Hostess Gift Ideas: Small Presents for Your Host That Aren't Wine or Chocolates

In December it feels as if you're standing at someone's front door every weekend: coffee and cake with your aunt, Christmas dinner with friends, a raclette evening with colleagues. And every time the same question: what do I bring? Your host already has wine in the cupboard, the third box of chocolates goes straight into a drawer, and flowers need a vase at exactly the moment the oven timer goes off. A good hostess gift, or host gift, is small, creates no extra work and still says: I was thinking of you. Here are ideas for the usual winter invitations.

The unwritten rules of a host gift

• No work for the host. Flowers in a pot or already arranged in a jar, nothing that has to be chilled, cut or plated straight away.
• Don't upend the menu. Only bring a homemade pudding if you've agreed it beforehand, or you'll end up with two desserts.
• Keep it small. It's a thank-you, not a present that needs returning. For most invitations, something between €5 and €15 is plenty.
• Think of later. The nicest gifts are the ones your host enjoys the next day or in the weeks after, once the bustle is over.

Small gifts for an Advent coffee afternoon

• Biscuits in a tin, ideally a kind your host doesn't usually bake.
• A slice of stollen from your favourite bakery if baking isn't your thing.
• An amaryllis or a Christmas rose in a pot: they bloom for ages and need no vase.
• A good tea for the next quiet afternoon.

What to bring to Christmas dinner

• Something for breakfast the next morning: homemade jam, good coffee, a jar of honey from the market.
• Candles, because they've always burnt down by the end of the holidays.
• A homemade syrup or liqueur with a handwritten label.
• Something for the guest loo: every guest sees it and hardly anyone thinks of it. More on that below.

Gifts for friends and new homes

If friends have just moved, the first dinner in their new place is a special occasion. Anything the new home is still missing works well, from a pot of kitchen herbs to a hook for the hallway. You'll find plenty more ideas in our article on housewarming gifts. And if you prefer bringing something useful rather than decorative, take a look at our small, useful gifts.

Instead of wine: a Soapi with soap

A host gift that doesn't vanish after the evening: Soapi is a magnetic soap holder. You press a bottle cap halfway into a bar of solid soap, the soap hangs from the magnet on the wall and dries all the way round instead of going soft in a dish in the guest loo. It sticks to tiles, glass or mirrors with a waterproof adhesive pad, no drilling, and the soap can go on straight away.

The Starter Kit costs €14.95, roughly the price of a decent bottle of wine, and contains a Soapi in the colour of your choice, a 100 g lavender soap handmade in Marseille and a cleaned bottle cap. A little trick for beer evenings: take the cap from the first bottle opened that night. The soap in the bathroom will remind everyone of the evening for weeks. Since 2023 Soapi has been sold in more than 250 shops, rated 4.88 out of 5 from over 1,600 reviews.

For hosts who are forever hunting for their keys, there's the magnetic key holder for €11.95. It holds the key ring on a smooth surface by the door, without drilling.

Lots of invitations in December? Stock up with Mix & Match

If you have five invitations over Advent, you can get all the host gifts in one go. With Mix & Match you choose 5 products, pay €50, and shipping within Germany is free. That works out at €10 per gift. For example:

• a soap from Marseille for coffee at your aunt's,
• a Soapi in Yellow for the friends with the white-tiled guest loo,
• the key holder for the flatshare where nobody can ever find their keys,
• solid shampoo by Skargard for the host who's always travelling,
• a shower soap by KLAR for the raclette evening with colleagues.

Wrapping is quick: baking paper, string and a sprig of fir. We don't include gift wrap, but this looks more personal anyway.

FAQ

How much should a hostess gift cost?

Usually something between €5 and €15 is enough. What matters more than the price is that it suits your host and creates no extra work.

Isn't soap a rather pointed hint?

Only if you hand it over with a meaningful look. A nice bar of solid soap is a small everyday gift that actually gets used, and with a Soapi it has its own spot on the wall straight away.

What do I bring if I barely know the host?

Something neutral that gets used up: good chocolate, tea, a candle or a bar of soap. You'll rarely go wrong.

In short

The best host gift creates no work and is still in use after the evening is over. Biscuits, candles or a Soapi for the guest loo: anything but the third box of chocolates. If you'd like to be ready for every invitation this December, put together your Mix & Match bundle now, 5 gifts for €50.