How to Make a Fall Hostess Gift Basket

My Gift Basket Formula

Chances are good that you’ll be either visiting family or friends over Thanksgiving. You might even be throwing your own Friendsgiving! Either way, you’ll probably need a host or hostess gift sometime in the next few weeks. Well, I have your solution! One of my favorite host or hostess gifts to give is a gift basket.

One year for Thanksgiving, we gifted baskets with tea towels and large mason jars full of the dry ingredients needed to make pumpkin bread. We included the recipe and a can of pumpkin in the basket. They were so much fun to put together and were a unique way to say “thank you” to our family members who hosted us that week.

Host or hostess baskets are made to make someone feel special. You can add thoughtful touches even if you follow my gift basket formula. Ready? Here it is:

Pick your basket. I found the crate used here at HomeGoods. You can find baskets, crates, and other fun items at antique shops or places like Michael’s, HomeGoods, and Pier One. You can also think outside of the box and opt for a chic ice bucket, cachepot, or antique planter as a container instead.
Add some “stuffing.” Loosely ball up tissue paper in a corresponding color and use it to fill in gaps and give your items some height. It doesn’t have to be white either. In this crate, I could have used gold, orange, or even black in keeping with the Halloween theme. You can also add in that fun shredded paper you can find at party stores.
Decide on a theme. I picked fall – with some Halloween touches – as the theme of this basket. You could also make your theme blue and white (my favorite color palette), a winter wonderland, or harvest. It doesn’t have to be seasonal either. Does the host or hostess enjoy baking? The outdoors? Pineapples? Go wild – the sky’s the limit!
Choose one item to be your focal point. It’s usually one of your largest items. In this case, it was the candy-coated sunflower seeds that served as the focus of our basket. This helps draw the eye in and adds interest.
Fill your basket with 3 or 5 items. Items typically look better in odd numbers. We added 7 items into our crate. I recommend however many you need for your container to look nice and full.
Add in something that’s edible. Everyone loves a snack. If you’ve created welcome bags for your wedding, you probably already know this.
Make it memorable. Think of something that will make your recipient feel especially loved. In this case, I added a spider with a tennis ball inside for my sweet friend’s puppy.

What’s in this gift basket?

We started out with a crate for the container, then added candy-coated sunflower seeds, a checked tea towel draped over the side, a spider dog toy tucked in, and pumpkin votive candles (which would look so cute on a tablescape, end table, or anywhere).

Halloween-themed cupcake wrappers and sprinkles were a fun addition. I wanted to tie in the black a bit more, so pulled a few of these birch paper straws together with a black ribbon.