Buying food gifts can be tricky. Everyone loves a treat they can eat, but at some point you’re just buying groceries for your friends and family, right? That’s why Aldi is the place to go. When the holidays hit, the aisles are absolutely stacked with seasonal products that feel special, from fancy chocolates to fun cheeses (I’ll let you figure out the logistics of refrigerating a gift). At our local store, there’s an entire aisle of Aldi Christmas candy and other holiday food gifts. Here’s some of the best stuff we spotted for the eaters on your list (aka everyone).
- Specially Selected Cheese Pairing Spread Set
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A meat and cheese board is just so much better with jam. This fun lil’ set includes four sweet spreads intended to be paired with cheese: Fig & Honey, Pear & Cinnamon, Cherry & Rosemary, and Apricot & Cumin. The best part? It even tells you which cheese will pair best with each jam. I want that Cherry & Rosemary spread with a good blue cheese, asap. (Basically, if you were planning on buying me any Christmas food gifts, this is what I want.)
- Specially Selected Acacia Honey
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As long as you aren’t shopping for vegans, honey is a good, useful gift—especially the nice stuff. Acacia honey, known for its clarity and earthy flavor, has a high fructose content that keeps it from crystalizing. And this jar from Aldi counts as a holiday food gift because it has a big ol’ hunk of honeycomb in the jar that makes it look fancy. That honeycomb is going to look even better on someone’s holiday cheese board.
- Emporium Selection Whiskey Cheddar Cheese
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Is giving cheese as a holiday food gift weird? As a cheese fiend, I say nay—especially if the cheese is ensconced in green wax and shaped like a little Christmas tree. Aldi has a few cute, holiday-shaped varieties of cheese, but this whiskey cheddar seems very compelling.
- Specially Selected Belgian Seashells
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When I was a kid, I was an absolute FREAK for those Guylian chocolate seashells. They’re like fancy little guest soaps you can eat. Aldi’s take on those Guylian shells is just as lovely and way cheaper than the genuine article. A box of 20 will set you back just $4.39, but this Aldi candy still makes a nice holiday gift.
- Three Mills Gingerbread Mulled Wine
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To be perfectly honest, I don’t even know what to make of this. It’s a big, heavy, house-shaped box filled with gingerbread-flavored mulled wine? Will it be good? There’s only one way to find out: Buy it for someone else as a holiday gift and make them report back.
- Choceur Hot Milk Chocolate Stirrers
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A packet of hot chocolate is a bad stocking stuffer. Seriously, I’m throwing a tantrum on Christmas morning if you try to pretend that Swiss Miss is a suitable holiday food gift. These festive little hot chocolate spoons, on the other hand? Anyone will be stoked. They come three in a box that isn’t quite stocking-sized, but if you want to use them as stocking stuffers, you can put each one into a little cellophane baggie and tie it up with a bow.
- Southern Grove Sweet Nut Trio
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Nuts are among the best holiday food gifts because they’re generally pretty expensive. Even though we’re doing our Christmas shopping at a bargain grocery store where nuts are less pricey, this $10 sweet nut mix will certainly seem fancy to the nut lovers on your list. What you get: dark chocolate almonds, peppermint almonds, and honey glazed pecans that look absolutely nuts (sorry). Also, here’s a savory version of this nut trio with rosemary almonds, a salted nut mix, and a Sicilian snack mix for the folks on your list who are less stoked on sweets.
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!