How to Create and Decorate a Wine Gift Basket

The wine gift basket is a very traditional gift and it is appropriate to give to both friends or business associates. It is also suited to many different holidays including Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving, weddings and birthdays. The only time that the wine gift basket is inappropriate is in the case where the person has a medical condition or an addiction that prevents them from drinking alcohol. This is something that you should find out if you are planning to give a wine gift basket to a business associate or a client so that your gift is appropriate.

The wine gift basket works well during the holiday season as a corporate present. This is because you can include several items that can be shared amongst the staff of a company at their Christmas party.

The typical contents of a traditional wine gift basket are bottles of wine (either red or white or both), crackers, cheese, pate, caviar, chocolates, cheese, cookies and wine glasses. Sometimes the wine gift basket can also include a corkscrew or items such as cheese slicers or decorative wine stoppers.

If you know that the person you are giving the wine gift basket to is a wine snob then you should be careful about what wines you give to them and also about the food that you select to go with it. For instance chocolate is more complimentary to red wines than white wines. Fresh fruit belongs more in a wine gift basket that has white wine. For a different sort of twist on the idea of the wine gift basket try giving gourmet wine such as Ice Wine or Port and add unusual crackers or cookies.

Although it is not exactly wine, the gift basket that contains champagne fits into the wine gift basket category. Champagne goes great with truffle spread and crackers, caviar, pate, strawberries, raspberries and chocolate. It is one of the nicest gifts you can give to celebrate an occasion such as the announcement of an engagement, a promotion or birth of a baby.

How to Create and Decorate a Christmas Gift Basket

One of the most enjoyable of personal or corporate gifts that you can put together is the Christmas gift basket. This type of gift basket can be color coordinated and decorated with ribbons that are in the colors of Christmas. Red and green is a popular color scheme for a Christmas gift basket as are the colors blue and white or red and white. You can also use glitter, snow, and white tufts of cotton to make the basket look more festive.

One very nice idea for a Christmas gift basket is the Peppermint Twist type of basket in which everything in the basket is red and white including foil wrapped chocolates, Christmas ornaments and candy canes. You can also choose items that taste like peppermint to go into the basket such as mint flavored cocoa or chocolates.

You can’t go wrong with a Christmas gift basket that is filled with the traditional foods of the season such as fruitcake, nuts, oranges, candy canes, Christmas cookies, spiced cider and cocoa mix. If you want to add alcohol to the mix try adding Kailua, Bailey’s or cider. One cocktail that is classic for Christmas is Bolls and 7 up which is used to make a drink called the Snowball.

Another great idea for a Christmas gift basket is one for the grandma or mom of the house who likes to bake Christmas cookies. Consider filling a basket with cookie cutters, sprinkles, glitter and cake decorating tubes.

Another nice idea is to fill the basket with Christmas decorations or the pieces for a nativity scene. You can even light up this type of basket by attaching battery run Christmas lights around it.

The corporate Christmas gift basket can include items such as Christmas themed coffee mugs with your branding on it and ornaments to hang on the office tree. Cookies, coffee and cake are also classic additions to this type of office gift.