Bumper Christmas Gift Guide 2015

Now it really is time to start thinking about Christmas shopping, I thought I’d do something a little different with my Christmas gift guides this year. Instead of posting separate guides for different types of people, I thought I’d put together guides by price. Everything costs £50 or under, and I’ve put together a guide for gifts £10 and under (great for stocking fillers), gifts £25 and under (perfect for friends) and £50 and under (perfect for family and loved ones), as well as a guys gift guide at the bottom (because they are always the hardest to shop for!) I hope you find these helpful shopping for the people in your life this holiday season!

Joules Peggy Hen Porcelain Mug: £9.95 | Hotel Chocolat 12 Portly Penguins: £7 | Paperchase Set of 2 Christmas Sprout Bottle Stoppers: £8 | Emma Bridgewater Prestat House Truffle Stocking Tree Decoration: £7.95 | L’Occitane Charm Keyring: £10 | Liberty of London Cherries in Kirch: £9.95 | Lush The Magic of Christmas Reusable Bubble Bar: £5.95 | Biscuiteers Christmas Tree Biscuit Card: £9 | L’Occitane Cherry Blossom Lip Balm: £8.50 | Joules Current Leaf Hand Cream: £7.95

When it comes to small gifts, sweet treats, along with bath and beauty products are always easy solutions. Hotel Chocolat are always a go-to of mine when gifting sweet treats, and how adorable are their (delicious caramel chocolate) Portly Penguins? Liberty London’s Cherries in Kirch are a more sophisticated gift (they also do Peaches in Brandy, Figs in Cognac and Apricots in Amaretto), and I love some of the items in Emma Bridgewater’s Prestat collaboration this season. 

You may remember in the Spring I popped along to The Biscuiteers Icing Cafe in Notting Hill for an Easter icing class? I’m now officially in love with their biscuits for gift giving. This Christmas Tree Biscuit Card is a really thoughtful small gift, and I think any of their Christmas biscuit gift boxes would be greatly received. If you want to give an early gift to both yourself and your family, why not get one of their DIY Gingerbread House kits, or book yourself into one of their festive icing classes?

On the beauty front, did you know that Joules (one of my favourite British clothing and home brands) do beauty products too? I love the packaging of their Current Leaf Hand Cream. Also, something my mother always puts in my Christmas stocking for me is one of L’Occitane’s fantastic lip balm or glosses; their Cherry Blossom is a classic. Finally, a Christmas bath time is not a Christmas bath time without one of Lush’s holiday products. Personally I have an eye on their ‘The Magic of Christmas’ reusable bubble bar; not only does the gold, star anise studded bar on a cinnamon stick look amazing, how can you resist the combination of cinnamon, clove and almond?

Moving way from sweets and beauty, if you want to gift something a bit more long lasting, both Christmas sprout lovers and haters will be tickled by Paperchase’s sprout bottle stoppers, and how funky is Joules’ pink hen porcelain mug?

Hotel Chocolat Cookie Caramel Festive Wreath: £20 | The White Company Mulled Wine Votive Scented Candle: £12 | Emma Bridgewater Starry Skies Mini Jug Decoration: £12.95 | Benefit Benebalm Lip Balm: £14.50 | Kate Spade All In Good Taste Apron: £21 | L’Occitane Winter Forest Home Perfume Spray: £18 | Butter London ‘Knees Up’ Nail Lacquer: £12 | Quail Puffin Salt & Pepper Shakers: £19.95 | Kate Spade So Well Composed Pen Set: £18

A couple of Christmases ago the team at Hotel Chocolat gifted me one of their Festive Wreaths. It looked impressive, but at the time they only made them in dark chocolate. However, this year I was pleased to find they now make Cookie Caramel and White Chocolate wreaths, as well as the dark chocolate version. For stocking fillers rather than stand alone gifts, they also make mini cookie caramel, mini white and mini dark chocolate wreaths, too. 

I was really excited to hear this year The White Company had expanded their Christmas candle range. I’m a die hard fan of their ‘Winter’ scent for the holidays (I already have mine ready to start burning on December 1st), but they’ve also created ‘Sloe Gin’ and ‘Mulled Wine’ candles, too. Sloe Gin is slightly fruity and Autumnal, while Mulled Wine gives a slightly more mellow festive spiced scent than my favourite ‘Winter’. Also to scent your home, L’Occitane are doing a great range of home perfumes this year, including Candied Fruits, Rose, Verbina, Winter Forest and their house scent in very pretty bottles; perhaps a gift for something who has just moved in?

