Cocktail Themed Christmas Gift Basket Ideas
Making Christmas gift baskets for your friends, family members, co-workers, or clients is a fun and easy way to create personalized gifts that you can make as big or as small as you want to.
For me gift baskets are different from cocktail kits and mocktail kits because they’re more random and less ingredient focused. While the purpose of putting together a cocktail kit is for the recipient to be able to make a specific drink (or two), the purpose of a gift basket is just to sent some fun items that are loosely centered around a theme. In this case – cocktails!
Choosing Your Basket
First thing’s first – it doesn’t have to be a basket! In fact, forget the idea of it being a basket. If you have one to use, great! But if not, choose a sturdy gift box to hold your gift. Regardless of your choice, do not spend a lot of money on your basket/box. There’s no need.
Any dollar store will have great options for holiday themed boxes and baskets you can use. You can also use things you already have on hand. Save your budget for the items going into your gift basket.
Small Gift Basket Ideas
I love this size for when I want to do individual gifts for a smaller team or group of clients, but don’t know what to get everyone. This works especially well if you’ve gone out to happy hour with them and have an idea of their drink preference.
- The Mocktail Drinker: A pair of nice rocks glasses paired with a bottle of mineral water or nice soda and a bottle of homemade simple syrup (choose a flavored syrup and put it in a nice bottle).
- The Wine Drinker: A pair of stemless wine glasses paired with 2 mini bottles of either white or red wine.
- The Bourbon Drinker: A pair of rocks glasses with 2 mini bottles of bourbon, a jigger, and some dried orange slices.
Small bottles of both wine and spirits are typically found in bins in the front of liquor stores or in the liquor section of grocery stores, especially around the holidays. They range in price from $2-$5 each and come in a wide variety of options.
You can expand on these gift baskets with inexpensive add ons like a jigger, some cocktail picks, or a cute package of cocktail napkins.
Large Gift Basket Ideas
Large Christmas gift baskets is fun to do for a couple, your roommates, or if you want to drop off a gift to a small business client or small team. You could also scale this up for a larger client gift. Again, I’m using a dollar store gift box in this photo so there’s no need to go all out for whatever you’re packing your items in.
What’s in this cocktail gift basket:
- A bottle of gin (or any liquor)
- Homemade simple syrup in a swing top bottle.
- Dehydrated orange slices in a cellophane bag.
- A pair of nice rocks glasses.
- A jigger
- Coasters (These are from my Etsy shop.)
- A three piece cocktail shaker.
- My cocktail book or any great cocktail book. (Here’s a few I love and use.)
- On-theme cocktail napkins or kitchen towel. (This one’s from my Etsy shop.)
Whatever you choose to include, HAVE FUN building your basket(s)! Add in some bar snacks like gourmet popcorn or spiced nuts. Make it unique to you and unique to your recipient(s).
And of course this idea goes way beyond Christmas! What other holidays could you make a gift basket for? Your Valentine? A birthday? Mother’s Day? Father’s Day? Any time you want to make someone feel special, you can use your creativity and build them a great gift basket full of goodies they’ll love!
