The great big Christmas gift guide

It’s that time again! I absolutely love creating this gift guide (this is my tenth year!) and every year I try and find something for everyone, although as my own kids get older, I naturally seem to do less kid stuff, sorry about that. I’ve tried hard to find gifts for every type of person that you might possibly have to buy for, or, y’know, to add to your own Christmas wishlist. You’ll notice from that I’ve applied my usual philosophy, which is that useful presents that can be used/eaten/drunk are so much better than ornaments or things that might not be to the recipient’s taste. I’ve also tried to include lots of sustainable pressies. So here <insert fanfare> is the great big Christmas gift guide. Enjoy!

Adulting

Right at the last minute, I decided not to split this group into a his and hers section, because y’know, we all like gin and I didn’t want anyone to be left out. Seeing as I’ve mentioned gin, it seems like a good place to start and I’m pretty pleased with this one. Mermaid Gin is sooooo beautiful, it’s just the perfect gift. Made at the Isle of Wight’s one and only distillery, with entirely recyclable materials and completely plastic free (including a plant-based seal around its wooden cork), this gin comes with some serious sustainability credentials and tastes delicious too. The mermaid bit is because it contains fragrant rock samphire known locally as ‘mermaid’s kiss’. Find it at M&S, priced around £45.

Christmas isn’t really Christmas without a bit of fizz, and Aldi have excelled themselves this year with their boozy gifts (anyone else miss out on the gin advent calendar?). Aldi’s Metallic Special Edition Prosecco is the perfect gift (and super Instagrammable) and is a really decent bottle of fizz for under a tenner too. Find it in Aldi (duh) for £7.49 a bottle.

The perfect gift for the designated driver, or for someone you know is trying to cut down, Atopia is made by the same people who make Hendrick’s Gin and manages to taste delicious while only containing just 0.5% ABV (that means a 50ml measure is 75 times less alcoholic than a G&T. The Spiced Citrus is particularly delicious - and very Christmassy - when paired with Fever Tree’s clementine tonic. Find it online at Sainsbury’s and Ocado, priced around £25.

Quirky and clever

Ohelo is a BRAND NEW London based startup reusables company that have designed and engineered their own range of insulated water bottles and tumblers in an attempt to wage war on the single use plastic problem. I love the yellow bee version which manages to be perfectly unisex (I think this would make a brilliant teenager pressie too) which is designed in the UK and features a soft carry strap and 360 degree laser etched designs. All Ohelo’s products are BPA, BPS and BPF free, with lead-free paint and solder and the packaging is both recycled and recyclable. Find them at ohelo.com, currently reduced to £28.

Now this one is definitely for the person who has everything. How about a DNA test? Chromozoom has just launched in the UK and it’s the first at-home DNA analysis kit focusing entirely on your lifestyle right now as opposed to testing for diseases in the future. Chromozoom works with a simple cheek swab, and you can choose between Nutrition, Sport, Beauty, Derma, Vision and Dental. So, for example if you choose the beauty one, the test focuses on analysing more than 100+ genetic markers within more than 70 genes linked to skin beauty and ageing. Prices start from £129. Plus, at the moment, their Black Friday deal means that when you buy one test you’ll get another free.

The perfect gift for a travel lover, UK cartography company, Maps International have a huge range of fabulous maps that would make a unique Christmas present. They do maps of your local area, city skyline maps, maps featuring UK football grounds, breweries and gin distilleries, those ones where you scratch off where you’ve been, pinboard maps and many more. We’ve just ordered THE BIGGEST WORLD MAP YOU HAVE EVER SEEN and we can’t wait to hang it (pics coming shortly when we work out exactly where it’s going to go).

Books and Games

If you know a dog lover, the absolutely brilliant The Happy Dog Cookbook is a project dreamed up by Head Vet Sean McCormack at tailored dog food company, Tails.com and leading child nutrition expert and dog lover, Annabel Karmel. It features 24 beautiful, nutritious easy to make (or bake) treat recipes for your four-legged-friend, using staple ingredients from your kitchen. All the proceeds are going to StreetVet, a charity staffed by volunteer vets providing medical aid and advice to the animal companions of the homeless. Currently £11.65 on Amazon.

Charlie’s obsessed with Taskmaster, so I’ll definitely be giving him this brilliant Taskmaster board game - the perfect silly game to play on Christmas Day.

Sweet treats

Guylian is one of those brands that’s just a Christmas must-have. We’re all addicted to the marbled chocolate seashells filled with that deliciously smooth roasted hazelnut praline. What you might not know is that they’re a great sustainable choice as well. They’ve removed palm oil from all their chocolate recipes, replacing it with shea butter and sunflower oil, which has actually resulted in a smoother texture and even better tasting chocolates, which also contain less saturated fat and sugar. They’re also partner and sponsor Project Seahorse, an organization dedicated to preserving seahorses and other marine life throughout the world, as well as Project Cocoa, which is committed to improving the livelihoods of cocoa farmers . Seems like a suitable excuse to buy lots of it (and look out for their cute little Seahorse shaped chocolates sold in little pouches too.

