If you have tried to order Christmas gift baskets online you have probably noticed that quite a few of the really thoughtfully put together ones are incredibly expensive. The thing to do is to make up your own Christmas gift baskets. This is easily done by deciding on a theme for the basket and then buying the items to go inside it. You can buy Christmas gift baskets very cheaply at your local Chinatown or in large retail outlets such as Walmart or Zellers. You can also buy them in bulk online and at wholesale outlets. Another option is to save any type of basket that you buy fruit in and providing it is in good enough shape, spray paint it or clean it so that it is decent enough to use as a receptacle for your gifts. You can then embellish it with a nest of tinsel, wrapping paper, ribbons and bows.

The easiest types of Christmas gift baskets to put together are around food. However to be elegant like the Christmas gift baskets that you order online or in a specialty store, they must have some kind of theme to them. Common types of food baskets that you can put together can be a gourmet cheese, cracker and wine basket; a gourmet coffee, coffee flavorings and coffee mugs basket; or a fancy olive oil, sundried tomato and specialty pasta basket. As you can see the more the food stuffs in the basket has in common the more thoughtful the gift themes.

Christmas gift baskets that are made up of various bath products are also a welcome present. You could theme these as well. For instance if you chose a Hawaiian theme you could have pineapple soap, coconut shampoo and orchid body spray all in the same basket (with a real pineapple too if you want!) A selection of bath bombs or bath salts is also a good theme for a spa oriented type basket. Another cosmetic inspired type basket would be one filled with nail polishes, lipsticks, and beauty tools.

You can also make up Christmas gift baskets around people’s hobbies. For instance a person who loves horses might appreciate some DVDs with great movies about horses, a book or two about horses plus a lucky horseshoe keychain and a coffee mug with a picture of a horse in it. A person who likes ice-skating might appreciate a pretty pair of gloves, replacement shoelaces for skates and a can of exotic flavored cocoa for hot chocolate. If you are invited to Christmas Dinner somewhere the host or hostess might appreciate a gift basket filled with home made shortbread, chocolates, a Christmas decoration and a bottle of good brandy for after dessert.