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Stocking fillers

It’s November. Time to track down some gourmet treats to give your loved ones at Christmas. Melissa Blease is gifted and talented.

If you’re looking for inspiration for a Christmas gift for the foodie in your life, look no further: chic chocolates, winning wines, luxurious liqueurs, vintage vinegars, magnificent marmalade – who’d be disappointed with anything from that list? Taking the time to fill a personalised hamper at a gourmet hotspot makes for a really thoughtful treat, and quality quick fixes are simple to source. And just in case your imagination totally fails you, we’ve even suggested the shopping list.

Market merriment

Markets can provide you with a banquet of gifting bounty. Bristol Farmers’ Market takes place on Corn Street every Wednesday (9.30am-2.30pm), when a myriad of local producers from within a 40-mile radius of the city congregate and display their wares. Offering a similarly sumptuous selection, Bath Farmers’ Market offers the liveliest food shopping experience for miles around every Saturday from 8.30am-1pm. Meanwhile, the annual Bath Christmas Market will be bigger and better than ever this year, opening for an extended 18-day period from Thursday 25 November-Sunday 12 December when the Heritage City will be transformed into a unique shoppers’ paradise, with over 120 traditional wooden chalets – many of them specialising in food- and drink-related items – bringing a whole new dimension to city centre shopping. At the same time, the Guildhall Market turns into a gourmet grotto too (dates run concurrently): browse the locally sourced selection in stalls arranged under three heated marquees to the rear of the building or inside the atmospheric indoor market itself. Shopping list Cheese; honey; homemade preserves; handmade chocolates and biscuits; local wines, ciders, spirits and liqueurs.

One-stop shops

Milsom Place Set against a backdrop of ancient passageways and cobbled lanes around one of the prettiest courtyards in Bath, Milsom Place offers a supremely elegant shopping experience. The whole Place turns into a chocolate haven over the weekend of 4-5 December when the finest chocolatiers from around the UK participate in MP’s annual Chocolate Festival, while the surrounding shops are making the most of displaying their own tempting wares right now. Shopping list Kitchen knick-knackery from the Salcombe Trading Company, Kath Kidston and Quadri; gourmet oils, liqueurs and vinegars from Vom Fass; cookery books and pasta from Jamie’s Italian; cornbread mix, Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup, Smucker’s Goober Grape Jelly, Smoked Chilli Brown Sugar Rub, Tootsie Rolls and San Francisco blend gourmet coffee from Redwood Bay.

Highgrove Shop The recently opened Bath branch of the Highgrove Shop is the third outlet for HRH Prince Charles’s luxurious organic range of foodstuffs alongside a right royal selection of items handcrafted by UK artisans. The high pedigree, treatsome selection offers a delectable range of gifts and stocking fillers, and profits raised go towards the Prince Charles Foundation, a group of charitable organisations of which HRH is president. Shopping list Christmas pudding, Highgrove Honey, Rosemary Jelly, organic gin, Chocolate Fudge, organic Earl Grey tea, Grana Padano cheese straws, Prince’s Ginger Liqueur, Highgrove Hampers (all also available online for home delivery).

The Fine Cheese Company The Fine Cheese Company is, as the name suggests, a mecca for cheese-lovers, selling British and European cheeses from the classics (the cheddars and the camemberts) to the adventurous or the obscure (a sliver of white nancy, anyone?). But it’s also an Aladdin’s Cave of all kinds of (food-related) everything else: browse shelves and counters packed with artisan chocolates, oils, biscuits, wines, olives, biscuits, crackers and more, all in a wonderfully lively, friendly atmosphere. Shopping list A Crottin gift set; a Safe of Cheese; Petite Maison tapenade; Grate Britain biscuits; Marcona almonds; Venchi chocolate cigars (all also available online for home delivery).

Vouch safe

If you’re really stuck for something to make them salivate, the humble gift voucher has ditched its prosaic image. Give your foodie friend a prepaid ‘credit card’ entitling the recipient to a glamorous, no-expense-spared dinner at one of Bristol’s loveliest restaurants and you’re giving them something wonderful to look forward to when the January blues strike. But here’s an interesting twist on what’s already a tried-and-trusted formula: Glassboat and Lido vouchers start at £20 and can be redeemed at either restaurant or the Spyglass BBQ and grill, or used towards pampering spa treatments at the luxurious Lido.

Tasteless! The truly shocking stocking fillers to avoid at all costs

Chocolate-flavoured body paint, edible underwear, fruit-flavoured condoms, cream-filled willies et al: all-round yukkiness, and nothing to do with food.

Food ‘kits’ from shops that don’t normally sell food-related products. Boots’ Chinese/Thai spice sets? The BHS port ’n’ stilton combo? Not in this kitchen! Do the decent thing and personally source a tasteful, authentic selection instead.

Gimmicky kitchen gadgets that’ll only be used once, hence the mountain of chocolate fountains, fondue sets and ice-cream makers gathering dust in store cupboards across the land.