We had the pleasure of taking part in the Samaritans Christmas fair last week, at the Chase Hotel in Ross on Wye. It was a really well attended event and great to be supporting such a worthy cause.

We yet again had a showcase of our Christmas Hampers 2011range on display, as we will be at our next event on 16th November (next Tuesday) for another great charity. The charity this time is PAPYRUS-in-the-Marches (prevention of Young Suicide) and this takes place at Bishopswood Village Hall.

So what seemed to get the top marks at the Samaritans Christmas fair from our Luxury Christmas hampers on display?

Well no surprises that the Christmas Taste of Herefordshire Gift Tray again proves to be our most popular Christmas Hamper - perhaps the Wye Valley Beer Cake and the delicious table cider make this gift choice a unique gift. As always the Tis the Season Red Box and Tis the Season White Box receive great reviews. The Christmas Tree decorations in these Christmas hampers make the buying and receiving of one of these gifts so enjoyable. The Christmas Cheer Box and Christmas Cheer White Box are again popular choices for Christmas hampers - there is a little bit of something for all with the luxury cranberry and orange sauce, the wonderful Cracotti savoury crackers, the delightful wine and finally the delicious mini Christmas cake!

Finally the Christmas Spirit of Wales Gift Tray always receives wonderful feedback - wonderfully Welsh cider, ales, Penderyn mini selection of Welsh whisky, Brecon Gin, Brecon Vodka and Merlyn luxurious cream liqueur to name just a few of the gorgeous goodies........oh and we must not forget the luxurious chocolates and truffles.

We will let you know how next week goes at Bishopswood and we are delighted to be donating one of our Christmas Hampers 2011 for the raffle and hope lots of money is raised!

We wanted to tell you about the Flavours of Hereford Food festival that we took part in the weekend before last - this was such a fantastic event! Jean-Christophe Novelli was the celebrity chef over the two days and he was such a gentleman to not only the many visitors but also the stall holders. The feedback he gave us about our Christmas Hampers 2011 range was superb, as was the feedback from so many of you. We want to thank all of you who came to see us, purchased and placed orders for gifts and Christmas hampers - both at the festival and since - we very much appreciate this. We also wanted to thank the great organisers of the Festival - Jenny Beard and her team were wonderful, as were the local church that provided constant hot drinks and cakes over the two days. Quite simply this is our favourite festival, not only because of the many visitors, but the whole friendliness of everyone over the weekend.

So let's give you some ideas for Christmas hampers 2011, with what were our most popular Christmas Hampers from the Food Festival. Our most popular over the weekend, was  the Taste of Herefordshire Gift Tray, which is not just exclusive to people that live in Hereford - this since being added to our hamper range in the summer has been very popular and is ordered and received by people living in all different parts of the country.

Our other popular Christmas hampers are the Christmas Gin and Chocolates and Christmas Vodka and Chocolates. The feedback we get on these is that the Gin and Vodka are unique, coming from the Penderyn distillery, which is the only Welsh distillery - people like to send Christmas hampers that are a little bit different. No Christmas gift is then complete without the luxurious Christmas chocolates and truffles and these are wonderfully, handmade in Wales and delicious.

Talking of Penderyn our Christmas Whisky hampers were another popular treat at the food festival. You can choose from the Christmas Whisky boxed Gift set hamper, the Christmas Whisky Gift Selection hamper or the Christmas Triple Whisky Set hamper. The packaging on all of the Penderyn sets is pure luxury and you can choose from Nosing Glass sets, three miniature different types of Welsh Whisky or the luxurious larger bottle of Welsh whisky. Some of the accompaniments in these luxury Christmas hampers range from handmade, Welsh, Cheese to handmade, delicious Chocolates and truffles.

We are taking part in a Christmas Fair the day after tomorrow in aid of a great cause - the Samaritans. This is taking place at the Chase Hotel in Ross on Wye, so if you can come and see us and support this wonderful charity, we would love to see you. We will update you further on our Christmas Hampers 2011 range following this on Thursday and let you know what the popular gift choices are.

In terms of orders we are encouraging orders as early as possible and in fact are seeing an increase daily on the numbers of Christmas hampers being ordered. Our last order date that we will guarantee Christmas hampers delivery is Monday 19th December, although we will take Christmas hamper orders after this date, we can't guarantee that these will definitely arrive in time for Christmas. Our guaranteed same day service delivery will stop in December on Monday 5th December and our commitment to you is as previous years that all Christmas hamper orders received by the deadline of 19th December, will be delivered in time for Christmas.

In terms of severe weather conditions, like last year, we are extremely proud of the fact that ALL Christmas hamper orders were honoured and delivered in time for Christmas. This will also be the same for Christmas hampers 2011 orders.