Cadbury have come up trumps again with this fabulous build your own chocolate Christmas cottage kit - it’s available exclusively at Cadbury Gifts Direct, and there’s even a competition to win one of the cottages, worth £16.

Beautiful blooms

Appleyard has some gorgeous gift options, including flowers for a year, where the recipient receives a luxury bouquet of flowers each month for 12 months, Christmas bouquets, or sweet mini living Christmas trees already decorated and strung with lights. Visit appleyardflowers.com for more details.

Baby bits

Again, if you have friends with small babies, it’s nice to go practical, giving useful things that they can use, like this cute Aveeno Mum and Baby Giftset containing the Daily Moisturising Lotion, Baby Daily Care Hair & Body Wash and the Baby Daily Care Moisturising Lotion 150ml, plus a sweet little teddy bear comforter. £20 from Boots and Ocado.

Milly & Flynn have loads of sweet toys, books and games, with characters like Peppa Pig and The Gruffalo. My kids were both obsessed with Dear Zoo, and this set of four wooden puzzle blocks are the perfect - sustainable - pressie for a little one.

Secret Santa

So many people I know just do secret Santa gifts for the adults in their families, just picking one name and buying them something small as a token. I think we’re increasingly heading away from buying vast amounts of plastic crap and expensive presents at Christmas, and one thoughtful gift sounds lovely to me.

First up, then, I love basically everything from the Christmas section at Norma & Dorothy - it’s such a cute place to get little personalised decorations and presents. I especially this hand-poured natural soy wax personalised candle (£14 - they very kindly sent me an English Mum one), which is fabulous quality and comes in a lovely apothecary-style jar. It smells delicious (it’s orange and cinnamon) and would make the perfect gift.

If you’re buying for someone who has an interest in sustainability, do have a look at VASO, who offer a range of premium glass straws that are great quality, reusable, sustainable and recyclable product, completely free from plastics, toxins, mineral oils and BPA. They also have a range of bamboo travel cases that have been specifically designed for their straws. Full details on their website: glassstraw.co.uk

HomeSense is a fab shop to look for quirky Christmas pressies. I always love their toiletries section (you can often find really high end brands at great prices) and I always go to buy a huge Christmassy hand-wash for the bathroom, which then lasts us until about July. They also have fab wrapping, ribbons, decorations and more.

Stocking fillers

I’ve mentioned this before, but my Dad always bought ‘tree presents’, just a little token each that he hung on the tree or hid in the branches, and he always found the best little pressies. I love Dr PAWPAW’s Christmas tree gift set containing one of each of the original, peach pink and red. these lovely vegan, cruelty-free and GF balms contain aloe vera and olive oil and are super nourishing and hydrating. They’re great for lips and cheeks and the coloured ones are super buildable. They also donate a percentage of their profits to UK charity, Crisis. £10 from loads of different retailers.

Just in time for Christmas, family favourite, nutella (always without a capital n, don’t you now) has introduced a jar personalising service available at Debenhams in 400g or 1kg jars with a name or message for that special someone (RRP £4 and £7 respectively). They’ve also launched the cutest festive trio gift pack of mini nutella jars, each with three 15g portions of nutella (£3.20).

Get Glossy!

I can’t talk about gifting without mentioning the gorgeous GlossyBox, the fab beauty box subscription service that delivers a box full of makeup, haircare and skincare treats every month. December’s Glossybox is the ‘Merry Metallics’ edition, complete with five full-size beauty products guaranteed to add some glamour to your festive beauty routine. Also, just for today, use the code SATURDAY for 40% off your first box

Side note: phones as Christmas presents

I’m a very proud Three Ambassador and I couldn’t let English Mum’s big Christmas gift guide go past without recommending a few brilliant deals that Three have on at the moment.

I LOVE my iPhone XS and recommend it to as many people as possible. I gave up carrying around a bulky camera ages ago and now do all my photography on my phone. If someone you love adores photography, this big screen iPhone XS is perfect. Get a 24 month plan with unlimited minutes and texts and 4GB of data for £250 upfront and £46 a month.

If you’re after the brand new iPhone (how cool is the yellow one?) Three have a Black Friday deal offering a 24 month plan with unlimited texts, data and minutes for £49 upfront and £49 a month.

There’s a bit of rivalry at home, though, because Sam and Charlie both love their Samsung phones. Grab the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus on a 24 month plan with unlimited texts and minutes and data for £79 upfront and £45 a month.

If you’re looking for a 5G ready phone, check out the Samsung A90 5G on a 24 month plan with unlimited data, minutes and texts for £49 upfront and £41 a month. With their Black Friday deal you can also claim a pair of the new Galaxy Buds.

And if you’re looking to buy one of your kids their first ever phone, try the Samsung Galaxy A10 on a 24 month plan with unlimited minutes and texts and 4GB of data for just £19 then £14 a month, down from £17 for Black Friday.

Phew. And I think that’s it. If you’ve found any fab pressies and want to recommend them, do get in touch in the comments below. Next up, we’ve got beauty gifts and foodie gifts! Have a lovely weekend x

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This post contains some affiliate links and gifted items, and also lots of things that I bought myself 🙂