When your parents have everything, stop buying them a thing and buy them an evening. A make your own kit gives them a few hours with a clear task and something real at the end of it, which is the one category people with full houses are genuinely short of. Gin infusing on the worktop, curds breaking in a pan, a broken bowl coming back together with a gold line through it: none of that needs storing afterwards.
The three kits below suit parents for different reasons, and all of them turn into a story you will hear about on the phone for weeks, which is more than can be said for a scarf.
Why is the "has everything" parent so hard to buy for?
Because the gap you are hunting for does not exist. They have the kitchen equipment, the books, the coat, the gadgets. Anything you buy has to displace something they already own and like, which is a losing game, and it is why so many of these presents end up being expensive rather than good.
The way out is to change the category. An experience is not competing with anything in the cupboard, and an experience they can have at home, on a weeknight, without booking anything or driving anywhere, is easier to actually use than a voucher. That is what a kit is: measured ingredients, a printed booklet, one item from the supermarket, and a couple of hours that would not otherwise have happened.
The gin kit, for the pair who like a drink and a bit of theatre
The Gin Making Kit turns an ordinary bottle of vodka into a London style gin by steeping juniper with coriander, citrus peel, allspice and lemongrass. It infuses in under a week, and the good part is the tasting: they try it with the pipette as the days pass and strain it through the sieve when it tastes right to them, so the gin ends up tuned to their palate.
It was named a top pick on ITV's How to Spend It Well at Christmas, where chef Matt Tebbutt tasted it, which usually settles any suspicion that home made gin must be rough. The best bit as a gift is the second act: they pour it for visitors and tell them they made it. What to add: a bottle of inexpensive vodka, 700ml. Supermarket own brand genuinely is the right choice, because a premium vodka's subtleties disappear under the juniper, and a swing top bottle to decant into if you want it to look smart. For adults aged 18 and over.
The cheese kit, for the one who still reads recipes for fun
If one of them is the cook, the Cheese Making Kit, Cheeses of the World offers something they almost certainly have not done. Ten fresh cheeses including mozzarella, halloumi, paneer, ricotta, mascarpone, chevre and burrata, with vegetarian rennet, citric acid, cheese salt, a thermometer, moulds and cheesecloth in the box, and most ready in about an hour.
The reason it works on a confident cook is that it is a different discipline rather than a harder version of one they know. Warming milk until it splits into curds and whey, checking for a clean break with a knife, stretching mozzarella in hot whey until it turns glossy: none of that is transferable from thirty years of roast dinners, and that novelty is the gift. What to add: fresh whole milk and nothing else. Never UHT or ultra pasteurised, which will not set, and a stainless steel pan rather than aluminium or copper, which react with the acid.
The kintsugi kit, for the ones who keep the broken thing in the cupboard
Most families have one: the jug that got knocked off the shelf, wrapped in newspaper and never thrown out. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of mending that jug so the repair is visible, the crack picked out in gold instead of disguised, following the wabi-sabi idea that a thing which has been through something is more interesting than a thing that has not.
Our Kintsugi Kit swaps traditional lacquer for a two part epoxy, and includes gold effect mica pigment powder, a spreader and mixing card, gloves, a booklet and two practice bowls so the first attempt is not on the jug. There is no kiln and no oven, and each join is held for thirty to sixty seconds before moving on. What to add: nothing, unless you know which broken piece they have kept, in which case wrapping it up with the kit is the single best thing you can do with this present. Adults only, the adhesive is strong and wants a well ventilated room, and a mended piece is decorative from then on, kept away from food and drink.
How do you give it so it actually gets used?
Buy the extra item with it. A gin kit without vodka and a cheese kit without milk both wait for the next big shop, and a kit that waits often keeps waiting until it is out of sight at the back of a cupboard.
Put a date on it if you can. "Shall we do this the weekend we come down" turns a box into a plan, and parents who insist they want nothing are usually delighted to be given a reason to see you. There is no rush on their side either: our food and drink kits have an eighteen month shelf life from packing and the cheese kits twenty four months, with at least twelve months on the best before date when they leave us.
And if they are a few hundred miles away, you can send a kit straight to them by entering their address as the delivery address at checkout. Our kits are hand packed in Britain and posted by Royal Mail, usually arriving in two to three working days.
Gifts for parents who have everything FAQs
Are kits a good gift for people who are not crafty?
Yes. They are written for complete beginners, with the ingredients measured out, a printed booklet that goes a step at a time and troubleshooting for the things that commonly go wrong first time.
Do they need to buy anything else?
One ordinary item each. The gin kit needs a 700ml bottle of inexpensive vodka and the cheese kit needs fresh whole milk. The kintsugi kit needs nothing at all.
Can both of them do it together?
Easily. Cheese making splits naturally into one person at the pan and one at the colander, and gin tasting over the week is better with two opinions than one.
Do the kits contain alcohol?
No. None of our kits contain alcohol. They hold the botanicals, equipment and instructions, and the spirit is bought separately, so the drinks kits are for adults aged 18 and over.
Can I send a kit directly to my parents?
Yes. Enter their address as the delivery address at checkout and it will be posted straight to them.
Two of them, three kits and one decision to make. Have a look through the whole range of gift kits and pick the evening that sounds most like them.
