Christmas hampers or Christmas gifts: what do they consist of?

As the festive season approaches, we all see Christmas hampers around to give to friends and relatives; we have all given or received at least one, but if we hear about Christmas hampers, do we know what they mean? How do you compose quality Christmas hampers and how do you choose the products? We answer all these questions in this article, prepared in anticipation of your Christmas presents.

The meaning of strenne is gift of good luck, a Latin word designating a gift given to relatives, friends or acquaintances for the annual festivities. We can say, therefore, that Christmas strennas are Christmas gifts, in the most generic sense; whereas, a Christmas hamper is a very specific type of gift.

Lately, in the vernacular, it has become very common to associate the Christmas strenna with the idea of a Christmas hamper, distancing the meaning of the word from its true etymological sense. This is probably due to the fact that strenna indicates a gift of value, and nowadays Christmas baskets are the gifts that offer more quality and refinement.

You can find Christmas hampers of different types, some with good and medium quality products, others with real food and wine specialities. We recommend that you compose your hamper yourself, carefully choosing the products to include.

This way you can choose the products according to taste and quality, distinguishing your gift by its uniqueness.

Christmas hampers are gifts for everyone; more or less everyone is crazy about certain food and wine specialities, so anyone can appreciate a gift.

Precisely for this reason, hampers are a popular choice among companies as gifts for employees. In this case, composing quality corporate Christmas hampers allows the corporate brand to acquire more value.

For a quality hamper, one should aim to include local specialities and at least a good part of the products should be PDO and PGI branded.

Giving a local product enhances the productivity of the area and brings with it the history of the product. Moreover, specialities produced in the place of origin ensure greater care for product traceability and this is certainly a point in favour of the gift.

Christmas gifts or hampers are absolutely customisable, so the recipient's tastes must be taken into account before making choices. Usually one aims to mix savoury specialities, sweet products, wines and spirits, but the choice is always autonomous.

Let's see an example of how you can compose a Christmas hamper or Christmas gift basket:

• Panettone or pandoro is a Christmas speciality and at least one of the two should be present. We recommend the traditional Albertengo panettone or the classic Perbellini.
• Sparkling wine for toasting; better a Franciacorta to guarantee quality.
• Wine or liqueur; choose a high quality product such as Barolo DOCG Bric or an Elisir Gambrinus liqueur or a Pallini limoncello made from IGP Amalfi lemons.
• Cured meats and cheeses: you are spoilt for choice among the various PDO and PGI specialities.
• Pasta: choose a quality pasta such as paccheri di Gragnano or passatelli Soverini
• Lentils and cotechino for New Year's Eve; choose Castellucci di Norcia lentils and Marcarosa cotechino
• Preserves and sauces; choose typical specialities such as sauces with San Marzano tomatoes or Ligurian-style pesto
• Dry pastries, choose Alfieri amaretti biscuits or baci di Dama, both are a delight for the palate with an Alfieri guarantee
• Nougat, play it safe with Pruneddu Sardinian nougat or choose Barbero Piedmontese nougat.
• Chocolates: choose according to the intensity of flavour between La Perla fondant truffles and the other two flavours.

If you want to be sure of finding good quality products at the right price, we recommend exploring the online world. In our shop you will find all the products listed in our example and more: you can choose from the best manufacturers and handmade products.

Order your products from the comfort of your home; your order will arrive at your doorstep within three days!

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Until next time!