Gift Suggestions

Valentine’s Day Celebrations Around the World #2

Leave a Comment / Gift Suggestions / Kate I.

Valentine’s Day in Japan
In Japan, Valentine’s Day is observed on February 14 but the celebration of love truly ends on March 14, known as the “White Day”. On the first date, women give gifts or give chocolates to the men they love, to co-workers and male friends. Gifting chocolates is a typical way to celebrate Valentine’s day in Japan because chocolate is the most popular gift in the country. Gift shops all over Japan pile their shelves with chocolate long before Valentine’s Day. Men who receive chocolates or gifts for Valentine’s Day are supposed to return the favor to the women a month later, on a “White Day”.

Valentine’s Day in Italy
Valentine’s Day in Italy is mainly seen as a holiday imported from US, just like Halloween, Father’s Day or Mother’s Day. The day is celebrated mainly by the young people who take this opportunity to profess love to their sweethearts the American way with Valentine’s gifts like perfume, chocolates, flowers, cards or jewelleries. The day is seen here marked exclusively for lovers, and hence, family members and friends do not exchange gifts. Couples usually go out for dinners at pizzeria or restaurant which ends with lovers’ giving gifts to each other. A popular Valentine’s Day gifts in Italy is Baci Perugina – a small, chocolate-covered hazelnut containing a small slip of paper with a romantic poetic quote in four languages.

Valentine’s Day in Denmark
In Denmark, February 14 is mainly a day for the young. It’s a time for romance and giving gifts. Here, the festival is celebrated in a very conventional manner. Young people send gifts and valentine cards, known as “lover’s cards”, to their beloveds. Earlier, these came in the form of transparent cards which, when kept before light, reflected the picture of a lover handing over a wonderful Valentine’s present to his beloved. Nowadays, many newer varieties of lover’s cards have come up and every year before Valentine’s Day card shops all across the country are seen to be stacked up with colorful and musical lover’s cards containing lovely Valentine messages. Another Danish Valentine’s Day custom is to send flowers, which are pressed, usually of a white color and are called Snowdrops to friends.

Valentine’s Day Celebrations Around the World #1

Leave a Comment / Gift Suggestions / Kate I.

Valentine’s Day in United States & Canada

In the USA and Canada, Valentine’s Day is an extremely popular holiday. Originally held to honor St Valentine and express love to sweethearts, the scope of the day has come to be so widened that it has now become an occassion to express gratitude and love also to any close relation or acquaintance. On this day people give presents to their dear, such as flowers (especially roses), chocolates and different gift baskets. Dinner and dance parties are specially organized all over the country to celebrate the occasion. Many couples hold private celebrations in homes or restaurants and give flowers, a box of chocolate, or some other present to one another. Sending chocolates on Valentine’s Day is a very popular tradition. Most valentine candy boxes are heart-shaped and tied with red ribbon.

Valentine’s Day in Britain

In Britain, St Valentine’s Day is celebrated with great fanfare and gaiety. Like in many other countries, on this day has people express the love for their beloved with Valentine’s Day gifts like flowers, cards, chocolates and other special items. The traditions of the celebrations of Valentine’s Day differ in different regions of the country but a common custom is the singing of special songs by children. Another popular tradition followed in some areas of England is the baking of valentine buns with caraway seeds, plums, or raisins. Composing verses is also an extremely well-known Valentine’s Day custom. About a month earlier to Valentine’s Day, leading tabloids and reputed magazines publish sonnets and verses to commemorate the occasion. The tradition owes its origin to the British poets who have penned some of the best love poems and the majority of the romantic verses associated with St. Valentine.

Valentine’s Day in Germany

The German celebration of Valentine’s Day is nearly the same as elsewhere in the world. For Germans, the festival is a celebration of love and a time to spend with their sweethearts. In Germany, it is customary for a young man to give flowers to their beloved ones on February 14. Valentine’s Day gifts in Germany are usually in the shape of love tokens, complete with lovely messages. But these are not entirely restricted to Valentine’s Day celebrations, and can be gifted on any occasion of a joyous nature.

Gift Giving Ideas for Valentine’s Day

Leave a Comment / Gift Suggestions / Kate I.

Every year on the 14^th of February, people all around the world celebrate Valentine’s Days in the name of love and romance. To show each other their affectionate feelings people exchange romantic gifts. The most popular present for Valentine’s Day is of course flowers which are also considered to be (along with hearts) the symbol of this holiday. But giving only flowers may seem to be an incomplete gift. Flowers are just a good addition to the main present.

