and life. Having written 12 cookbooks over the course of her writing career, Henry has chosen essays from each of these books, and we now have a treasure trove of some of her brilliant writing. She has a distinctive voice which readers of her columns in The Telegraph and Waitrose Weekly will know well. Anyone who is gifted this book on Christmas Day might well go AWOL on Boxing Day. Once you start reading these jewel-like essays, you will find it hard to put the book down.

Around The Table is available on Amazon and in selected bookshops; prices vary.

You can find more cookbook reviews on London-Unattached.

Stocking Fillers

Once the main gifts have been purchased, I’m often stuck for ideas for stocking fillers. Here are three great food gifts that are both practical and tasty for Christmas Day.

Tracklements Christmas Cracker

Relishes play a starring role on Boxing Day and the festive season cheeseboard. Tracklements has packaged its relishes into three gifts for Christmas 2025. I love the idea of The Tracklements Christmas Cracker, which has three jars – Christmas Spice Chutney, Sticky fig relish, and Cranberry, port & orange sauce. Each of these is delicious and both gluten-free and vegan. That is one great addition to my stocking fillers this year.

Tracklements is based in Wiltshire with a range of over 50 handmade, small-batch products. Tracklements Christmas Cracker sells for £11.65 and is available at https://www.tracklements.co.uk/product-category/chutneys-relishes/

Fudge Kitchen: Christmas Fudge Cracker

This is a great idea for stocking fillers, but I also really fancy it for the table on Christmas Day. Paper hats and unusable plastic toys are all very well, but I know that I would rather find some luxury fudge in my cracker. Each Christmas fudge cracker contains three squares of fudge from the UK’s oldest fudge specialists. The crackers can be gently opened to add your own personal messages. The cracker is attractively designed in an icy mistletoe style. The fudge is gluten-free and suitable for vegans.

Made by Fudge Kitchen, creators of small batch, artisan fudge gifts, caramels and gourmet confectionery. Christmas Fudge Crackers sell for £4.50, and you can create your own selection by ordering at https://www.fudgekitchen.co.uk/

Old Hamlet Mulled Wine Spice Cube

Who doesn’t enjoy a glass of mulled wine over the festive season? I’d love to find one of these Old Hamlet mulled wine spice cubes in my stocking. Each cube contains four muslin spice bundles to make mulled wine or juice. Cubes for making mulled cider are also available. The cubes are made by the sustainable spice company, Steenbergs, and there is a range of Christmas food gifts on its website. Old Hamlet Mulled Wine Spice Cubes sell for £4.50 each and are available to order at https://www.steenbergs.co.uk/old-hamlet-wine-spice