Family Hampers

We have been sending family Christmas hampers across Ireland for more than twenty years, and the founding reason for the business was a family one: a way to send Christmas home to a parent when you could not be there yourself. This family hampers page is the direct descendant of that. Every family Christmas hamper on it is chosen for what happens when it is opened in a kitchen with several people standing round it.

Family Favourites | A Family Christmas Hamper Built for Two Adults and Children

The Family Favourites Hamper is our own design for this decision and the clearest example of how a family Christmas hamper is made. For the children there are two Lindt chocolate reindeer, two packs of Lindt Santa sleighs, five animal chocolate lollipops, Candy Kittens sweets in four flavours, Mallow and Marsh marshmallows and MeltingPot butter fudge. For the adults there are the Butlers Signature Collection, Skelligs orange chocolate brittle, Summerdown peppermint creams, Secotto coffee crafted in County Laois, and SD Bells tea. For the Christmas table there are Ditty's luxury mince pies, the large 420g Holmes Christmas pudding, a West Cork Bakery red velvet cake, a chocolate log, Graham's shortbread and Brownlees rhubarb and ginger preserve. The full Family Favourites adds four wines; the Family Favourites (Alcohol Free) is the same family Christmas hamper without them.

Our working definition of a family for these family hampers is two adults and one or more children, and it is a definition of contents rather than of who may buy it. A grandparent sending a family Christmas hamper to a young family, a family sending to grandparents who will have the grandchildren over, and a company sending to a colleague's home all get the same balance.

Fabulous Family Favourites for the Larger Family Christmas

Where the household is bigger, or the Christmas is being hosted, the Fabulous Family Favourites Hamper takes the same family Christmas hamper up in scale. It keeps everything in the Family Favourites and adds the savoury centre of a Christmas table: a Brady's giant ham joint, 200g of Ummera smoked organic salmon, McGeough's air-dried lamb and beef from Connemara, and three cheeses from Carrigaline and Bandon Vale in County Cork. The four wines stay.

The large hams are usually the first thing in the whole Christmas range to sell out each year, because a ham is the one item that changes what a family can do with a Christmas hamper. Choose the delivery date early if the ham is the reason you are choosing this family hamper.

Traditional Christmas Hampers That Families Share

Not every family Christmas hamper needs Lindt reindeer. The Christmas Traditional Feast, the Traditional Celebration, the Traditional Banquet and the Traditional Grand all sit in this family hampers collection because a traditional Christmas hamper is, in most Irish homes, shared by a family rather than kept by one person. The pudding, mince pies and Christmas cake are the shared foods of the festive week, and the sweet side of each Christmas hamper is large enough to go round. The Duo versions add a red and a white for the adults. The Great Taste Award Diamond Hamper is here for a family that cares about the food more than the theme, with its Carrigaline cheese, Lecale Harvest pâté, Wilde Irish chocolate spread and Craic black garlic ketchup among the award-listed products.

The distinction across the family hampers page is one of emphasis. The Family Favourites family Christmas hampers are built for children and adults together. The traditional Christmas hampers are built for a table. The Artisan Feast, the Provincial Excellency and the Christmas Banquet Extravaganza are for a family that wants the biggest Christmas box that will come through the door.

Family Christmas Hampers for Grandparents, Hosts and Couples

Not every family is two adults and small children, and the family hampers collection reflects that. For grandparents, or for a couple who will host the family, the Christmas Dynamic Decisions Hamper is a presentation-case family Christmas hamper with Carrigaline garlic and herb cheese, Holmes pudding, four Holmes mince pies, an iced Christmas cake and a chocolate log, then Butlers Signature chocolates, Skelligs orange brittle, Summerdown peppermint fondants and SD Bells coffee bags for the quiet evenings. The Dynamic Decisions Duo adds a New World Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon. The Snowy Christmas Afternoon Duo is the family Christmas hamper for a couple: two County Cork cheeses, the New World pair, Foods of Athenry very fruity mince pies and an iced cake, in a white wicker basket that is reused for years.

For a family that hosts Christmas dinner, two of the family hampers carry the meat. The Artisan Feast brings a Brady's large cooked ham, Ewings smoked Irish salmon, McGeough's air-dried lamb and beef and three Carrigaline cheeses beside the pudding, pies and cake, with a red colour theme running through the products. The Provincial Excellency is the largest traditional family Christmas hamper here, thirty-one full-sized items and four old-world wines in a 22 inch wicker hamper. Each of these family Christmas hampers is listed with its full contents and weights on its product page, so a sender can match the hamper to the number of people at the table rather than guess.

Something for the Children Without Cheapening the Adults' Side of the Family Hamper

The difficulty in a family Christmas hamper is that what delights a seven-year-old can make the Christmas hamper look juvenile to the adult who unpacks it. The way we solve that in our family hampers is to keep the adult products at the same standard as any other Christmas hamper in our range and add the children's products beside them, rather than replacing one with the other. The Butlers, the Skelligs, the Summerdown and the Secotto coffee in the Family Favourites are the same products found in the Traditional Grand and the Provincial Excellency. The reindeer and lollipops are added, not substituted.

Several of the children's treats in the Family Favourites are sugar free, so that a child who wants one more thing near bedtime can have it. That is the kind of detail that only appears in a family Christmas hamper when you imagine it in an Irish household rather than in a photograph.

