Best French Christmas gifts to take back home

First days of December.
You’ve been living in France for a while now.

Christmas is coming and you have no idea what to bring back home.
And NO: you WON’T buy an overpriced plastic Eiffel Tower.

You’re looking for something that looks French AND is stylish AND is original.

Need Christmas gifts ideas from Comme une Française?
Here’s the second video of the « Christmas in France » serie.

What to bring back home this Christmas?

Click to watch « 10 best Christmas gifts to take back home »:




Links to the ideas: Biscuits de la Mère Poulard, La Belle Iloise, La pâte de speculoos, Notes de Boulet (his blog), Gaston Lagaffe de Franquin, Joséphine de Pénélope Bagieu (her blog), Tu mourras moins bête de Marion Montaigne, Le Chat de Philippe Geluck, Moulin Roty, Brain Box d’Asmodée.

Et toi ?

If you live in France, what will you offer for Christmas?
If you live abroad, what do you dream of receiving for Christmas from France?

Share and exchange gift ideas in the comment section with the Community.

I’m looking forward to hearing about your Christmas in France experiences all December.

A très vite,

Géraldine

Join the conversation!

  • J’aimed bien rillettes d’oie et assistance les Werther’s original sans sucre Cappuccino. I can get the ordinary Werther’s in the UK but not cappuccino. Joyeux noel

  • Salut Géraldine

    How about French perfumes? I know it’s cliché, but it’s always on my list because in my country only the big brands are available at local shops (and also because our import taxes on perfumes are HUGE). I’m partial about Nicolaï, Diptyque and Caron.

    Joyeux Noël!

  • I would love to receive a necklace similar to the one you are wearing in this video! Is that the French flag and the Tour Eiffel? Tres bien.

  • I live in Charente, so I send home bottles of pineau des Charentes and Cognac. I am very popular for that! J’aime beaucoup Moulin Roty – merci bien!

    • Bonjour Emma,
      I can very well imagine how popular these bottles of Charentes and Cognac are!
      Great gifts.

  • Moi, je rêve de recevoir un billet d’Eurostar pour aller à Paris où je pourrais acheter toutes ces chose, moi-même.

    • Bonjour Judy,
      J’espère que le Père Noël glissera un billet d’Eurostar sous le sapin pour toi. 🙂

  • We recently brought back those little brightly painted wooden sailboats and a few of those “pull back, release to race forward” toy cars, in this case, the Deux Cheveaux models. Our preschool grandsons loved both gifts.

  • Géraldine, fantastic ideas! I will be spending my first Christmas away from the US in Lyon. Of course, there are so many fantastic Lyonaise food options for gifts, but not all can be sent back stateside. When I flew home for US Thanksgiving, I brought cans of foie gras in my suitcase, and US Customs and Boarder Control were OK with that (but don’t bring jars, they might take them away, and the expensive loss would bring tears). The cans were acceptable, though, and I was quite popular with my family! I also brought sel de mer, which is light and easy to pack, and is much less expensive in French markets than in the US.

    For sending Christmas gifts, I am thinking this year I might send packets of Coussin de Lyon candies from Voisin, traditionally made scented soaps (from Savon de Marseille), and perhaps a nicely woven scarf from a local artisan. These things are relatively light so hopefully not too expensive to ship. I like your idea of little illustrated books too, which also would be easy to ship.

    And by the way, my husband and I too have discovered Speculoos and love them! Delicious!

    • Hi Martha!
      Great ideas! Yes, candies, soaps and scarfs are very easy to carry.
      It’s great you didn’t have trouble with foie gras. 🙂
      As you love Speculoos, try the “pâte de speculoos”: you’ll get addicted!

  • I have been living in France for nearly 14 years and don’t get home to Scotland anymore at Christmas!
    When I do go back I try to give my friends and family treats from this area the Perigord Noir, walnut oil, foie gras , if I can afford it ! and even Yves Rocher products. I also love the Provencal patterns in t towels and herb sachets!
    Thank you for this charming site and your great presentation. I have learnt a lot in just a few weeks.
    Bisous et joyeux noel. Fiona.

    • Bonjour Fiona!
      I’d love to spend a Christmas in Scotland. 😉
      Walnut oil is delicious! Well, everything from the Perigord Noir is.
      If you love provençal patterns, check the product from L’Occitane.
      Joyeux Noël to you too, Fiona.

  • I often bring back from France a gang and a bar of lavender or vervain soap. In the States, we don’t have “gangs de toilette” but just plain wash cloths. The gang and a bar of soap is a delightful gift. Quel objet.com now offers them for sale on line.

    • I remember getting “gant de toilette” with a bar inside and a ribbon around the bar when I was a child in Canada from my grandmother. She even sewed a face on it. I love reading all your ideas as I have been living in France for so long I don’t really know what is typical of a french gift that you can’t find elsewhere. It seems with the internet you can buy nearly everything now. XX Joanne

      • Hi Joanne,
        Yes absolutely. Now, you can buy everything from the internet.

        But sometimes, there are products you don’t even know they exist.
        For example in France, we don’t have cranberries, Pretzel M&Ms or crumpets…
        I LOVE THEM and very few French people knows they exist. 😉

      • Cranberries are native to northeastern North America, hence also to Québec. We call them “canneberges”, but there is an even cuter name of Indigenous (Huron) origin, “atocas”.

        It is masculine: “un atoca”.

  • J’habite en Australie.
    Je voudrais une visite de ma belle amie Regis ou un billet d’avion pour Paris!!!
    Please Father Christmas!

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