Christmas Hampers – 5 Innovative Ideas to Make Your Own Gift Baskets

Christmas hampers are a great way to make a personal gift for family and friends. Christmas gift baskets can be a lot of fun for you to make and for the recipient and they can be made to fit any budget.

The first thing to consider is who you are making the Christmas gift basket for, what are their hobbies, what they like to eat, drink or need? You then need to decide on a basket. The basket need not be a traditional wicker sort, but any container, any shape or form and any material that is suitable for the theme you have in mind. But a basket that fits both the theme and is functional too will be much appreciated.

Here I have suggested 5 innovative ideas to make your gift baskets stand out.

For those who love the movies find a popcorn container or bucket and fill with packets of popcorn, sweets and snacks, DVDs and movie theatre tickets. If you can’t find a popcorn container try to find a container with movie stars on it. Failing that, make your own by covering a box with movie star pictures and scenes from films. The baskets will come in handy for storing DVDs in after the contents are finished with.

A christmas hamper for gardening enthusiast will be a Christmas gift that will last the whole year. Fill a hanging basket, watering can or flower pot with gardening gloves, hand tools, vegetable and flower seeds or bulbs.  A kneeling pad, gardening manual or a subscription to a gardening magazine will all be welcome. If you want to make it slightly more feminine, add some hand cream and pick items in colours such as pink or pastel shades. The containers can be used to plant up some of the seeds or bulbs you have included.

Food and wine are a favorite choice at Christmas as there are so many products to choose from and they are readily available from stores, on line or you could even make your own homemade Christmas treats such as cakes, candies and cookies. A good basket for this is a picnic hamper. In this you can include savory treats such as pate, caviar, cheeses and meats. As well as sweet foods and chocolates. You could include wine and if room, an ice bucket and cork screw. Or for a really luxurious basket include Champagne and  glasses.The picnic basket, ice bucket and glasses will certainly be used much more than just at Christmas.

A Gingerbread house basket can make an impressive Christmas gift. If you can’t make the house basket yourself, there are plenty of kits on the market now that are very simple to construct. Once you have put the basket together, it can be filled with sweet treats such as Gingerbread men, candy canes, marshmallows and chocolates. Also you could include biscuit cutters and recipe books. The basket itself of course can be eaten when empty.

And finally we must not forget the kids. How many parents have watched young children at Christmas cast aside their presents just to play with the packaging. Well why not make the packaging part of the present by making a children’s Christmas gift basket out of a doll’s pram a rubber storage box or toy truck. These can be filled with all their favorite toys, games, puzzles, coloring books and pencils or sweets to give a lasting Christmas present.

The only limit, where Christmas hampers are concerned, is your own imagination!