After the surprise and delight of being invited into someone’s home for a cocktail, a meal , or the holy grail; a weekend in the country, comes the best part –well, what we think of as part of the best part—gifting your lovely hostess with an imaginative, thoughtful and all around delightful gift. They deserve it, don’t they?
Our ITG fearless leader and former One Kings Lane leader, Susan Feldman, has had a lot of hosting and therefore hostess gift receiving experience. She can spot a good one miles away, and says the thrill of gifting (both ways) never gets old. She suggests you make at least a 10% effort to return the 100% effort your host is making by having invited you. Wrap your gift in colorful tissue or a new tea towel and don’t forget to write a note – as we’ve said before, written expressions of gratitude, on paper and in ink are the very best gift.
Let’s start this walk through hostess gift conundrum by listing the most adorable play on hostess gift words. Wendy Goodman’s new book May I Come In? This is coffee table book heaven and any host/hostess will smile at receiving one.
If you hosts are garden types, they will love this gift that keeps on giving, a living olive tree that you can visit summer after summer (wouldn’t that be nice?)
If your hosts are in the know cooks, there are a few tools that are always useful and appreciated. These Joyce Chen kitchen scissors are the best we have ever found and last forever. Bring this Bodum Chambord coffee press along with a pound of freshly ground coffee and you will certainly win the best guest of the morning award.
Interactive hostess gifts are always on our list because they get us all together. We love a good game of croquet and a deluxe spinning scrabble board double as entertainment and rainy day guest insurance.
All of our recommendations are curated by Susan & the In The Groove editorial team. In some, but not all cases, we receive a small commission for leading you to what, how and where to buy all this wonderful stuff.
