About this time pretty much every year, I share some ideas with you on how to make a gift hamper on a budget because I just feel like homemade gift hampers are just the perfect homemade gift – for Christmas or any other special occasion.
A homemade gift hamper is an ideal way to show someone you care because you can personalise it to exactly what you know they’ll enjoy. It’s also a great way to budget for gifts and to spread the cost as you can just buy bits and bobs when you’re shopping each week.
What to use for the hamper itself
I love a good wicker basket but they can ramp up the price of your homemade gift hamper and I’ll be honest, I’d rather spend that money on the product rather than the presentation.
Miss Frugal’s pamper hamper for this Christmas is going to be in one of these reusable bags that Next are selling this year because it’s pretty enough that I know it will look good but also super practical as she can use it for her college folders once she’s taken out all the presents.
I love a good shopping basket so you could get one of these cuties from Amazon if you know that someone will appreciate it as part of their gift. They’re £6.49 upwards depending on size and I could absolutely see them making a really cute little homemade gift hamper…
You could even buy a pretty scarf from a charity shop and wrap it in that before – I’ve once (very carefully) wrapped a pile of gifts in a pashmina that I’d bought by folding in the corners and securing with a hair scrunchie.
If you want to go more traditional with your hampers then shops like The Works and Hobbycraft have loads of baskets in stock along with any cellophane and tissue paper you might want – if you want it. Just bear in mind like I mentioned above that most people would rather you spent the budget on the gift rather than the presentation and some of the baskets you can buy are more than you might want to spend on the hamper itself.
What to put in your homemade gift hamper
I shared lots more homemade gift hamper ideas in this post if you want to have a look through and see what I recommend for the coffee lovers, movie fanatics, bakers and pretty much everyone else in your life will enjoy but basically, have a think about who you’re giving your gift hamper to and then think about what they like and what they’d enjoy.
So, for Miss Frugal, I know she’s all about her beauty and pampering treats so I’ve made her a pamper hamper for this year which includes all sorts of lovely little pamper products that I’ve been buying each week when I do my normal shopping. There’s a face mask, a hair mask and some of those foot socks that give you soft feet in there along with a lovely nail varnish, a bath bomb and some of her favourite shampoo which we don’t buy all the time as it’s not the cheapest. She’s 18 now so it also includes a cheeky little miniature bottle of Prosecco and a box of chocolates. It feels like I’ve not really spent anything on it as everything is just a couple of pounds and I just added one thing in with my shopping over the last two months or so.
I also have a Costa Coffee kind of hamper for her this year too which is basically a couple of the miniature syrups that they sell and a gift card as I know she likes a Costa when she’s waiting for her bus in the cold sometimes. Instead of a basket or a box, I’ve popped them in a reusable Costa Cup that I’ve bought her.
I used to make my Nana a little hamper which included things that I knew she loved but didn’t like to spend money on – for her, she loved what she called luxury foods like tinned salmon, shortbread, ginger wine and a few little bits and bobs from M&S. I know that kind of hamper isn’t for everyone but genuinely her face every year when she got her own gift hamper was amazing.
When Master Frugal was little, I made him a magician’s hamper with random magic tricks from those shops that only open up at Christmas to sell Christmas tat and presented in a magician’s black hat with a magician’s cape that I made.
And as one final idea, last year, I made a cocktail hamper as part of a secret Santa present. I bought a cocktail shaker for about £3 I think and included some little minature bottles of vodka and gin and some mini cans of pop. I’m sure I bought some little Prosecco jelly sweets as well at the last minute that I think I literally just picked up at the checkout from whatever shop I was in.
So you see what I mean about thinking what the person you’re giving your homemade gift hamper to and personalise it to what they’d like.
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