Look out for our next blog about the hugely, successful Hereford Food Festival at the weekend - we were overwhelmed with your brilliant comments on our Christmas Hampers 2011 range - many thanks and for the enquiries and orders.

So the concept of giving Christmas hampers started in France and baskets of treats were introduced to England back in the 11th century. It was actually the Victorian era that giving such hamper gifts became a popular choice.

The development of the railways in the 1800's made it much easier to send Christmas hampers to friends and family around the country and this is where the tradition of sending Christmas hampers at Christmas really came from.

Here at Sarah's Gifts and Hampers we can really see how this tradition continues, even though there are several other occasions throughout the year that hampers gifts can be sent. Christmas is clearly the time of year, where over the years tradition has firmly been set and we get returning customers year after year, as well as new customers looking and ordering our Christmas hampers. Our Corporate customers also find that the tradition of giving Christmas hampers is so well received, so take a look at our fully, bespoke and personalised Corporate Orders service.

Our Christmas Hampers 2011 range is available now, as well as our Luxury Christmas Hampers 2011 range and we cater for all needs. You can choose from either the more traditional Christmas hampers that come in the traditional wicker baskets or trays, or the contemporary Christmas hampers that come in the hampers gift boxes, with a range of shapes, sizes and colours to choose from. For example, for a traditional style Christmas hamper take a look at our Christmas Festive Fun Hamper, beautifully presented in the traditional wicker basket with leather straps and over flowing with luxurious food and drink goodies. Then for an example of a modern, contemporary Christmas Hamper take a look at our WarmMince Pies Fun Gift Box, again beautifully presented but this time in a seasonal, red hampers gift box and again packed with gorgeous, luxurious items such as chocolates, Christmas cake, Christmas shortbread and much more.

Watch out for our blog in the next few days - this will be detailing our delivery dates for Christmas and giving you some more top Christmas Hamper tips for 2011.

We were at the Forest of Dean Showcase Food Festival for the first weekend in October and we had such a great day. The weather as you know was so glorious and there were so many people at this well, organised annual event. Thanks to Rachel who invited us and we will now be regulars at this great event. We met several new people and received some great feedback on our Christmas hampers 2011 range - as well as many of you being well organised and placing your Christmas hamper orders - thank you so much!

We thought we would give you the details so far on what the top three Christmas Hampers for 2011 appear to be from your choices so far..........this could well change, so we will keep you updated.

First choice so far for Christmas Hampers 2011 and new for 2011 is the Taste of Herefordshire Gift Tray. We have actually asked many of you what it is about this gorgeous Christmas Hampers gift that you like so much! What you like about this is the presentation in terms of the wooden gift tray, that can be re-used after the goodies have been enjoyed and this is generally decorated in a gold spot sellofane. You also like the luxurious products within the tray, there is a good choice and you feel is real quality for a good price at £30.00. Amongst some of the wonderful items in this tray you have a lovely Aged Dry bottle of Table Cider, made in Herefordshire by the delightful Once Upon a Tree. Frank's Luxury Biscuits then provide the award winning, delicious Wye Valley Beer Cake, luxurious Chocolate and Brazil nut oaties and the melt in your mouth Shortbread biscuits. The shortbread biscuits will actually be presented in fesitve Christmas Shortbread boxes and decorated with Angelica and Cherries.

Second choice so far for Christmas Hampers 2011 and this is proving to be a popular choice not just for this year, is the Cider and Cheese Christmas Gift Tray. This really does offer a little bit of everything for family and friends to enjoy, with wonderfully, Welsh, handmade, delicious Cheeses.

The Third choice for Christmas hampers this year is the Christmas Box - this is such a lovely Christmas hampers gift, presented in a beautiful, festive, red hampers gift box. There are five luxurious food and drink items in this Christmas Hamper and the quality is not compromised for the price of just £15!

We will keep you updated on the top choices for Christmas Hampers 2011 over the coming weeks and our next blog in a couple of days will be about how the tradition of giving Christmas hampers started many years ago.

Here at Sarah's Gifts and Hampers we have been busy updating our new range of Christmas Hampers 2011 and Luxury Christmas Hampers 2011 and we thought we would give you some gift ideas for Christmas.........we are still updating our new range, so will give a further update in the next few days as well.

So our first new Christmas Hamper is the delightful Christmas Box, which has five fantastic luxury food and drink items in the most lovely, seasonal, red, Christmas hampers gift box and wait for it...... is only £15.00 for such a top quality lovely present. The contents range from Pure Welsh Apple juice, to the luxurious Christmas Shortbread, Mini-round delicious Christmas cake, Strawberry and White Chocolate mini-bites and the most gorgeous Caramel shortbread bar, covered in luxurious, thick, milk chocolate!