Elsewhere for your home, while I also recommend Cath Kidston and Joules aprons as lovely gifts for the domestic goddesses in your life, this year I’m a fan of Kate Spade’s offerings in their block colours, adorned by their signature idioms. Finally, puffin salt and pepper shakers. Need I say more?

Laura MercierAmbre Vanille Scrub: £37 | Diptyque Philosykos Solid Perfume: £28 | Glossier Balm Dotcom 3 Pack: £30 | Kate Spade Charm Link Bracelet: £35 | Kate Spade Palm Tree Charm: £20 | Kate Spade City Of Lights Charm: £20 | Joules Cakeadoodle Set of 3 Cake Tins: £29.95 | Charbonel & Walker Pink Champagne Truffle and Moet & Chandon Rose Champagne Gift Set: £30 | Kitchen Craft Luxe lounge four-piece mojito cocktail set: £24.95 | Kate Spade Pink Leather Tassel Key Chain: £30

Now onto the higher end beauty products, we have three products I love here. Laura Mercier’s Ambre Vanille scent (in any of their products) make the perfect gifts because they’re both so beautifully packaged and so indulgently scented. Diptyque are at the top of the scent game, and I’m slightly in love with their Philosykos fig scent (which suits everyone) which makes up this elegently packaged solid perfume. Thirdly, I was very excited to hear from Emily Weiss, founder of New York cult beauty brand Glossier that they’d be selling their Balm Dotcom on Net-A-Porter when I met her in Los Angeles this Spring. This all purpose balm is light and no sticky, and super moisturising for the lips; Net-A-Porter sell it in packs of three tubes. Now, if only they’d start selling their Priming Moisturiser in the UK; quite literally one of the best face creams I’ve ever used. 

In the kitchen, I use the nest of 3 cake tins Joules gifted me back in the Spring all the time. They’re good sizes for baked goods, deep enough to hold a lot in them/ decorated cakes, and seal really, really well to keep everything fresh. And this set has hens on. Also, if there is one time to hope one of your family gets into cocktail making, it is the week between Christmas and New Year. Help them on the way with this cocktail set – this is what my parents did one year, and I think it paid off with the amount of tipples they were treated to!

Finally, while shopping around for this guide I fell slightly in love with Kate Spade’s Charm Link Bracelet. I think it is a great Christmas gift that you can keep adding to each year at birthdays, Christmas and other special occasions. Charms start at £20, and my current favourites are this coloured enamel palm tree and the Eiffel Tower. 

Prestat London Gin Truffles: £12 | Tom Dixon Bookworm Quill Metal Bookmark: £14.95 | Jollie Yellow & Blue Socks: £15 | Bar10der Home Bartending Tool: £30 | Barbour Utility Leather Gloves: £50 | Marks & Spencer Pheasant Cufflinks: £15 | Nick Bronson Red Gianni Stripe Knit Silk Tie: £45 | Graham’s 10 Year Old Tawny Port: £20

Finally, gifts for the guys. In the clothing department, not only to Jollie Socks come in a cute (and recyclable) tin, but for every pair purchased they donate a pair of socks to someone homeless, too. These Pheasant Cufflinks jumped out at me as totally adorable from the moment I first saw them at the Marks & Spencer Christmas Press Preview, and these Barbour gloves look super warm and versatile. On the tie front, you can totally blame Tom Bradby who now fronts ITV’s News at Ten and his rotation of red and blue knitted ties that they’ve become my new favourite tie on a guy. I love this number that can be found at Liberty’s. 

Finally, booze. How can any guy say no to white chocolate truffles stuffed with London gin, or a cocktail creating pen knife? The team at Graham’s were kind enough to gift me a bottle of their 10 Year Old Tawny Port last month. While I enjoyed the few glasses of it I got, I think the real judge that it would make a great guy gift is that my father drunk most of the bottle, very, very quickly. Also, if you’re looking to splash out on a gift for the port drinker in your life, Selfridges are selling a giant, 4500ml bottle of the stuff. Now that is a lot of port!

I hope that you’ve found these gift suggestions helpful (I really do – this post took me the best part of Saturday while the rain was pouring outside) to put together as you start your Christmas shopping. I’ve actually already sorted most of mine; I’ve now just got my Dad left to buy for!

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