Christmas Gift Baskets
With Christmas fast approaching, it’s time to get going on our preparations for the festive season. However, shopping for great gifts for family and friends can be a shocking jolt to your wallet. Here’s where homemade gifts really shine. One unbeatable gift idea is to make Christmas gift baskets. You don’t need to stick with the traditional sausage, cheese, tea and jam themes. Here’s your chance to give a truly thoughtful, personalized and beautiful gift that comes from the heart. Chances are good that the recipient will treasure a personalized Christmas gift basket over a cashmere sweater.
All you need for a perfectly lovely Christmas gift basket is wrapping paper, ribbon, contents and of course, the basket. Now’s the time to let your imagination run free.
Perhaps your recipient is crazy about quilting. You can go to any large fabric store and pick up “fat quarters” which are ¼ to ½ yard remnants of fabric, usually packaged in groups of similar fabric types. Quilters love these. Ask the store clerk about the hot new quilter’s gadgets. Spools of metallic quilter’s threads, fancy trims and ribbons are welcome treats in Christmas gift baskets for quilters. Choose a basket shape that can serve to store supplies after the contents are used.
Fishing enthusiasts enjoy all that tackle. You’ll find aisles of lures and bait and assorted gadgetry. The avid cook never met a utensil, tool, bread pan or garlic press they didn’t like. Whatever your giftee’s interests, there are specialty stores that cater to them.
Just match the interests of your recipient to any basket idea. This technique makes it easy to develop your theme, colors and decorations.
Today, there are so many shapes and sizes of baskets readily available, you’re sure to find beautiful choices suited to every person on your list. Craft stores, hardware stores, grocery stores, flea markets and pet stores are good places to look.
Wrapping papers are almost limitless, from foils and holographic papers to fancy tissue printed designs. Tissue paper is well suited as an elegant liner for all Christmas gift baskets. Christmas gift baskets containing food look beautiful when the entire basket is wrapped in cellophane with a fancy gold or lace ribbon. Silk flowers, holly sprigs and tiny ornaments may be attached with a glue gun. Think of the possibilities.
Christmas gift baskets are winners for everyone. Your recipients are delighted. Your feet are saved a few miles of walking in crowded malls. Your wallet is fat and happy. You get the fun of putting each memorable basket together, which helps get your Christmas spirit up and running. Say, do I smell cookies baking?
Can there be Gift Baskets for Men?
Gift baskets are a time-honored gift-giving tradition for so many people, especially around the holidays. A functional and aesthetically pleasing gift basket is packaging and present, as well as the hodge-podge of goodies inside. Gift baskets have primarily been given to children (think Easter) and women, but gift baskets for men? What could possibly be in a gift basket for men? Well, here are some thoughts.
First of all, it is important to remember that you are not, in fact, giving gift baskets for men; you are giving a single gift basket to a single person. This person, especially if you know him well enough to give a gift, has, you know, a personality, likes and dislikes, favorite things, etc. Fill the basket with these things. Ok, that was a little bit too obvious, but it’s true. There is no sort of catch-all ‘gift baskets for men’ template. Just like you would a woman, a gift basket should reflect the particular tastes of the man you are giving it to. If he is into sports, a baseball cap, tickets to a game, maybe even some trading cards… you get the idea.
Still not good enough for you? Here’s some of the things that might be in some sort of manly gift basket for men: shaving kits, some of them can be pretty fancy and only get it if he would appreciate (that is, use) it, other personal grooming tools (be kind here, these are pretty intimate, I’ll leave you to judge if this is appropriate). Boxed tv sets – many guys have favorite shows and are pretty amped to “collect” them. Anything related to grills or grilling. Again, you have to be looking at the sorts of things he likes.
Finally the question of the gift basket itself comes into play. Now, many men won’t appreciate the stand-alone beauty of a well-made basket. Some will. That’s how it goes. Needless to say, you should be loose with your definition of the term “gift basket”. How about a “gift hibachi”, a small grill filled with any of the above – or just finish it as a barbeque themed present. One of the best “gift baskets” I ever got was really just a 12 pack of beer – but 12 different microbrew bottles. That one was nice.
As you can see, there really isn’t such a thing as “gift baskets for men”. But that isn’t because you can’t give gift baskets to men, it is the same as the reason there’s no such thing as “gift baskets for women”. Women aren’t all the same, and they need different gift baskets accordingly. Still, there should be no stigma against gift baskets for men; most men will take gifts, no matter the size or style of the packaging.