Our second new Christmas Hampers gifts are the Christmas Cheer box and the Christmas Cheer White Box - the only difference being with these is that the one has a fine bottle of Chilean Merlot, whereas the White Box contains the delightful White Chilean Chardonnay. Along with the finest, tasting wine there are the most delicious, double-baked savoury Cracotti biscuits with Cranberry and Hazelnut, luxury Cranberry and Orange sauce and two delicious Mini-round Christmas cakes. The Christmas cakes are made by the award winning Frank's Luxury biscuits and the one is decorated with icing and a star and the other with the most luxurious cherries and walnuts.

Our next two new Christmas Hampers  are actually one of Sarah's favourites for this season.......... Tis the Season White Box and Tis the Season Red Box, again the difference between the two hampers gifts being one has a lovely bottle of white and the other a fine tasting red wine. What really makes this hampers gift extra special is the keepsake, wooden, Christmas tree decoration, that can be kept for many years to come, which makes this hampers gift so memorable.

From our Luxury Christmas Hampers 2011 range we have added the Christmas Festive Fun Hamper, which contains some of the finest wines, as well as the most luxurious, gorgeous goodies to enjoy. Not only that, this is a gift suitable for all the family to enjoy, with an After Dinner Quiz, Tabletop fun games and a delightful Christmas scented candle and presented in a beautiful, traditional, wicker basket.

Finally for this update of some of our newest Christmas hampers 2011, we will leave you with the White Star Christmas Gift Tray and the Red Star Christmas Gift Tray - these are so full of the Christmas spirit! Christmas Stars and trees are the theme here, with the top iced Christmas Cake, that is decorated with Christmas stars and the Twinkle Star, luxurious, solid, milk chocolate stars, each wrapped in gold and red foil. The Christmas Tree marshmallows look too good to eat, however will just melt in the mouth and then the keepsake Wooden Christmas Tree decoration that spells "Tis the Season to be Jolly" is simply adorable!

We will give you further updates over the coming days, as we update more of our Christmas Hampers 2011 range and you will be able to see us next weekend on October 2nd at the Forest of Dean showcase, at the Speech House.

Talking of Christmas, some of our Christmas Hampers 2011 range will be on view this weekend at Usk. We will be happy to discuss different Christmas gift ideas with you, as well as reviewing our Luxury Christmas Hampers 2011 range with you. We have already started to have several Corporate Christmas Hamper enquiries and we know how important it is when choosing hamper gifts, be it for customers, colleagues, friends and relatives. If you are looking at Corporate then please review our Corporate Gifts order page.

So - a little taster of a couple of Christmas Hamper ideas that you will be able to see at Usk. We like to ensure that the receiving of your hampers gift choice is remembered for years to come, which is why some of our Christmas Hampers 2011  will have the lovely Porcelain Hanging "Merry Christmas" decoration positioned within the luxurious and delicious food and drink items. Our Twinkle Star Christmas Hamper is an example of luxurious, festive food with the adorable decoration that can then be used to decorate the Christmas Tree year after year.

Secondly our gorgeous Christmas scented candles are just perfect for the festive season - the question is which one do you choose? You have the choice of Cinnamon and Orange, Warm Mince Pies, Christmas Spice or Gingerbread and take a look at our Warm Mince Pies Fun Christmas Box.

So we look forward to seeing you all at Usk on Saturday - here's to a great day out for all!

We have been very busy here at Sarah's Gifts and Hampers over the summer making sure we continue the great work of sourcing the best suppliers for our hampers gift range and of course that includes our Christmas Hampers 2011 and Luxury Christmas Hampers 2011 range. In fact just today, Frank's Luxury Biscuits who supplies the most mouthwatering and delicious Christmas cakes, has sent us over the details of the new range for 2011. These Christmas Cakes will feature a Christmas Star, so watch out for our updated product range over the coming weeks. 

We are also thrilled to have some great shows and Christmas Fayres coming up - the fantastic Monmouth Show is next week on 25th August, Monday 29th we are at the Ledbury Carnival and then on September 10th we are at the brilliant Usk Show. We will publish details of October dates and the Christmas Fayres over the next few weeks and will have our Christmas Hampers 2011 range on view at shows from October onwards.

We will be updating a couple of new products for our Luxury Christmas Hampers 2011 range very soon and will let you know as soon as this is done!

We get many of you choosing a hampers gift for your Dad on the basis that most Dad's seem to enjoy the finest choice of food and drink.  Whether you are local or not, we see a big demand to try some of the best regional products that we offer, as it seems that you enjoy trying and tasting luxurious food and quality, local drink suppliers that are different to what is the norm.

