Buying a gift for someone you know really well can be easy. You know what they drink, what they eat, what they’re interested in and probably what they definitely don’t want.
But what do you buy for someone you barely know?
Maybe it’s a new client, your boss, a colleague, a neighbour who helped you out, your partner’s family or simply someone you’d like to thank. You want to send something thoughtful, but you don’t know enough about them to confidently choose something personal.
Our advice is simple: don’t try too hard to guess their tastes.
Choose something with broad appeal, beautifully presented, and appropriate for the occasion.
If someone asked us what to send when they know almost nothing about the recipient, we’d generally recommend an alcohol-free food hamper with a mixture of sweet and savoury treats.
Why?
Because you’re not relying too heavily on one preference.
A box filled entirely with chocolate assumes they have a sweet tooth. A savoury hamper assumes the opposite. A bottle of wine assumes they drink alcohol — and that you’ve chosen a variety they actually like.
A balanced food hamper gives the recipient a selection.
They might love the chocolate. They might head straight for the crackers, nuts or savoury treats. They might share the whole thing with their family or take it into the office.
When you don’t know their tastes, variety is your friend.
We wouldn’t. Wine, Champagne and spirits can make fantastic gifts when you know the recipient enjoys them. But if you don’t know the person well enough to know whether they drink, there’s no need to take the chance.
There are all sorts of reasons someone may not drink alcohol, and none of them are really your business to guess.
An alcohol-free hamper doesn’t need to feel like a compromise, either.
Gourmet chocolate, biscuits, nuts, crackers, spreads, tea and other beautiful food products can create a generous gift without needing a bottle of wine in the middle.
If you later discover that they love a particular Sauvignon Blanc? Great. Remember that for next time.
For the first gift, play it safe.
This is one of the simplest things you can do when buying for someone whose preferences you don’t know.
We design many of our hampers around balance for exactly this reason.
Include something sweet, something savoury and a few different flavours and textures rather than building the entire gift around one particular taste.
A good mixed hamper might include things such as:
Nobody has to love every single thing in the box.
The idea is that there’s enough variety for them to discover their favourites.
We think they’re one of the easiest options.
Food gets enjoyed and then it’s gone.
You don’t have to know someone’s clothing size, interior design style, favourite fragrance or hobbies. You’re also not giving them another object they have to find somewhere to keep.
A hamper can be enjoyed by the recipient themselves, shared with their partner or family, put out when friends visit or taken into work.
That’s particularly useful when you’re not completely sure who you’re buying for.
It still feels generous and thoughtful without requiring you to know everything about the person.
This is the trickier part of buying food for someone you don’t know.
If you know about a dietary requirement, absolutely take it into account.
If someone has told you they’re vegan or gluten-free, for example, choose products they can actually enjoy rather than sending a standard hamper and hoping for the best.
At About Giving, we have dedicated vegan and gluten-free gift options, and our Create Your Own range also identifies dietary-friendly products to make choosing easier.
If you genuinely don’t know of any dietary requirements, you can’t be expected to predict every possibility.
Choose a good variety and work with the information you have.
If you don’t know the recipient well, ready-made is often easier.
Create Your Own is brilliant when you know things about the person.
If you know they love dark chocolate, tea, skincare and anything spicy, you can build a gift around those preferences.
If all you know is their name and the reason you’re sending the gift, there’s not much point trying to create an incredibly personalised hamper.
That’s where a thoughtfully designed ready-made gift earns its keep.
Choose the size and style that feels right, write your message and let someone else worry about making all the products work together.
Of course, there’s a middle ground too.
If you find a ready-made hamper that’s almost perfect, you can add an extra item or two from our Create Your Own range. We’ll package everything together for you.
There is no correct amount.
You don’t need a gifting rule telling you that a colleague deserves $50 while a client requires $100.
Spend what you can afford and what feels right for the occasion.
A small gift to thank a neighbour for doing you a favour can be just as thoughtful as a much larger gift sent to celebrate an important milestone.
The value of the gift doesn’t determine whether the gesture is meaningful.
Think about:
Why are you sending it?
What is your relationship with the person?
What can you comfortably afford?
Then choose accordingly.
Keep it professional, generous and broadly appealing.
A food hamper works particularly well because it can be taken home or shared around the workplace.
Again, if you don’t know whether they drink, we’d lean towards alcohol-free.
The personal part doesn’t necessarily have to come from the contents of the hamper. It can come from why you’re sending it and what you write on the card.
A genuine thank you for their business, congratulations on an achievement or a few words recognising something they’ve done can turn a relatively simple hamper into a very thoughtful client gift.
Food is again an easy choice, particularly something that can be shared.
You don’t need to buy an overly personal gift to show appreciation.
In fact, when the relationship is primarily professional, trying to make the gift too personal can make choosing much harder than it needs to be.
Choose something delicious, present it beautifully and write a genuine message.
Job done.
This is one of the most common situations where people find themselves buying for someone they don’t know particularly well.
Perhaps a neighbour helped you out. Someone went above and beyond at work. A professional gave you fantastic service. A friend of a friend did you a favour.
You don’t necessarily know what they’re into — you just know you want to say thanks.
You don’t need to uncover their favourite wine or somehow find out what scented candle they burn at home.
A small hamper accompanied by a sincere message can say everything you need it to.
This sounds contradictory, but you don’t necessarily need to personalise the products.
Personalise the reason for giving.
This is where the gift card matters.
Instead of:
Thanks for your help.
Tell them what you’re actually thanking them for.
Let them know you appreciated the extra effort they made. Congratulate them properly. Mention why what they did mattered to you.
A beautifully presented hamper might create the first impression, but those few personal sentences can be the part that gives the gift its meaning.
The less you know about someone, the more careful we’d be with gifts based heavily on personal preference.
That doesn’t mean they’re bad gifts. They’re just harder to get right without some knowledge of the recipient.
Alcohol is an obvious example.
Strongly scented personal products can also be quite subjective, as can decorative homewares, clothing and novelty gifts.
Even with food, we’d avoid creating something too heavily weighted towards one unusual flavour unless we knew the recipient enjoyed it.
The aim isn’t to find the most interesting gift possible.
It’s to find something they’re likely to genuinely enjoy.
If you can find out even one thing about the recipient, suddenly you have somewhere to start.
Maybe someone tells you:
“She doesn’t drink, but she loves chocolate.”
Perfect.
Or:
“He’s definitely more savoury than sweet.”
Great.
Or:
“She’s vegan.”
Now you can make a much more informed choice.
You don’t need their entire life story.
One useful piece of information can be enough to choose a ready-made gift more confidently or start building something yourself.
Don’t overthink it.
You don’t need to know someone’s favourite food, wine, colour and hobby to send them a thoughtful gift.
When you’re unsure, choose something broadly appealing.
For us, that usually means an alcohol-free hamper with a good balance of sweet and savoury food.
Choose a size that suits your budget and the occasion. Make sure it’s beautifully presented. Then put the personal thought into your message.
At About Giving, our Alcohol Free Gift range includes options at a variety of price points, from smaller gestures through to generous sharing hampers. And if you do know a little more about the recipient, you can always Create Your Own and choose the products yourself.
Because ultimately, when someone receives an unexpected gift, they’re probably not analysing whether you picked precisely the right flavour of chocolate.
They’re thinking:
That was really thoughtful of them.
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