It’s Christmas-time everybody! But before we can celebrate, we have to think about whether or not we’ve got all our giftables on the ready. Every year in many households, I’m pretty sure there is one person who puts together the Christmas gifting list, carrying the names of all relatives, inaanak’s, and family friends who MUST receive gifts each year.



In our house (as is with most households I’m sure) it’s my Mom who does all these things. Apart from gifts for their godchildren, she also has the job of putting together a gift basket or gift pack for our family friends and relatives. As the years went by she has included me in this task of hers, so I picked up some little tricks from her to make sure that all those gift baskets are going to contain awesome things!

Tip #1: Do your shopping in a store that has an assortment of unique food items

My family’s choice when it comes to doing our Christmas edible gift shopping year after year is S&R. I’m being 100% honest when I say we always come here when we want to buy food items for gifting because you can’t find most of the items here anywhere else. We do it during Mooncake season, we do it during Christmas season.

A good example: these LOC Maria Crepes Chocolate cookies (Php 599.95).



I haven’t seen these anywhere else but here, so in it goes to my shopping cart to make its way to my gift basket!

Tip #2: Include a fancy-pants bottle of “wine”

A gift basket always looks much classier with the presence of that long-necked bottle. If you’re unsure whether a certain household partakes in drinking alcohol, you should be safe with buying them just sparkling wine. Try these KEROR Sparkling Wines in Red & White Grape (Php 199.95 per bottle).

Tip # 3: A different type of beverage is always well-appreciated

Normally along with the wine, we add a juice drink plus a coffee or hot chocolate. Not everyone actually drinks wine or sparkling wines, and since these are more everyday sort of drinks, they will be very well-received indeed! Try out this yummy Del Monte Mango Juice Drink (Php 194.95 for 3 packs of 1L), or one of our personal family favourites the Lotte Aloe Vera Drink (Php 97.95 for 1.5L).

This SUPER Charcoal-Roasted White Coffee (Php 189.95 per pack of 15) is our favourite instant coffee mix of LIFE. I really recommend it!



If you’re gifting to a non coffee-drinker, I don’t think you can go wrong with the classic Swiss Miss Dark Chocolate Drink (Php 449.95 for 50 sachets).

Tip # 4: Sweet stuff and chocolates are always winners

This is pretty self-explanatory, I think, because whatever age you are you’re bound to have moments when you want something sweet! Which is why sweets make wonderful gifts in any occasion, whether it be cookies like the Chips Ahoy Chunky (Php 199.95) or Chewy (Php 264.95) varieties; or confections like KitKat’s Green Tea (Php 199.95) or Sweet Potato (Php 224.95) varieties.

Tip # 5: If you have a little more space to fill, just include a tin of beautifully packaged Danish cookies!

These classic buttery treats seem to have become a Christmas tradition! I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a Christmas basket without a tin of butter cookies. It’s so iconic in fact that even brands like Oreo have created a modern take on it! Try out this pretty Oreo Selection (Php 239.95) for a change?



The more classic versions are the Jacobsen Copenhagen Butter Cookies (Php 119.95) and the Copenhagen Red Assorted Cookies (Php 229.95). I remember when my grandmother used to hoard this stuff. She’d go through the cookies slowly until she finished everything and turned the tin into containers for her sewing supplies and knick-knacks.

A nice change up from the usual classic-looking tins are these KELSEN Fun Christmas Danish Cookies (Php 179.95), which are a great choice for Christmas baskets especially since they are packaged quite festively!

Tip # 6: If you are absolutely pressed for time, just grab a pre-made Holiday Basket

And by grab I mean buy. Buy pre-made holiday baskets haha! S&R offers a ton of choices. I was literally surprised by how impressive the holiday baskets are this year. That basket up at the very top of this post is just one of the very impressive, gigantic gift packs they’ve come up with. If I remember correctly, that one goes for around Php 8000+ per basket, so I’ve picked a couple that are more on the affordable side.

For your coffee lover friends, you can give them this New Year Tidings Basket (Php 1,499.95) that has a coffee and creamer set, along with cookies that are perfect for dipping with coffee!



For those who you know love whipping things up in the kitchen, it might be a good idea to give them this Merry Mix-Up Basket (Php 1,999.95) which can serve as their cooking kit for their future foodie creations. You’ve got a plethora of pasta-making ingredients, even olive oil to start your cooking and parmesan to top it all off!



Another one I really like is the Holiday Bounty Basket (Php 3,499.95). It’s hefty (yes I lifted it up) and festively filled to the brim with common pantry items that most households can make use of. A mix of cooking ingredients, canned breakfast items, and even fruits, make this basket a worthy gift.



Bonus tip: Want to be remembered for your holiday basket? Include something cute and fluffy that’s Christmas-themed! The size is up to you, but I love these big adorable Christmas Round Animals (Php 399.95)! I think kids will especially love these since they can cuddle with these.



If you’re not into dolls, I still think it’s nice to include a little decorative item in your gift basket which the receivers can use to display in their homes the next Christmas season. That way when they see it, they’ll remember it’s from you! 🙂

So there you go! This is just a super tiny fraction of what S&R has to offer in terms of helping you prep for your Christmas gifting. There are so so many yummy things to choose from here, ranging from limited holiday edition treats to crows pleaser items! And what’s great is that you can pretty much buy the many bulk packs offered by S&R and separate it into several holidays bags already.

It’s not just about the choices, but also about putting value to every hard-earned penny you have! Christmas may be about giving, but if you can save while you’re doing that, then why not! This is what Christmas with #LoveSnR is all about. 😉

Full disclosure: This post is sponsored by S&R Membership Shopping, but all opinions and thoughts stated above are my own.