It’s that time again: Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’ is on repeat and you're probably already making plans for who to spend Christmas with. Kick it all off by stocking up with one of London’s best festive hampers.
Gail's Festive morning hamper
For a perfect bit of self-gifting, this Gail's festive offering ensures your Christmas Day gets off to a good start. There's a loaf of sour cherry and currant sourdough, two Christmas buns, a whey butter log, Seville orange marmalade as well as smoked salmon, penguin biscuits and a couple of bottles of orange juice.
Price: £50
Panzer Deli's Christmas Connoisseur hamper
With full access to the stock of one of London's best delis, all the Panzer's hampers are pretty special, starting from £69. This particular hamper is billed as being a "luxurious food gift for that ultimate foodie in your life." Inside, you'll find lots of food including cheese in the form of Cropwell Bishop, Panzer's own smoked salmon, a fruit cake, chocolate and more. Plus there's a bottle of port to wash it down with. A perfect one to save for a Christmas evening.
Price: £179.95
Honey & Co Christmas Treats Hamper
Honey & Co's hampers range up to £350 (for their House Party hamper) and this Christmas Treats hamper is the entry-level option. It features some of the best things from the deli, including a sweet spice chocolate bar, baharat roasted pistachios and cashews, sumac shortbread and a huge gingerbread cookie. They also do a very handy mulled wine kit for the season.
Price: £65
Rick Stein's Sweet Christmas Stocking
Rick Stein has a large selection of hampers this year, ranging up to £350 for the full-on Christmas Celebration hamper. There's even the option of a gluten-free hamper. However, we're also taken with the more affordable options, including the Christmas stockings, which come in Savoury and Sweet. This sweet version features lots of sweet goodies, including chocolate chip clotted cream shortbread, caramel sea salt chocolate and vanilla fudge.
Price: £44.95
Poon's gift hamper
Poon's have made a big comeback recently. Amy Poon, whose father was behind the legendary Poon's Chinese restaurant, has had a hit with her Wontoneria at Carousel. For Christmas, the Poon's hamper features their signature Chinese sauces, including the WO sauce and extraordinary chilli oil as well as tea towels and a collection of Poon's dried meats including their wind-dried pork sausage.
Price: £98
Harvey Nichols Christmas Foodmarket hamper
As ever, there's a large range of hampers available from Harvey Nichols covering everything from Champagne breakfasts to Christmas afternoon tea, with prices starting at £50 but reaching £2.5k for the Festive Feast hamper. We liked their Foodmarket hamper, which features some of the best things you can buy on the Fifth Floor, including crackers, panettone, chocolate truffles, biscuits and more, not to mention three bottles of wine. There's an even bigger version for £500 is you're splashing out.
Price: £200
Provisions Festive Hamper
The wine shop and deli that's in Islington and Hackney can always be relied on for an impressive Christmas hamper. This year's includes a Basque saucisse, Camembert from Normandy, olive oil from Umbria, French goose rillettes alongside a bottle of French Crement and Didon Rouge Cuvée.
Price: £110
Paxton and Whitfield Exclusives hamper
If you love cheese around Christmas as much as we do, then you'll need to check out the range of hampers on offer from Paxton and Whitfield. Options include the Cooking with Cheese hamper and the Truffle Lovers cheese hamper but the one we're zeroing in on here is the hamper that features four cheeses that are exclusive to them this Christmas. We've actually tried all these at a tasting and can strongly recommend them.
Price: £55
The Brindisa Celebration hamper
For a hamper with the best of Spanish produce included, Brindisa is a good bet. More affordable hampers like the Charcuterie box are available but this Celebration Hamper really does have it all. There's plenty of charcuterie, cheese, Basque butter biscuits, Torres excellent truffle crisps, wine and lots more included in this hamper.
Price: £250
Fortnum & Mason Classic Christmas hamper
Probably the shop that's best known for Christmas hampers, Fortnums always has a huge range available, starting at around £50, but heading up to £2500 for their showstopping hampers. There are also non-wheat options and one which features their sparkling tea instead of booze. The Classic Christmas Hamper is a good mid-range point, featuring some of their great festive biscuits, tea (of course), a Christmas pudding, Champagne truffles and more.
Price: £200
The Simon Rogan Christmas hamper
For a little taste of L'Enclume or Aulis at Christmas, you'll want Simon Rogan's hamper. This includes milk & camomile spread, Christmas biscuits, broad bean crisps, Simon Rogan X Fell Brewery beer and a choice of mulled wine or mulled cider.
Price: £75
Hot Dinners at Christmas
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