Wondering what to put in a custom gift box? The best gift boxes aren’t necessarily the ones with the most products. They’re the ones where everything feels like it belongs together.
A great custom gift box should suit the person receiving it, have a good balance of products and create an experience rather than feeling like a random collection of things.
At About Giving, we’ve been designing gift hampers in New Zealand for decades. While every gift is different, there are a few principles we use when deciding what goes together.
Here’s how to choose products for a custom gift box, including how many items you need, what works well together and what to choose when you don’t know much about the recipient.
Start with the recipient rather than the products.
Think about what they enjoy, why you’re sending the gift and whether there’s an obvious theme you can build around.
For example, you could create:
There isn’t one combination that’s right for every gift.
The important thing is that the products make sense together.
There’s no magic number.
When we design hampers at About Giving, we don’t start by deciding that a gift needs six, eight or ten products. Instead, we look at whether every item serves a purpose.
For example, we wouldn’t include crackers without something to enjoy with them.
Likewise, adding more and more products doesn’t necessarily make a hamper better. A smaller selection of well-chosen products can create a much better gift than a box filled with items simply to make it look bigger.
Focus on the overall experience rather than the item count.
This is where balance and harmony come in.
It’s one of the principles we use when designing all of our ready-made hampers, and the same thinking applies when creating your own.
We look at the mix as a whole. Is there too much sweet food? Too much savoury? Does one product naturally complement another? Is there a theme connecting everything?
If your gift includes a wine or another special drink, that can become the hero product. You can then choose other items that complement it.
Alternatively, start with an experience.
Imagine the recipient opening the box. Are they settling in with a cup of tea and biscuits on a winter afternoon? Sharing beers and snacks with friends? Opening wine, popcorn and chocolate for a night in?
Thinking about how the products will actually be enjoyed makes choosing them much easier.
No, but a loose theme can be a great way to bring everything together.
It doesn’t have to be obvious or gimmicky.
A theme could simply be an experience, such as:
Cosy winter: Tea, honey, biscuits and comforting treats.
Summer afternoon: Beer or a cold drink with pretzels, nuts, chips and other savoury snacks.
Girls’ night in: Wine, chocolate and popcorn.
Celebration: A beautiful bottle of wine surrounded by gourmet treats.
A theme gives you somewhere to start and helps prevent the gift from becoming a collection of unrelated products.
This is a common gifting dilemma.
Perhaps you’re sending something to a new client, colleague, teacher or someone you simply don’t know well enough to understand their tastes.
In this situation, we’d generally avoid making too many assumptions.
Alcohol is one example. Unless the occasion makes it appropriate or you know they drink, you don’t necessarily need to include it.
Food is usually a good place to start because it can be enjoyed rather than becoming another possession the recipient has to find a home for.
It’s also worth considering dietary requirements, even if you haven’t been told about any.
At About Giving, the products in our Create Your Own range are labelled where appropriate as gluten free, dairy free and vegan, which makes it easier to choose. We also stock plenty of vegan and gluten-free products that everyone can enjoy, regardless of how they normally eat.
Adding a couple of broadly suitable options can be a thoughtful precaution when you don’t know the recipient particularly well.
Food!
Buying for someone who seems to own everything can be difficult because another object isn’t necessarily what they need.
Consumable gifts solve that problem beautifully.
Quality chocolate, gourmet snacks, tea, coffee, wine and other treats give the recipient an experience to enjoy without adding permanent clutter to their home.
You can also use what little you do know about them to guide your choices.
Do they love entertaining? Choose sharing food.
Always have a cup of tea in hand? Build around tea, honey and biscuits.
Enjoy a Friday night wine? Start with a favourite variety and add something delicious alongside it.
You don’t need to find something they’ve never owned before. You simply need to give them something they’ll enjoy.
It depends on the recipient and the occasion.
Wine, beer and other drinks can be perfect when the gift is celebrating something. They’re also extremely common for Christmas, end-of-year thank-yous and corporate gifts.
In those situations, a bottle of wine doesn’t usually feel out of place, even if you’re not completely sure whether the recipient drinks. They may choose to share it or pass it on.
However, if you know very little about the person and alcohol isn’t particularly relevant to the occasion, it’s safer to leave it out.
An alcohol-free gift doesn’t need to feel like a compromise. There are plenty of premium foods, treats and non-alcoholic drinks that can create a generous gift without wine or beer.
If you know someone has a dietary requirement, use it to guide your selections from the beginning.
There are now plenty of excellent vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free products available, so creating an inclusive gift doesn’t mean filling a box with substitutes that nobody else would want to eat.
We have vegans working here at About Giving, so this is something we’re particularly conscious of when choosing products for our range.
Our Create Your Own products are clearly labelled with dietary information such as GF, DF and V, helping you quickly identify suitable options.
If you’re buying for a group, including products that cater to different dietary needs can also make a sharing hamper much more inclusive.
As much or as little as suits your budget.
That’s one of the best things about creating your own gift.
You don’t have to find a ready-made hamper that’s almost right and then spend more simply because it contains products you don’t particularly want.
Instead, you can choose the products that matter to you and build around your own budget.
The same principle still applies: every item should serve a purpose.
Rather than focusing on how many products you can fit within your budget, think about creating a combination that feels complete.
The products themselves are one way.
Choosing someone’s favourite wine, remembering that they love chocolate or selecting something that reflects how they spend their downtime immediately makes a gift feel more considered.
But one of the simplest ways to personalise a gift is also one of the most important:
Write a meaningful card.
Take an extra minute to tell the recipient why you’re thinking of them.
It doesn’t need to be lengthy. A couple of genuine sentences written specifically for that person can add more meaning than another product ever could.
If you’re planning your gift in advance, you’re also welcome to arrange to drop off an additional item for us to include.
That could be something from your own business, a personal keepsake or another item that has particular meaning for the recipient.
Not when you’re creating one with us. That’s our job.
Customers sometimes worry about whether the products they’ve selected are different sizes, whether everything will fit together or whether their finished hamper will look as polished as one of our ready-made gifts.
You don’t need to.
We have a range of different-sized gift boxes and crates, and our team will choose the presentation that works best for your selection.
Whatever you choose, we’ll make sure your gift leaves our factory looking gorgeous and ready to make an impression.
You choose the things you’d love to give. We’ll make them look good.
After decades of designing hampers, one principle comes up again and again:
Balance and harmony matter more than the number of products.
It’s how we design our own ready-made hampers and it’s the same principle we’d recommend when creating yours.
Think about how the items relate to each other. Pair crackers with something to spread on them. Balance sweet treats with savoury ones. Let a beautiful bottle of wine become the hero rather than surrounding it with unrelated products.
Most importantly, don’t add something simply because you think the box needs another item.
If every product makes sense, you’re on the right track.
Building a custom gift doesn’t mean you have to become a hamper designer.
Choose the products you think your recipient will enjoy, add a personal message and leave the presentation to us.
With About Giving’s Create Your Own Gift Box, you can choose from our range of gourmet food, drinks, pampering products and other gift items to create something that suits the recipient and your budget.
We’ll take care of choosing the right box or crate, arranging everything beautifully and preparing your gift for delivery across New Zealand.
Because ultimately, knowing what to put in a custom gift box comes down to something quite simple: choose things that belong together, choose things your recipient will enjoy and make every item count.
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