A Festive Guide to Christmas Hampers
Dancer, Prancer, and Hamper: Assembling Chocolate Gift Baskets & Boxes for Christmas
The Christmas hamper. The posterboy for seasonal gift-giving. The epitome of ‘Christmas spirit’. While you may think this introduction to what is essentially a pre-packed gift box may be a little too grandiose, the truth is that the Christmas hamper is a long-standing tradition that still provides joy to many across the world, and deserves a true fanfare.
by Michael Rodber
29 September 2023
With origins dating back to the 11th century, like many other modern Christmas traditions, gifting a hamper was popularised during the Victorian era. Now, receiving a hamper at Christmas is very special indeed, and is widely considered to be a luxury product. And what better pairing for such a premium gift than a selection of your delectable chocolate creations?
Chocolate gifts are as popular as ever; children up and down the country will wake up Christmas morning, head down to the living room, and waiting for them under the tree will be a chocolate ‘selection box’ (or five), ready to be opened. An affordable selection of family favourites, these boxes are typically tailored toward children, and are given as an additional present, a stocking filler, or a small gift to someone not closely known.
You can tailor your hampers to different tiers of affordability; from a small selection of point-of-sale items and packaged convenience products, all the way up to a premium hamper full of your most popular products. And in this article, we’re going to give you some tips on how you can assemble a range of hampers to suit every need, and give your customers that extra bit of Christmas magic this holiday season!
Micro Hampers & Mini Gifts
As we’re sure you’re aware, artisan chocolate and baked goods can come with a price tag a little higher than store bought chocolates, particularly when it comes to a whole selection of them! For the first-time artisan chocolate buyer, somebody on a tighter budget, or a customer simply looking for a special stocking filler, providing a range that’s at a lower price point can boost your sales and make your chocolate accessible for everyone (it is Christmas, after all).
One ideal range to include in these affordable hampers are your point-of-sale range. We’ve written an article on some ideas for point-of-sale products, and another specifically for Christmas POS items. These items come with a low cost and production time, yet still provide the receiver with a thoughtful, artisan gift made with quality chocolate. For a hamper tailored toward children, this could include Christmas tree chocolate lollipops or chocolate tree decorations.
For a more mature audience, you could also consider including gift packaged callets, feves, and chips; a means of allowing customers to experience taste sensations from chocolate of varying origins and plantations, all without the cost and time of producing your signature bars and bon-bons. To Christmas-ify and make special these chocolates, we’d recommend our range of Christmas/cellophane bags, finished with one of our pull-bows.
Novelty Nibbles for Chocolate & Coffee Lovers
A sure-fire way to bring smiles to the face of any recipient of any age is through our range of chocolate novelties. These can be used as a ‘top-up’ to fill out your hamper, or could easily take centre-stage on smaller hampers. Our foil-wrapped hearts, for example, add a romantic element to a small hamper. Encapsulated in coloured foil lies premium Swiss chocolate hearts that would make any chocolatier proud, that can be shared or eaten at the recipient’s leisure, being individually wrapped. For a special coffee-lover, consider bagging up a handful of Veliche’s coffee-flavoured chocolate beans, or for someone a little more serious about their java, a portion of rich coffee beans coated in dark chocolate.
Merry Mid-Level Magic
For the chocolate aficionado with an affordable price tag, mid-level hampers are a great way to showcase your range and chocolate craftsmanship with quality chocolates that don’t break the bank. You could include a gift box of neapolitans, perhaps a small ‘fun sized’ selection of premium chocolates, such as Valrhona, Cacao Barry’s Origin or Plantation ranges, or Luker’s Heritage and Selected Origins ranges, to give the recipient the gift of experiences chocolates from all over the world!
For some extra Christmas season-ing, why not add some of our flavour drops or alcohols to melted chocolate (we recommend chocolate in a more cost effective price range from the above in this mid-level, as the notes of the chocolate are pushed out of the spotlight, as well as making these more affordable) before casting. Simply add a couple of drops of the likes of cinnamon, ginger, or orange, and a splash of Amaretto or Cointreau, et voila! You have Christmas joy in bite-sized form!
You could also add similar flavourings to a full-sized bar, but this time adding a Christmassy touch to decorate! Mona Lisa’s Crispearls make a great edible stand-in for Christmas lights or tiny baubles (which are, unfortunately, not fit for human consumption), creative powders evoke the look of tinsel on tree, or if you’re dreaming of a white Christmas, you could top your bars with mini marshmallows, too!
Heavenly Hot Chocolate
If your Christmas wish does in fact come true, then a bag of Van Houten’s Chocolate Drink Powder certainly wouldn’t go amiss to warm the cockles of the receiver of your hamper! A powder made from real ground Belgian chocolate (unlike cheaper, shop-bought alternatives), available in five different colours and flavours. A box can be broken down into single-serving sizes and wrapped in seasonal packaging, or for higher-end hampers, include the whole box in its original packaging for real wow factor.
Customised With Care
This is where your chocolatiering really shines (you could even say it glows). Here, you’ll want to include plenty of your range of signature bon-bons, bars, and truffles, compiling something truly special for customers that’ll really show off your brand! In this tier of hamper especially, we recommend making the most of our personalisation services to really tie together associations of your brand with quality and attention to detail. Add your branding to transfer sheets, plaques, and your packaging, or for a more personal touch to the recipient, custom seasonal greetings such as “Merry Christmas, Dad” or “Christmas Wishes to a Special Wife” etc. For more on personalisation at Christmas, click here!
If you fancy yourself as a bit of a sculptor, you could include decorated figure moulds or even Christmas constructions like our pinata centerpiece as part of 2022’s Christmas inspirations, which can be filled with your signature chocolates. Items like these truly take centre stage in your hamper, boost the ‘wow’ factor of the gift, and make the collection really feel like Christmas. Better yet, why not create your own moulds with our Mayku Form Box?.
Have Yourself a Cherry Little Christmas
You won’t find too many people that don’t enjoy the odd tipple here and there throughout the festive period, so why not include the iconic alcoholic cherry; the Griottine. Griottines are a unique type of Morello cherry only found in the Balkans, soaked in Kirsch (or Cointreau), a brandy made from the distillation of Morello cherries, making for a delicacy packed with flavour. You could include this in your hamper in its full gift jar form, or you could dip them in premium chocolate for an extra sweet gift! For something a little different (and comparatively more affordable), you could also include Framboisines (raspberries) or Cassis (blackcurrants), both of which have undergone a similar process.
Perfect Presentation
We’ve already briefly covered some seasonal packaging items that you could bag and box up your items with, so let’s go through the hampers themselves. We offer a range of corrugated card trays that can be filled with shredded or tissue paper, bagged in cellophane, and completed with a festive bow – the perfect way to round off your selection of confectionery, no matter how big or small!
These are just a handful of ideas for your Christmas hampers; be sure to convey your business authentically with your baskets, and fill them with items that fit an appropriate price range. Good luck, and a merry Christmas from Keylink!
Michael is a Marketing Executive with a penchant for punk rock, cheese, and indoor bouldering.
His favourite chocolate is Valrhona Tanariva.
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