This time last year you were budgeting in holiday gifts for family, friends, and hostesses with all the rest of your household expenses. In the year since, our economy has gone through a semi-continuous downswing. By March, five states had officially fallen into recession. By September, the slow motion economic dance finally began pulling everyone together into the same financial crisis just in time for the holidays. Now you are wondering if you can budget in gifts for the holidays at all. Or will it end up being a collection of gifts consisting of athletic socks, cotton underwear, office supplies raided from the closet at work, and an embarrassing cache of half-finished craft projects you should have started in January?
It’s time to remember something our grandparents knew. Gifts don’t need to be extravagant to give the receiver a feeling of indulgence and pleasure, or make the giver feel like they have offered someone a treat meant to make their life a little better. What is more indulgent than good chocolate? What else makes the giftee feel like their day just got a little bit more special? We’ve combed through some of the deals offered by premier chocolatiers to bring our readers the deals we think you’ll like, whether you're bringing a gift for your hostess at a holiday dinner, or you want to give a gift for a loved one who needs a little luxury in their lives.
Despite what you might think, these chocolatiers have competitive prices on some of their gifts if you’re on a budget. And if you have a little extra to spend, they have creatively indulgent packages as well. The trick is to allow for shipping time and charges. Typically chocolatiers like to ship either overnight or 2-day shipping to keep the chocolate fresh.
Richart Chocolates
Richart Chocolates (website) has several gift packages for those celebrating special occasions or needing gifts. If you need a number of small gifts for people, you can order chocolate or almond dragees for anywhere from $5 to $20. Or choose one of their small tasters for $25-$30. For an added special touch, you can include a chocolate card with your own message on it (allow extra time for personalized orders). If, however, you want to really indulge someone (or yourself) take a look at the Luxe Collection. For a mere $825, you receive seven drawers of Richart’s finest chocolates in a burlwood vault, complete with temperature and humidity gauges for keeping your chocolate in perfect atmospheric conditions.
Hotel Chocolat
Hotel Chocolat (website) also has a variety of gifts from the prudently priced to the luxurious. For $15, for example, you can purchase a package of 10 Christmas shapes. Choices range from white chocolate angels to milk chocolate mistletoe and bells to dark chocolate penguins. Try treating yourself or someone else to a Cool Yule Goody Bag. For $40 you get chocolate drops, milk and white chocolate snowman licks, a chocolate fusion bar as well as a Christmas iconic box. For that special someone who truly appreciates chocolate, you may purchase the Purist’s Library for $70 or the Chocolatier’s table for $100. The Purist’s Library contains seven bars of single estate and origin chocolate, while the Chocolatier’s Table has almost two pounds of pralines, truffles, buttercreams, bark, manons, and more. Note that customers can also use their symbol system to look for chocolates for certain dietary needs.
Leonidas
While Leonidas (website) does not have the same deals at the lower end of the price range, they do have some deals, nonetheless. For example, if you need to get Christmas chocolate for your child’s homeroom holiday party, try ordering their Christmas Chocolate Lollipops. For $60 you get 30 lollipops. Or for nieces, nephews, and other children in your life who need a little Christmas chocolate, Leonidas has sets of Chocolate Santas – either four mini Santas or two larger ones for about $25 per set. Just a few dollars more will get you Leonidas Classic Gold Tin with an assortment of 16 pieces of pralines and truffles. Leonidas also has gift baskets and towers that range from $70-$170 for those times when you want to send a gift to a family or valued customers. An added bonus is Leonidas has chocolate collections that use maltitol and sorbitol for those who can’t have processed sugar.
Pierre Marcolini
Pierre Marcolini’s (website) sleek design makes a nice gift presentation as well. Marcolini has a set of marshmallow chocolates, as well as caramels and jellied fruit pieces. For $15-$18, you can give the gift of specially flavored marshmallows or chocolate covered marshmallows, but $20-$25 will get you an 8-9-piece box of either truffles, an assortment box of truffles and pralines, or a box of Chocolate Gourmands (an assortment of citronettes, clementines, dragees, and other chocolate covered treats). Assortments also come in larger collections for the discerning purchaser who would like to provide more luxurious gifts, with pricing ranging from $36.50 for a 14-piece assortment on up to the Connoisseur Collections of chocolate pieces packed in fine leather boxes or handbags for $200 or more.
Other companies have a selection of chocolate holiday gifts for a good price, if you only do the research. Godiva (website) has a chocolate advent calendar for $25, as well as some nice small gift boxes of truffles for less than $20 for those unexpected "expected" gift exchanges at the office, while Harry & David (website) and Cheryl & Co. (website) offer gifts starting at $30 more appropriate for corporate gifting or valued clients and customers. Cheryl & Co. offers free ground shipping on their entire holiday collection.
So relax. When it comes to this season’s gift giving, you don’t have to depend on what you can find in the clearance bin at the drugstore. Take a breath -- a deep breath. Smell the chocolate. Give the gift of luxury this holiday season without paying the price.
