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!
what I love most about the season is hearing Christmas carols and feeling a renewed sense of hope and peace.
Spending time with family and friends.. cooking and baking and doing nothing!!
I love spending time with my family, the season’s change in energy, and, of course, the food!
The daughters come home and we set aside a whole day just visiting friends and family – more visiting goes on, but that day is a tradition!
I love spending time with my family and my 4 cats, 3 of which are rescues and this will be their first Christmas with me.
I love to make and send out Christmas cards – everything about Christmas is so much fun and I love all the festivities! Thanks for the opportunity to win this amazing prize!
What I love most about the season is all the traditions that we celebrate at this time of year….decorating the house, the baking, carols, etc. I also love that this is the time we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, as well as my daughter!
I love being together with friends and family for the holidays!
I love making something for people that brings a smile on their faces! Going that extra mile for someone, maybe a blanket, can of coffee, shoveling the sidewalk or stopping by a shut in to say “hi”.
I love getting to celebrate with family and keep up traditions that we’ve had going for years. One of those traditions is a giant baking-fest with my mom and sisters!
Celebrating the birth of Jesus!! I also love the food , music and traditions
i love that it’s acceptable to start drinking at noon!
Well its all about the family and friends, BUT waking up Christmas morning and seeing my little kiddies look under the tree is the BEST part and of course cooking;)
I love our big brunch on Christmas Eve with family and friends. It is such a wonderful time together.
I love spreading holiday cheer to my friends and family. This usually involves food.
The thing I enjoy most is creating the Christmas experience for my baby girl. It’s all new and fresh for her, which makes it so fun for me.
Thankful for another year of health!
My anticipation of time spent with family and friends, sharing the holiday spirit
i love all the beautiful wrapping paper and wrapping presents
Spending time with family, and enjoying the love and happiness in the air.
Blessed by my large family spread out all over the country and especially blessed to have my youngest daughter and youngest granddaughter living with us. What a joy to have a young one in the house again.
I love every single thing about the holiday season: baking, decorating, spending time with family, wrapping presents, crying during It’s a Wonderful Life, laughing til I cry during Elf, all of it. Every.Single.Bit. 🙂
Holidays provide additional opportunities to be with family and friends, to give instead of receiving and to be thankful for the blessings we have rather than wishing for things that we don’t have. I also love the celebration(s) for the Reason for the Season. Thank you for allowing me to share my comments.
I love the Music and spirit of the season. All the lights and decorations. The food!!
GAH! i can’t pick one thing!!
I love all the traditions and memories of Christmas. When we put up the tree, with our 2 black labs watching, we discuss ornaments and who gave them to us. When I bake Rick’s cookies we think of Rick- a good friend now gone. The Christmas carols bring memories of our parents, family and friends. All the smells, sites and sounds of the holidays bring us such special times.
The change in the weather (well not so much this year) brings on the anticipation of being with friends and family. Making the treats that they enjoy and exchanging the treats we make. Knowing that it’s not so much what we buy for each other but what we are able to do for others 😀
I love spending time with family….and also the food!!
I love having the family all together. Nothing better than going to bed with everyone under one roof!!!
buying presents for friends & family… it’s the only time I don’t feel guilty about shopping!
I love watching the grand kids open their presents!
the traditions….seeing Christmas lights, the stocking scavenger hunt, cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning…
I love to bake cookies and share them with family and friends. I’m off to the kitchen now to make some sand tarts which I remember making with my mother as a child!
I definetly love the food, for sure!
With 11 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren there is no better joy than watching the light in their eyes on Christmas morning.
I love making our traditional Christmas candy with my mom and sister.
I love getting my whole family together for a day of baking and decorating cookies. And if it goes really well – snow outside for some sledding and a snowball fight.
I love giving gifts and spending time with family!
My favorite part of the Christmas Season is shopping and our baking days with my daughter and granddaughter.
Getting together with family and large group of friends!
Seeing my 3 grown sons all together again, loving and sparring with each other again!
I love spending time with my family and I love having a Christmas tree!
Family, food and Christmas lights….my favorites!
Besides the wonderful food and treats, I love to drive around festive neighborhoods and look at the lights. It’s even more fun now that I have a two-year-old who gets so excited about the lights.
Experiencing the wonder of the season through the eyes of my 2 and 3 year old.
Spending time with family and friends
It’s wonderful to gather with family and be thankful for the goodness that surrounds us.
My favorite parts of the holidays are DECORATING and seeing all the lights!
I love watching my children get so excited over all of the aspects of the holidays! Whether it’s ice skating on Main Street, decorating the tree, or making Christmas Cookies, they approach it all with joy and that in turn makes me very happy!
I love being able to spend time with my family.
I love making Christmas cookies with the kids for Santa. Also hanging the lights and homemade ornaments on the tree that the kids made when they were little.