Teresa Santoski

As a child, you never quite know what awaits you under the Christmas tree. It could be the next book in that series by your favorite author, a stuffed animal to join in your tea parties or those superhero pajamas you’ve been wanting so you can get out there and save the world. It’s a magical time, to be sure.

Once you reach adulthood, many of your gifts become food of some sort. And that is no less magical.

We haven’t needed to buy desserts or snacks since early December due to the influx of food-based gifts from family and friends. We may need to buy the next size up in clothing, however.

It’s no wonder that gifting food is so popular. As long as you’re cognizant of allergies and dietary restrictions, it’s hard to go wrong.

If you’re going to gift clothing, you need to know the person’s sizes and their preferences for colors, patterns, fabrics and styles. Unless they send you a link to the exact item they want, it’s not really worth the hassle. Even then, you might still find yourself doing a return or an exchange on Dec. 26.

Bath and beauty products can also be a bit of a minefield. That hand soap that smells like crushed candy canes to you might smell medicinal to your grandmother, and your sister may think that bold red lipstick you bought her would be more at home in a clown’s makeup case.

It’s nigh impossible for you to know the individual tastes and preferences of each family member, friend and coworker you plan to buy gifts for, but you can be fairly confident that everyone loves snacks.

And there are so many options to choose from. This year, various family members sent us an assortment of nuts, gourmet brownies, our favorite chocolates and a luxurious selection of coffees. Everything arrived at different times, making for a constant stream of goodies throughout the month, and it has all been delicious.

When Younger Sister and her boyfriend did their gift exchange on Christmas Day, he brought us several food-based gifts both from himself and his family. His family gave us a lovely assortment of tea, coffee and sweets, and he gifted us a charcuterie board with all the fixings.

Since Dad isn’t much of a charcuterie person, Boyfriend of Younger Sister gave Dad a bag of Wonka candies – heavy on the Laffy Taffy, which is Dad’s favorite. And he’ll have it all to himself, as the rest of us aren’t particularly fond of banana-flavored plastic.

We have gifted as much food as we’ve received. One of our biggest successes this season was sending maple syrup and pancake mix from Parker’s Maple Barn in Mason to friends who have moved out of state. Unbeknownst to us, they have a tradition of having breakfast for dinner on Christmas Eve and were lamenting the fact that they had just run out of Parker’s maple syrup. Talk about a perfectly timed present.

Harry and David, a company that specializes in premium food and gift baskets, has been one of our go-tos for years because of the variety and quality they offer. From their Moose Munch popcorn to their seasonal fruits, you can’t really go wrong.

Of course, when you’re shopping for other people, there’s often a temptation to pick up a few things for yourself. We’ve given into temptation so regularly that it’s become an annual tradition for us to purchase our own box of their Royal Riviera pears. They quickly became Youngest Brother’s favorite indulgence. One year, Mom and Dad even bought a second box just for him.

They are mouthwateringly sweet and juicy, but there is a bit of pressure to eat them all before they spoil. As a solution, Mom found a delicious recipe for a pear clafoutis – a French dessert made with fresh fruit and a flan-like batter – that efficiently uses up any remaining fruit.

Though Harry and David offers a fruit-of-the-month club, we are content with our yearly box of pears. The gift of regular fresh produce brings with it a fair amount of stress. It takes a lot to make sure that that much fruit is eaten before it goes bad and the next box arrives, and I don’t think we have the capacity to eat that much fruit that quickly – or that many clafoutis.

And even though those pears are delectable, we still have quite the variety of treats to consume as we come out of the holiday season. We would rather take a balanced approach and enjoy a little bit of everything over a longer period of time than eat all of one type of delicacy before moving on to the next.

It’s all about prolonging the magic of the Christmas season. If a child can wear their gifted superhero pajamas all year long, there’s certainly nothing wrong with us adults wanting to make those chocolate-covered cherries last as long as possible.

Tete-a-tete is published monthly. Teresa Santoski can be reached at tsantoski@gmail.com or via www.teresasantoski.com.

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