Christmas Gifts for Neighbors, Small Enough to Make a Dozen
A gift for a neighbor is rarely one gift. It is eight or twelve of the same small thing, made on one evening and left on doorsteps in the same week, for people whose names are known and whose kitchens are not. That changes what works. The gift has to be cheap enough to multiply, sturdy enough to sit on a porch, and safe for a household nobody has asked about. A tin of cookies baked at home used to do this job. A small, sealed thing from a known maker does it with less work.
Below are four small gifts, most of which scale to a dozen houses for $3 to $8 a door, one larger gift for the neighbor who did the most this year, and the two things that finish the job: the note and the timing.
What a neighbor gift has to survive
A neighbor gift may sit on a step for an afternoon and then on a counter for a week before anyone opens it. The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service calls foods that can be stored safely at room temperature "shelf stable," and lists canned and bottled foods, rice, pasta, spices and oils among them. On a Colorado porch in December, bring any bundle in rather than leaving it out overnight if snow is forecast.
Four gifts that make a dozen
Three chocolates in a twist of paper. Venchi's pistachio gianduiotti are sold one at a time, $1 each. Each is the classic gianduiotto shape, made by a Piedmont chocolatier with white chocolate, 25 percent pistachio paste and a touch of salt (shop Venchi pistachio gianduiotti). Three to a house, wrapped in kraft paper and tied with string, is a gift that looks deliberate and costs about $3 a door. Pistachio is a nut and white chocolate contains milk, so put both words on the tag.
A bundle of honey straws. Savannah Bee Company's acacia honey straws come thirty to a pack, each a sealed straw of acacia honey from Hungary (shop Savannah Bee acacia honey straws). Split one pack into six bundles of five and tie each with a ribbon. Two packs cover twelve houses for under $3 a house at the current price. The CDC advises never feeding honey to a child younger than one year, so this bundle goes to the houses without a baby.
A tin of pastilles. Les Anis de Flavigny's rose pastilles come in a 50-gram oval tin (shop Anis de Flavigny rose pastilles). The candies begin as a single aniseed coated in layer after layer of flavored sugar syrup. The maker dates the recipe to 1591, and the candies are still made inside the former abbey at Flavigny-sur-Ozerain in Burgundy. A tin needs no wrapping. For a different style of pastille, Pastiglie Leone's orange pastilles, an Italian sugar candy, are $6 a pack (shop Leone orange pastilles).
A tin of sardines for the neighbor who cooks. José Gourmet's sardines in extra virgin olive oil come in a sealed 125-gram tin that stores at room temperature (shop José Gourmet sardines). Pair it with a line about toast and lemon on the tag. The guide to serving sardines straight from the tin has the rest.
The dozen-house table
| Gift | Per house | For twelve houses | Porch note | Tag note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Three Venchi pistachio gianduiotti | About $3 | 36 pieces, about $36 | Bring in before night | Contains pistachio and milk |
| Five honey straws, tied | About $2.83 | Two 30-packs, $34 | Bring in before night | Honey; not for babies under one |
| Anis de Flavigny rose pastilles | $8 | Twelve tins, $96 | Bring in before night | Anise and rose sugar candy |
| Leone orange pastilles | $6 | Twelve packs, $72 | Bring in before night | Orange sugar pastilles |
| José Gourmet sardines in olive oil | $8.49 | Suits two or three houses, not all twelve | Sealed tin; store cool and dry | Fish |
Per-house costs follow the listed price on each product page. Between $3 and $10 a door is generous for a street of neighbors, and the note carries the rest. A mixed approach works well: gianduiotti or honey straws for the whole street, and a tin of pastilles or sardines for the three or four houses you know best.
For the neighbor who did the most
If one neighbor took in the packages, shoveled the walk or watched the dog this year, that house gets something larger, in a lidded box. The red and white snowflake holiday box is 8 by 8 by 4 inches (shop the snowflake holiday gift box), with room for a chocolate bar, a tin of pastilles and a tin of sardines. Start with a Dick Taylor brown butter bar: 73 percent Northerner Blend dark chocolate infused with browned Humboldt Creamery butter and finished with cacao nibs and sea salt (shop the Dick Taylor brown butter bar).
Two lines on the tag
The Emily Post Institute's advice on thank-you notes is that a handwritten note is warmer and more personal than a call or an email, and that it can be brief. For a neighbor, two lines are enough: the house number or names it comes from, and one specific thing ("Thank you for the packages in March"). Add what is in the bundle, which doubles as the allergen note, and give the simplest gift to houses you do not know well. A box of Crane's engraved silver snowflake cards holds ten notes with navy-lined envelopes and "Season's Greetings" printed inside (shop the Crane silver snowflake cards), enough for most of a street.
When to drop them off
Deliver in the second or third week of December, on an evening when the lights are on and someone is home to bring the bundle inside. Hand the gift over where possible; a doorstep gift is fine with the tag facing out. For neighbors who have just moved in, January is not too late.
A street where twelve small bundles went out in the same week is a street where people wave a little longer in January. Products ship across the continental U.S. from theambrosianpantry.com.
