How to Make Luxury Gift Hampers (on a Budget)

Luxury gift hampers make a great gift but they are really expensive. Instead of buying expensive gift hampers it’s far cheaper to make a luxury one yourself.

Rather than getting a normal gift, many people love to give and receive a hamper full of smaller gifts instead.

Some shops charge a small fortune selling gift hampers, especially around Christmas time!

Now if you’re after total luxury, then Fortnum and Mason are an obvious choice for their range and various collections. However, if you’re working to a tight budget, their hampers don’t come cheap. Starting at £55 for a set in a wicker basket for a few treats, you could look to pay well over £300 for a jam packed hamper!!

Fighting the corner of the savvy shopper, Aldi have now launched their own range of hampers, but they are still a few quid!

They are selling four different kinds of hampers. The most expensive in their range is the Exquisite Hamper priced at £98.37. Next in line is the Specially Selected Luxury Hamper at £53.27, the Treats Hamper at £24.51 and the Chocolate Lovers’ Hamper at £19.94. The last two come in a box, rather than a wicker basket.

I decided to have a bit of a comparison between the Aldi Luxury Hamper and what you could get at Fortnum and Mason for about the same money.

Fortnum and Mason have two choices for £55; the Christmas Greetings Basket or the Mini Huntsman Basket.

Christmas Greetings Basket (£55) contents:

• Strawberry Preserve, 200g
• Christmas Spiced Biscuits, 125g
• Fortnum’s Blanc de Blancs Brut N.V, Hostomme – Quarter Bottle
• Christmas Peppermint Pillow Candy, 150g
• 3-Piece Christmas Pudding Chocolate Truffles, 35g

Mini Huntsman Basket (£55) contents:

• St James Christmas Pudding, 227g, serves 1-2
• Royal Blend Tea, 25g Tin
• Christmas Spiced Chocolate Bar, 75g
• Black Tea with Cranberry, 25g Tin
• Blackcurrant Preserve 200g
• Christmas Spiced Biscuits, 125g
• Marc de Champagne Truffles, 40g

Now while these hampers obviously hold very high end and luxury items, you don’t really get very much.

Aldi’s Luxury Hamper (£53.27) contains:

• Specially Selected Topped Stollen, valued at £3.99
• Specially Selected Florentines, valued at £1.79
• Specially Selected Belgian Biscuits, valued at £3.29
• Specially Selected Savoury Biscuits, valued at £2.99
• Christmas Conserve, valued at £2.49
• Specially Selected Red Onion Chutney, valued at 99p
• Moser Roth Dark Chocolate Ginger, valued at £1.99
• Specially Selected Coffee, valued at £1.79
• Single Origin Hot Chocolate, valued at £1.99
• Prosecco Spumante Superiore DOCG, valued at £7.49
• Exquisite New Zealand Pinot Noir, valued at £6.99
• Exquisite Marlborough Sauvignon, valued at £7.49
• Medium Wicker Hamper, valued at £9.99

Aldi hampers will be available to buy online if you don’t have a store near to you from 14 November.

While you do get more for your money with Aldi versus Fortnum and Mason it’s still a fair bit to spend out on.

However, there is a third, more thrifty version – you can make one yourself.

Make your own budget (NOT cheap looking) hamper

While I’m not a fan of making a huge fuss over Christmas, I do like to actually enjoy myself. I don’t want to be spending hours and hours sourcing and wrapping gifts so something like a pre-made hamper sounds like a great idea to me – other than the cost!

So, I want to find out if I can replicate a similar hamper, for little effort and save save some money too.

Bargain luxury gift hampers

First up, you need to work out what to put everything for the hamper into.

If you are making a few hampers, you can bulk buy baskets (these ones work out at about £5 each or these smaller ones work out at less than £1.50 each), then buy extra bits separately.

Check out The Works who have a great budget range of DIY sets for hampers from £4. Plus, use The Works voucher code XMAS30 to get up to 30% off at the checkout.

Alternatively, you can buy make your own kits. Now this isn’t cheating as it comes with everything you need, bar the actual gifts. It means that you’ll have the actual hamper, tissue paper and cellophane.

