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 spending the day with family and friends.
All the lights and spending time with family
Baking with my kids while listening to Christmas music.
I love ordering presents online and slowly seeing them come in and picking them, opening and repacking them. The whole process makes me feel like santa claus.
I love the smell of Christmas trees! I have a fake tree at home, but hubby and daughter bought a real wreath the other day, and it smells divine!
I love seeing the joy and wonderment in my daughter’s eyes as she experiences Christmas. It’s the best gift ever.
I love the music but also my husband and I pick out a new ornament every year to celebrate our wedding anniversary, which is about a week before Christmas.
I love to make and give peanut brittle, peanut butter fudge and chocolate fudge
As I unwrap my favorite ornaments I smile with nostalgia. I always save the prime spot on the tree for the best one, a glass monkey whose eyes follow you as you move. I love my silly monkey ornament.
I love every bit of it, but especially the moment I turn on the lights on our tree decorated with memorabilia from every year of our lives together.
“Home” “There is no place like home for the holidays.” Family and friend get togethers.
The gift of family!
Cutting down our Christmas tree from a sweet little farm on top of a mountain.
My favorite time is when my kids come home from college, then it’s time to celebrate!
I love making Christmas cookies with my mother, I love the tree and wrapping presents. I also love the feeling of warmth and love that this time of the year brings out in people.
What you love most about the holiday season is that I get to spend time with my family…I live 1,300 mi away from them!
There are so many wonderful things about the holidays. But my favorite is the time spent with family and friends – cooking, eating, and celebrating.
I love being with my family and celebrating the birth of Jesus.
I can’t wait for a few days with family
I like going out snow shoeing on Chistmas morning
Seeing my nieces and nephews faces as they visit Santa. I love the decor. I love the time spent with family and friends.
Baking! Baking! Baking some more, and then driving around delivering baked goods to my neighbors in my rural community.
I love baking with my kids! We love to make plates filled with treats and deliver them to our friends.
I love the lights…they are so peaceful and wonderful!
Definitely being with family AND the food!!!!
tt used to be about presents, both the giving and receiving, and the food. But, as I get older, it’s definitely about the people, especially my beloved and far-flung family. This year, we will be celebrating Christmas in wondrous Colorado, driving from Oregon and bringing with us the little table and chairs I used as a child and my mother before me, for my little grandson. My husband and I built him a convertible stepstool/chair from scratch and personalized it. I am looking forward to watching him use these new/old gifts and begin making his own memories.
Baking and Christmas music
Being with family and cozying in with a fire and Christmas lights while the snow sparkles outside.
I love all the excitement and joy of the season.
The smell of baked goods and glow on a child’s face opening gifts.
I love the anticipation and the preparation; it’s a wonderful time of year to show appreciation for those who’ve impacted my life this year and makes me realize how blessed I am; seeing and being with family!
I love our annual cookie exchange.
Every year my friends & I do a holiday event – Singing Xmas Tree, Zoo Lights
or a Gospel Christmas Concert to prime us for Christmas. That makes me happy!
family and food!
I love all the Christmas music! Brings back so many wonderful memories!
i love drinking hot chocolate and wrapping gifts! and i love the small of freshly baked holiday treats!
My mother and I both have mid December birthdays and no matter how busy December gets I always steal a few days to spend with her to celebrate. Christmas takes a back seat for me until the birthdays are over!
I love the time to spend with family. thanks!!
I love shopping for presents and wrapping them.
I love watching the magic of Christmas for children, which you can see in their eyes. Through my grandchildren, the magical memories stay alive.
Time spent with family.
I love coming up with thoughtful presents for the people that mean the most in my life.
I love family, friends, advent bible readings and prayers, sparkling lights, special ornaments, Christmas music, cooking (and eating!) along with the anticipation, sharing, and joy that go with all of these things.
I love coming out of my bedroom first thing in the morning and being greeted by twinkling white lights all over the house.
I like spending the holiday with the kids in my family. They get so excited and Christmas is just more fun with kids.
I love it all the shopping, decorating, spending time with family and friends.
What I love most about the Holidays is spending time with loved ones – family, friends. I love our traditions that we do every year and new ones we start.
I love spending extra time with my family & enjoying all the festivities.
giving! love love love shopping for people and seeing the happy on their faces!
The most magical for me is sitting in a dark room with just the tree lights on, listening to music & sipping on hot chocolate.