Valentine’s Day gifts are important to express your heartfelt feelings and to make the day memorable in its own special way. Love is a peculiar feeling, so it must be expressed extraordinarily.

To make the unforgettable Valentine’s Day for your nearest and dearest, be creative with giving presents! Whether you choose gourmet basket for your colleagues, fruit basket for your friends or romantic gift for your loved one, you can always use your imagination and be a little unusual.

You can, for example, surprise a person by sending presents to their office. Such surprises love especially women, as they can proudly flaunt it to their fellow colleagues. This way you can also keep it top secret and you can get the gift delivery at just the time of the day you want.

A romantic gift idea is to wake your beloved one with a gift and flowers. When the doorbell rings this morning of Valentine’s Day, nudge her to answer the door. Catch her absolutely unprepared when she receives a wonderful bouquet and a cute teddy bear or a finger licking chocolate gift box or her favorite perfume. This act is sure to produce an indelible impression!

Another idea is to make your own custom basket online. You can get creative by building your own basket, having an opportunity to choose any component depending on the taste of the recepient. More than the gift, it would be your thoughtfulness that will delight them.

Don’t be afraid to show your creativity!

For plenty of gift ideas, visit our website

Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

Happy New Year In Different Languages

Leave a Comment / Gift Suggestions / Kate I.

Of course, almost everyone has plenty of friends, acquaintances, business associates and even beloved ones who live overseas and would be really happy and touched to hear ‘Happy New Year!’ in their own language… Did you ever wonder how to say Happy New Year in different languages?

We’ve decided to help you and have made up a list where you can find how ‘Happy New Year!’ is said in the most popular languages!

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Happy New Year In Different LanguagesRead More »

New Year Flowers and Flower Baskets

Leave a Comment / Gift Suggestions / Kate I.

Christmas and New Year flowers are the symbols of gaiety, love, beauty, hope, and all the tenderest emotions in the human heart such as sharing, happiness, joy, kindness and virtues that make winter holidays more special than any other festival. Often used to decorate homes during holiday season as wreaths and Christmas centerpieces, people also exchange them as Christmas and New Year gifts in the form of bouquets and flower baskets. Flowers and greenery add interesting land festive look to the homes and tune everyone up with the spirit of winter holidays.

You can buy several beautifully prepared holiday floral arrangements from the online flower shop and gift them to the hosts of the Christmas and New Year parties you are attending this year and also send flowers to the family, friends, business associates and loved ones who are not with you to share the joys of the Christmas season or are out of town using a few simple clicks. Though Christmas flowers encompass all the varieties of flowers including the tropical ones these days because of the global connectivity and quick communication and transportation facilities, still, Poinsettias and Christmas Roses continue to enjoy a special place in Christmas and New Year celebration because of the beautiful legends that attach them to this particular festival.

Christmas Roses are English in their origin and are believed to bloom in the snow-covered mountains of Central Europe at the time, when the winter is at its prime, often during the Christmas season and thus, deserves to be known as the true Christmas blossom. People also call this white colored flower with pink tipped petals by the name of Snow Rose or Winter Rose as it blooms during the Winter season at the time when all the other greenery bows down under a thick layer of snow.

Bright, flaming red, star-shaped Poinsettias are known as ‘Flower of the Holy Night’ or ‘Flame Leaf’ in the United States. One of the most popular flowers in Central America, it was brought here by Dr. Joel Poinsett, the first US ambassador to Mexico, over a hundred years ago. Still most of the supply of this famous beloved Christmas flower in American cities is said to come from California and the folklore attached to it comes from Mexico. Like Christmas Rose, this flower also represents the deep love for Christ and great devotion of a pure innocent human being to baby Jesus.

‘Merry Christmas’ In Different Languages

Leave a Comment / Gift Suggestions / Kate I.

Tomorrow, on December 25 in most of the countries people celebrate Christmas. No doubt, many of you have a lot of friends, beloved ones, acquaintances, business associates overseas and have definitely thought about wishing them merry Christmas in their own language…

To make your lives easier, we’ve decided to make up a list where you can find how ‘Merry Christmas’ is said in the most popular languages.

If you also want to send a gift basket for Christmas to your nearest and dearest to another country you can visit our website http://www.giftbasketsoverseas.com/, where you can find plenty of holiday gift ideas.