The best ones I’ve seen are either this one with a cardboard box for £4.99 or this wicker hamper for £5.54.

Delicious budget gifts

To make sure the hamper has all the same stuff as the Aldi one, I’ve looked to find the same or very similar products that are readily available at the supermarket.

• Kuchenmeister Marzipan Stollen Bites (275g), £2
• Thomas J. Fudge’s Belgian Dark Chocolate Florentines (6), £2.55
• Lotus Biscoff Caramel Biscuits – Belgian Chocolate (154g), £1.49
• Tesco Finest Farmhouse Cheese Straws (100g), £1.49
• Bonne Maman Blackcurrant Conserve (370g), £2.29
• English Provender Co. Caramelised Red Onion Chutney (325g), £1.90
• Border Biscuits – Dark Chocolate Gingers (175g), £1
• Lavazza Qualita Rossa Caffe Espresso (250g), £3.25
• Green & Black’s Fairtrade Organic Cocoa Powder (125g), £2.20
• Tesco Australian Red (750ml), £3.75
• Tesco Australian Dry White (750ml), £3.75

I used Tesco for a price comparison, others may work out cheaper.

Then, for a bit of a fizzy tipple, how about some Kir Royal down to just £3 a bottle in M&S – half price! You have to buy them in a case of 6, but the spare could be a perfect teacher gift, or even just put aside to treat yourself.

The total cost of a supermarket (mostly high end products) comes in at £28.67. Even with the cost of a DIY hamper kit, the total cost of the hamper works out at a maximum price of £36.20.

Branding down would save more but, it’s meant to be a luxury hamper!

Making your own hamper will save you money

Making your own hamper will give you a huge saving of £17.07 versus buying a (budget) supermarket’s own.

It wouldn’t even take that long to add the items to your online order or add a few extra items to the trolley during your normal food shop. Plus, the whole thing would be personal and home made.

Related: 7 Tips to Take Christmas Back from the Retailers

Tips for making a gift hamper

If you are planning to put together your own gift hamper it certainly feels a lot more personal is you make it yourself. It shows that you’ve really given consideration to the person you’re buying it for.

What’s the theme?

A gift hamper isn’t just about putting stuff into a box, it’s all about a theme.

For some ideas, how about creating:

• Cinema – like this movies lovers one
• Chocolate – like this one
• Sweets – like this retro one
• Tea or coffee – like this great shaped one
• Spa/pamper – like this mini bath tub

It’s best to think about who you’re giving the hamper to and settling on a hamper that suits their taste.

What’s your budget?

Decide on a budget up front and stick to it.

If you are at the very low end then you could consider making some of the things to go inside it yourself, like jams, chutneys or shortbread.

What will the hamper be?

Now a hamper doesn’t just have to be a wicker basket. You could look to get an alternative for cheaper.

If you are making a few hampers up, buying them in bulk will also work out cheaper (these ones work out at about £5 each or these smaller ones work out at less than £1.50 each).

Why not consider placing the contents of the hamper into a decorated or wrapped cardboard box (pick on up from the veg section at Lidl or Aldi), use a small wooden crate or a metal basket. Look in charity shops for large fruit bowls make from woods or metal which can also work out cost effective.

What will you fill it with?

On top of putting the actual gifts inside the hamper, you also need to add some kind of filler to keep everything safe and in place.

If you’re not going for a make your own kit, you could buy your own hamper filling which works out quite cheap or make your own with an electric shredder you’d usually use to get rid of your (paid) bills. Alternatively, scrunch up crepe paper, or even newspaper then tuck a tea towel over the top to hide the print.

Once you’ve spent time getting everything in place and looking neat, most people would wrap the hamper in cellophane as you can see through it. It also makes sure everything keeps in place.

Pop on a ribbon (every household has a bit of ribbon laying around) and use one of last year’s recycled Christmas card for a gift tag.

Making a hamper from scratch yourself can definitely work out cheaper and can make a nicer, more well thought out gift than if you just buy one from a store.