The Gift of Food and a Harry & David Giveaway (Winner Announced!)

Congratulations to Shelley who has won the Harry and David gift basket. She says, “I love baking with my kids! We love to make plates filled with treats and deliver them to our friends.” Well Shelley, the table has turned. It looks like you’re gonna get some treats delivered to you!

When it comes to Christmas presents, our family has always given (and received) the gift of food. When Sharon and I were young and our lives less busy, Mom and Dad would spend weeks planning, shopping, and cooking for our elaborate holiday food baskets. Sharon and I would help assemble them and decorate the cards, and then as a family we would deliver them to our friends and family. By the end our Christmas recipient list had swelled to over a hundred, and it took one full weekend to assemble and deliver them!

Though we stopped doing it years ago, we continue to hear from people that it was one of the highlights of their holiday season. We miss doing it, but we wouldn’t have time to make that many baskets these days. We can barely get our Christmas cards out on time!

And as a minister’s family, we are blessed with a host of presents from generous parishioners and members of the community. We love the special ornaments and coffee table books, calendars and magazine subscriptions, but we adore the gifts of food and drink that add to our holiday cheer–boxes of cookies, loaves of quick breads, jars of hot chocolate mix, and jugs of eggnog. And then there are the Harry & David gift baskets that have been showing up on our doorstep almost every year for as long as I can remember. At our house the pears never lasted long!

Remembering how much we loved our fruit baskets around the holidays, I recently sent a Harry & David gift basket to my good friend, Ariel. Nearly every day for a week she texted or e-mailed to let me know what she was enjoying from the basket that day. That’s how you know a gift has been a success–when someone tells you they’re enjoying again, and again, and then again. And in some cases, for years to come!

This week, we’re giving away Harry & David’s Mistletoe Christmas Gift Basket valued at $89.95. We can send it to you to enjoy during the holidays, or if you’d like to spread some delicious holiday cheer, we can send it to the recipient of your choice.

For this giveaway I had my choice of many Harry and David gift baskets, but I chose this one  because I adore pears, Mom loves chocolate-covered dried cherries and has a serious Moose Munch Popcorn addiction. Andy can’t seem to get enough peppermint bark, and for Dad, it’s just not Christmas until he’s had his first slice of fruitcake. There’s something for everyone! Click here for more  Harry & David‘s Christmas gift basket options.

Here’s the one we’re offering, the Mistletoe Christmas Gift Basket, filled with:

• 8 Royal Riviera® Pears
• Milk Chocolate Moose Munch Popcorn (10 oz.)
• Raspberry-filled Shortbread Cookies (4.59 oz.)
• Traditional Fruitcake (1 lb.)
• Chocolate Cherries (6 oz.)
• 6 Chocolate Mini Mints (0.4 oz. each)
• Peppermint Bark (8 oz.)
• Assorted Truffles (8 oz.)
• 3 Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cookies (1 oz. each)

To enter, just leave a comment telling us what you love most about the holiday season. Giveaway closes Friday, December 14 at 5 PM EST. For the latest gift ideas, ‘Like’ Harry and David on Facebook and ‘Follow’ them on Twitter.

Happy Holidays, friends!