Afrikaans: Geseënde Kersfees
Albanian: Gezur Krislinjden
Arabic: Milad Majid
Argentine: Feliz Navidad
Armenian: Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand
Brazilian: Feliz Natal
Bulgarian: Tchestita Koleda; Tchestito Rojdestvo Hristovo
Chinese: (Cantonese) Gun Tso Sun Tan’Gung Haw Sun
Czech: Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce a stastny Novy Rok
Danish: Glædelig Jul
Dutch: Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar! or Zalig Kerstfeast
English: Merry Christmas
Estonian: Rõõmsaid Jõulupühi
Finnish: Hyvaa joulua
French: Joyeux Noel
German: Fröhliche Weihnachten
Hebrew: Mo’adim Lesimkha. Chena tova
Hindi: Shub Naya Baras (good New Year not Merry Christmas)
Hungarian: Kellemes Karacsonyi unnepeket
Icelandic: Gledileg Jol
Iraqi: Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah
Irish: Nollaig Shona Dhuit, or Nodlaig mhaith chugnat
Italian: Buone Feste Natalizie
Japanese: Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto
Korean: Sung Tan Chuk Ha
Latvian: Prieci’gus Ziemsve’tkus un Laimi’gu Jauno Gadu!
Lithuanian: Linksmu Kaledu
Norwegian: God Jul, or Gledelig Jul
Polish: Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia or Boze Narodzenie
Portuguese: Feliz Natal
Rumanian: Sarbatori vesele or Craciun fericit
Russian: S Rozhdestvom
Serbian: Hristos se rodi
Slovakian: Sretan Bozic or Vesele vianoce
Slovak: Vesele Vianoce. A stastlivy Novy Rok
Slovene: Vesele Bozicne Praznike Srecno Novo Leto or Vesel Bozic in srecno Novo leto
Spanish: Feliz Navidad
Swedish: God Jul and (Och) Ett Gott Nytt År
Turkish: Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun
Ukrainian: Srozhdestvom Kristovym or Z RIZDVOM HRYSTOVYM
Vietnamese: Chuc Mung Giang Sinh

Christmas in Japan

Leave a Comment / Gift Suggestions / Kate I.

Christmas in Japan is quite different from the Christmas celebrated in most countries. Only 1% of the Japanese population is estimated to be Christian, but in spite of this, the Japanese are great lovers of festivals and celebrations, including Christmas.

December 25th is not a national holiday, so, the main celebration revolves around Christmas eve. Christmas is mostly a commercial event in Japan. Many people don’t know exactly what the origin of Christmas is. Therefore, the Japanese have adopted many Western customs related to observing Christmas. Lots of people decorate Christmas trees at home and hold parties around this holiday. Japanese people tend to find things of interest from abroad and transform them into something that is uniquely Japanese. It’s a Japanese way to celebrate Christmas Eve by eating Christmas cakes, which the father of the family purchases on his way home from work. Stores all over carry versions of this Christmas cake and drop the price of it drastically on December 25th in order to sell everything out by the 26th.

Christmas Eve has also become a night for lovers to go out and spend a romantic time together at fancy restaurants or hotels. It isn’t easy to make reservations for such restaurants and hotels at the last minute on this day. For the more elderly couples, many hotels host dinner shows featuring major singers, actors, and actresses. Tickets to these shows, due to the season, are very pricy.

Christmas presents are exchanged between people with romantic commitments as well as close friends. The romantic gifts tend to be ‘cute’ and often include Teddy Bears, flowers, sweets baskets, scarves, rings and other jewelry. Christmas cards are also given to close friends. Besides exchanging Christmas gifts, there is a custom of sending oseibo (the end of the year gift), corporate gifts from one company to another.

For Japanese people, Christmas is an enjoyable day in the year, but New Year is much more important for them.

For many Christmas gift ideas visit our website www.giftbasketsoverseas.com

Christmas in Russia

Leave a Comment / Gift Suggestions / Kate I.

In the days of the Soviet Union, Christmas was not celebrated very much. As a result, New Years celebrations became much larger and came to include New Year gift exchanges and New Year trees. With the fall of Communism, Christmas finally regained its lost glory and was declared a national holiday in the country. Since then, it is openly celebrated on January 7th. The date is different from the rest of the world because the Russian Orthodox church uses the old ‘Julian’ calendar for religious celebration days.

On Christmas the family gathers around the table to honor the coming Christ Child. A white tablecloth is used to symbolize Christ’s swaddling clothes and hay is displayed as a reminder of the poverty of the place where Jesus was born. A tall white candle is placed in the center of the Table, to symbolize Christ – the “Light of the World.” A large round loaf of “pagach”, a special Lenten bread, is placed beside the candle to symbolize Christ – the “Bread of Life”.

