Letter Gifts and Alphabet Gift Baskets: Genious Go-To Ideas

Stumped by gift giving? Letter gifts are a fun and easy way to get the brainstorming going. Pack a basket with gifts starting with the letter of your choice (like the letter of the first name of a special someone). Give an initial necklace to a close friend, or head off into other great ideas for using a letter gift theme.

I’ve whipped up some clever, giftee-pleasing alphabet-themed gift baskets. Now it’s time to share them with you! Letter-themed gifts are an especially successful tactic during the holidays, when you’re looking for Christmas gifts that start with letters.

First off, I’m giving you quick access to my A to Z gift ideas below. After that, we get down to business and I will take you through a tour of some amazing alphabet gift basket ideas!

Gifts that start with letters of names

There is actually an alphabet exchange game based on giving a gift starting with a letter. It sounds challenging, but some people like the extra layer of complexity.

I’ve created a list of gift ideas that start with a letter (just in case if you were wondering!).

Why alphabet gifts are good ideas

When I discovered alphabet gifts, I knew I was on to something. It’s not like I created the idea, I just ran with it. The beauty of alphabet-themed gifts is:

• great gift when you don’t the person very well
• superstar gift because it looks so darn clever
• it looks like you really put effort into it

Alphabet-themed gifts are a win-win to get you off of the hook for birthdays, graduations, Christmas, anniversaries, girlfriend/boyfriend/relationship gifts, and my favorite: when my kids bring a new girlfriend or boyfriend home for the holidays.

There’s not a lot of thinking that goes this. Any creative people will enjoy the challenge of finding gifts starting with a letter for him or her. I can see your wheels turning now – I bet you’re looking thinking that this idea can transfer to gifts that start with letters for stocking stuffers! There are lots of alphabet gift options, have fun with it!

Below I will show you how I put my alphabet-themed gift baskets together. I didn’t actually get to present the baskets and see the reaction. My daughter hauled one to her boyfriend’s Christmas, and my son traveled another direction for his girlfriend’s holiday.

I was eager to hear how it went. It’s funny, but the women folk at the family gatherings were the ones who surrounded the basket and poked through it and exclaimed, “What a cool idea!” Ah! They’re my people, they “get me”!

Components of an alphabet/letter-themed gift basket

Once we break the gates open, you’ll have no problem brainstorming gifts for your alphabet gift basket. Start with a basis of:

• foods that begin with a letter of the alphabet
• fruit that begins with a letter of the alphabet
• candy and snacks that begin with a letter of the alphabt
• objects that start with the letter of the alphabet
• products that start with a letter of the alphabet
• monogram gifts
• alphabet letter gift tags
• alphabet letter-shaped food or any foods shaped like letters
• package in a letter-shaped box
• BONUS POINTS for products that have their name!!

This was a gift for a young woman that I didn’t know well. Her name was Carol. I hear that Carhartt clothing is very popular with younger people, so I picked up a more feminine color for her. I found out what her favorite chips were, and candy was a no-brainer. I came across a line of products called “Carol’s Daughter” and included the Carol’s Daughter almond cookie lotion.

I made up my basket gift card on Canva. My little trick is buying cheap 4×6 clear acrylic picture frame with stand from the dollar store and tucking them into gift baskets. You can add any sentiment you want (or picture!) and then they can re-use it! It fills the basket up and make it look like more (I’m not the only one that thinks this way, right?). Picture close-up below.

I finally broke down and bought a pack of festive Buffalo print/plaid cardboard gift baskets. Wished I had done that years ago. I can put together a last-minute gift for any occasion if I needed to. Or just go with a plain cardboard gift basket, and you can dress it up with any holiday color. The only thing I don’t like about the brand I picked up, was the bottom was a pretty small base (top was fine), but it was tippy. The picture below is just an example.

Seriously, this was so easy. I searched for a “blank note” or something to that effect, and found a Christmas-y initial on Canva to top the design. Emphasis was put on the giftee and the letter of their first name. For this M-themed alphabet gift basket, I added:

“M is for many wonderful things, including MITCHELL! Enjoy this M-themed basket and MERRY CHRISTMAS!”

Adding alphabet-shaped food to your “Gifts that start with letter” gift

People, this takes your alphabet-themed gift basket to a whole new level! Foods shaped like letters is an easy way to add to your alphabet-themed gift basket.

This was a Christmas gift basket that started with the letter “M”. I wanted to make a jumbo-sized initial (letter Christmas cookie) of the giftee’s name, but really big alphabet cookie cutters are so expensive! You can buy single letter alphabet cookie cutters, but if I was going to do this, I wanted the whole set.

Then I thought “Why not just buy really big stencils?” That worked! I found this set on Amazon that I liked the size (6×6. What’s nice is that there are joining plastic strips that connects any letter with holes in it, like the letter B.

Above, you will see me tracing the letter “M”, but if it was the letter “B” I would just free-style it for the cut-out portion, but enough of the opening would be there that I wouldn’t screw it up. I’ll have to come back with a decorated picture of the cookies. I didn’t get them finished in time for the baskets due to delivery timing 🙁

More sources for alphabet gifts

See below for all my articles on letter-shaped gift ideas. You can buy a gift box shaped like a letter, attach a tag shaped like a letter, and tuck in food and snack gifts that start with letters. Have fun with this, I sure did!