It is then personal preference on whether you want to get your Dad the more traditional style hamper in the Wicker baskets and gift trays that we offer or the more contemporary hampers gift boxes that can make ideal presents for all occasions throughout the year. You will also find in the contemporary hampers some lovely keepsake gifts that will make receiving that present really memorable for your Dad.

Let's review some of the popular choices from our Fathers Day 2011 Hampers Gift range and it will then be down to you to decide whether traditional or contemporary will suit your Dad - after all you will know what will suit him best.  We ensure whatever you choose he will love the thought you have put into choosing a hampers gift for him.

One of our most popular gift choices which falls into the more traditional presentation is the Cheese and Cider Gift Tray. Presented in a lovely, wicker tray that can then be re-used after the contents have been eaten and drunk, you have the choice of delicious local Welsh Cider as well as the renowned Westons cider from Herefordshire. Accompanied with the most wonderfully, Welsh handmade cheese, pickles and savoury biscuits this really is a firm favourite for Dads.

One of our newer lines that is proving popular is then our Super Dad Gift Box, which falls into the contemporary gift choice. The ideal, sleek graphite box not only looks great, but is really kind to the environment in that it is totally recyclable. The bottle of red wine is a favourite with a lot of Dad's and with the luxurious chocolate, delicious Mini selection and the keepsake gift ring, this will make a memorable present for Dad.

Another firm favourite on the more traditional presented side is the Spirit of Wales Gift Tray - yes it is all locally supplied Welsh produce but some of the best around. Take the fantastic Penderyn selection, with the famous Penderyn Welsh Whisky, the wonderfully award winning Welsh Ales from Kingstone Brewery, right next to Tintern Abbey and so much more. We find no gift is complete without the pure luxury and indulgence of chocolate and again there is the finest selection from Black Mountain Gold Chocolatiers!

Our final Fathers Day 2011 hampers gift choice is our Whisky Gift Hamper Choice, which has the finest Penderyn Welsh Whisky that we mentioned earlier, with the delicious Shropshire Oatmeal savoury biscuits and then the Welsh handmade cheese with Ginger and Whisky. This is then presented in a lovely, contemporary hampers gift box, that has a lovely clear window lid that you can see the contents through and is again recyclable.

We will update you again on what appear to be the popular choices with the run up to Fathers Day 2011 and as always welcome your comments and suggestions.

We start with the Best Dad Mug Set, which is a lovely keepsake gift for Dad, and comes in the most delightful keepsake wooden box. We know that Dad will be able to keep this box and re-use to store all those little things that Dad's seem to collect everywhere around the house, whilst drinking his tea or coffee from the Best Dad Mug!! - not only that this gift is just £10.00 and yet appears so much more in quality and value.

We then have a choice of the Super Dad Gift Box and Super Dad Gift Box Treat, which both have some gorgeous goodies to enjoy, along with the lovely keepsake hanging wooden "Dad" key ring.... there is also the choice between the non alcoholic box and with the Super Dad Gift Box, the finest bottle of red wine.

Our next range picks some of the best local produce that surrounds us here at Sarah's Gifts and Hampers....we are so lucky being close to so many wonderful regions...namely, Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, Shropshire, Powys to name just a few.  We know how popular it is for you when choosing gifts to select food and drink items from different parts of the country, that then make the gift that bit more exciting for your Dad to enjoy. So take a look at the Four Counties Gift Box and the Taste of Herefordshire - both of these contain the wonderfully named "Once upon a Tree" table cider from Ledbury that really makes a change to opening a bottle of wine with dinner and yet can be even more luxurious and delicious than the customary bottle of wine. You will see a great choice from the brilliant Frank's luxury biscuits......check out the Wye Valley Beer Cake that was a gold award winner at the Great Taste awards in 2010!

Our top tip from previous years and our most popular gift tray is the Cheese and Cider Gift Tray.... we have also updated this with a greater choice of tasting items.......there are now two bottles of the refreshingly, delicious Ty Gwyn Cider to complement the best selling Weston's Cider and we have added the wonderful Pear-Lilli from Usk River Chutneys - this is a real twist on the traditional Piccalli, made with local pears and honey.

Our other popular line is the Taste of Wales Gift Tray and we have added an extra gift line here with the Spirit of Wales gift tray that will really come down to what your Dad's preference will be - will he prefer the cheese offered in the Taste of Wales or more of the luxurious, handmade, fairtrade Chocolate and miniature Spirit selection of the Spirit of Wales?................Decisions, Decisions......

Don't forget as well that we are more than happy to help you pick and choose your own items from our range and will make gifts and hampers up to your request...........just phone us on 01989 770344 to discuss your requirements and then leave the rest to us!

We will give you further Fathers Day 2011 updates over the coming weeks and for now enjoy the rest of your Bank Holiday weekend...........only four weeks to the next one!!!!