The father begins the Christmas meal by leading the family in the Lord’s Prayer, a prayer of thanksgiving for the blessings of the past year and for the good things to come in the new year. The head of the family greets those present with “Christ is Born!” – the traditional Russian Christmas greeting – and the family responds with “Glorify Him!” The Lenten bread (Pagach) is then broken and shared. The bread is dipped first in honey to symbolize the sweetness of life and then in chopped garlic to symbolize life’s bitterness. The “Holy Supper” is then eaten. Traditionally, it consists of 12 different foods, symbolic of the 12 Apostles. After dinner the family goes to church for the Christmas Mass which lasts until after midnight.

Both New Year and Orthodox Russian Christmas involve feasting and Christmas presents exchanges between friends and family members. New Years is generally a bit grander holiday celebration with more focus on drinking and large gatherings. For this reason, food baskets and spirits baskets make great holiday gifts , favorites include chocolates, sweets, cookies, roasted nuts, fruit, cheese, caviar, spirits, and a variety of other gourmet treats. For many people, the holidays is the time to indulge in rich or expensive foods and drinks that they normally do not consume.

For many Christmas gift ideas visit our website www.giftbasketsoverseas.com

World’s Largest Basket Building

Leave a Comment / Gift Suggestions / Kate I.

Dear customers!

With your help we will soon be able to afford to build a new office in a shape of a basket as The Longaberger Company once did.

The Longaberger Company is an American manufacture of handcrafted maple wood baskets that also offers other home and lifestyle products, including pottery, wrought iron, fabric accessories and specialty foods.

What started out as a dream by Dave Longaberger, Founder of The Longaberger Company, has been built into a giant basket to house the entire corporate offices of the company. Longaberger believed the idea was one of his best and would draw attention to the company. But, when he started spreading the idea of building a Home Office that was really a basket, most people didn’t take him seriously. However the dream was to come true and on December 17, 1997 in Newark, Ohio there appeared the world’s largest basket and also the seven-story corporate headquarters of the Longaberger Basket Company.

The basket building is a replica — 160 times larger — of Longaberger’s Medium Market Basket. It’s 192 ft. long by 126 ft. wide at the bottom, spreading to 208-ft. long by 142-ft. wide at the roofline.

In 1998, The Longaberger Home Office received a Build Ohio Award for its synthetic plaster system. The building is made of stucco over a steel structure, which helps create the look of an actual Longaberger Basket.

The Longaberger basket building is now a real point of interest that attracts not only natives but tourists as well.

We hope that in the nearest future we can also build (certainly not without your help) an office building in a shape of a basket (gift basket or flower basket) that will definitely be the largest and the coolest building in the world!

Christmas in Germany

Leave a Comment / Gift Suggestions / Kate I.

In Germany, the Christmas season begins with Advent. A wreath of evergreens with four red candles is placed in the house. One candle is lit on each Sunday before Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, 24^th December, families go to church, then feast on a large dinner of roast goose or duck (stuffed with apples), “stollen” (Christmas bread) and marzipan candy. Prior to the evening feast, is the presentation of the tree. The Christmas tree, as we know it, originated in Germany. It has a mysterious magic for the young because they are not allowed to see it until Christmas Eve. While Father amuses children in another room, Mother brings out the Christmas tree and decorates it with apples, sweets, cookies, angels, tinsel and candles or lights. The presents are placed under the tree. When all is ready a bell is rung as a signal for the children to enter. Children believe that it’s Weihnachtsmann (Santa Claus) who brings them Christmas presents.

Christmas Eve is the main day when Germans exchange gifts with their families but on St. Nicholas’ Day (December 6^th) “der Nikolaus” also brings some small gifts, such as sweets and chocolates, to the children. He comes in the night between the 5th and the 6th and puts the Christmas presents into the shoes of the children, who usually place them by their doors on the previous evening. In some regions of Germany, there is a character called “Knecht Ruprecht” who accompanies Nikolaus. He punishes the children who were bad and gives them a birch as a present.

At small work and school parties, secret gifts are often exchanged. A door is opened just wide enough for small gifts to be thrown into the room. The gifts are then passed around among the people until each person has the right one! It is thought to be bad luck to find out who sent each present.

For many Christmas gift ideas visit our website www.giftbasketsoverseas.com

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