Presentation of a Family Hamper for a Christmas Morning

Family hampers arrive in the Large Hamper Case or, for the traditional and giant Christmas hampers, in an 18 or 22 inch wicker hamper with a lid. The container of a family Christmas hamper is chosen for what happens after Christmas as much as for the reveal: a family will use a wicker hamper or a hamper case for years. Our own branding on the outside is deliberately restrained, so the family Christmas hamper reads as your gift rather than as ours, and the gift card carries your message printed by us and placed inside.

The photographs of our family hampers are taken the same way for every Christmas hamper on the site: the products laid out in front of the container they will be packed in, with no styling and no props. What a family sees in the photograph is what we pack, listed item by item with its weight beneath it. Where a farm's production run changes the flavour of a cheese during the season, the product page says so.

Family Christmas Hampers Sent Across Ireland | Christmas 2026

The distance between family members is why this company exists, and it is the ordinary case for a family Christmas hamper: a son in Dublin sending to parents in Kerry, a daughter in London sending to Donegal, grandparents in Galway sending to grandchildren in Belfast. Family hampers reach all thirty-two counties at one standard rate, and Northern Ireland is treated as Ireland for delivery. Great Britain has its own rate. European destinations are served by zone.

In December we run a weekly delivery schedule for Christmas hampers. The Christmas delivery date you choose is the latest day that week the family hamper will arrive, and it may come earlier. Every family Christmas hamper is packed by hand in Ireland and dispatched by us, then carried the final mile by our courier partners, tracked and signed for, with updates to you by email. We have never taken more Christmas orders than we could dispatch, and we close the order book before that becomes a risk rather than after.

Choosing the Right Scale of Family Christmas Hamper

Start with the household. Two adults and young children: the Family Favourites family Christmas hamper, with or without wine. A larger family or a hosted Christmas: the Fabulous Family Favourites for the ham and salmon, or the Banquet Extravaganza for a traditional Christmas table with four wines. Grandparents who will have the family in: the Christmas Traditional Feast or the Traditional Grand. A family that talks about food: the Great Taste Award Diamond Hamper or the Artisan Feast.

Then decide on wine. Every family Christmas hamper here that carries wine has a version or a sibling without it, and the product page states which. Stock permitting, the whole family hampers collection is available in Ireland from September, and the hams go first.

We are sending to a family of five with two teenagers. Which hamper will not run out on the first evening?

The Fabulous Family Favourites is built for that household. It carries the full children's selection, the adult chocolate and coffee, the traditional pudding, pies and cake, and adds a giant ham joint, 200g of smoked organic salmon, air-dried lamb and beef and three cheeses, with four wines for the adults. If the ham is not needed, the Family Favourites is the same sweet and traditional selection at a smaller scale, and it still carries four wines.

The grandparents will have small grandchildren over on Christmas Day. Is there a hamper for both ages in one?

That is exactly the case the Family Favourites was designed for. Lindt reindeer, Santa sleighs, animal lollipops, sweets and marshmallows for the children sit beside Butlers chocolates, Skelligs brittle, Laois-crafted coffee and SD Bells tea for the adults, with a large Holmes pudding, Ditty's mince pies and a red velvet cake for the table. The alcohol-free version leaves out the four wines and changes nothing else.

Is there a family hamper without any alcohol?

Yes. The Family Favourites (Alcohol Free) is the identical hamper to the Family Favourites without the four wines. The Christmas Traditional Feast, the Traditional Celebration, the Traditional Banquet, the Traditional Grand and the Great Taste Award Diamond Hamper are all alcohol free as standard. The Alcohol Free Baskets collection lists every hamper on the site that carries no wine, spirits or beer.

My parents are in Derry. Is that Irish delivery or UK delivery?

Irish delivery. Northern Ireland addresses are served at the same standard rate and on the same services as the rest of Ireland. All thirty-two counties are covered. Great Britain is a separate rate and service, so a sibling in Manchester is charged the UK rate while your parents in Derry are not. The delivery page sets out both.  In another quirk of the system, The Isle of Man is treated as GB rate rather than an exceptional regional rate even if you are ordering from Ireland or England.

How far ahead can I order, and will the ham still be fresh if I do?

As far ahead as you like; the site takes Christmas orders from September, and an early order reserves the hamper and the delivery week rather than triggering a pack. The ham in the Fabulous Family Favourites is a chilled product that is added with a cold pack and dated on the day of dispatch from 8th December onwards, so its freshness depends on the dispatch date, not the order date. The pudding, pies and cake arrive from the bakeries in late November and are packed close to dispatch for the same reason.

Can I write my own message, and will the family know who it is from?

Yes. You type the message at checkout and we print it on the gift card placed inside the hamper. The outer packaging carries our name and contact details so that a family who were not expecting a delivery know it is genuine and can reach us, and our branding on the hamper itself is kept minimal so that the gift reads as coming from you.

Why do the hams sell out first?

Because a ham joint is the one item that can turn a hamper into part of Christmas dinner, and we cap the number of chilled hampers we dispatch each year so that every one can be packed with a cold pack, dated and sent on an overnight service. The Fabulous Family Favourites and the Royal Connections carry the giant ham. When they are gone for the season they are not restocked, so choose early if the ham is the reason.  We do not carry spare nor excess capacity in 2026 because the shelf lives are short and there is no demand for what are extremely expensive quality hams after Christmas.