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Host and Hostess Gifts Under $50 That Aren't Wine

17 items

Wrap and Ready

Host and hostess gifts under $50 that don't need a gift bag or a card. For the dinner party you were invited to, the weekend at someone's house, and the neighbour who feeds your cat. Everything here is consumable or something a household replaces any...

Sections

Hostess Gifts Under $20 That Don't Look Cheap

Wine Gifts for the Host Who Has Everything

Kitchen Gifts They'll Use Every Week

Table and Serveware Under $50

Hostess Gifts Under $20 That Don't Look Cheap

The band where most host gifts go wrong, because twenty dollars buys either a scented candle or something that looks considered. These four are consumable or close to it, and none is a candle in a jar. This is the section to shop when you are invited...

Four hand-poured beeswax tapers, eight inches, cotton wicks. They burn slower than paraffin and smell faintly of honey. Ten dollars for four is cheap for beeswax, and the finish is rougher than a dipped taper.

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Beeswax taper candles, 4-pack

A 16-ounce glass pot with a dipper and a lid that seals. Buy it empty and fill it with local honey, which turns a ten-dollar jar into a host gift. The dipper is short for a deep jar.

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Glass honey pot with wooden dipper

Flour-sack cotton with an embroidered border, about 20 by 28 inches. It absorbs better than a printed towel and takes a hot wash. The embroidery is machine-done, and the towel arrives creased from the fold.

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Embroidered flour-sack tea towel

Eight food-safe markers that write on the foot of a glass and come off in the dishwasher. Ten dollars, and the party stops losing glasses. Leave the caps off overnight and they dry out.

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Metallic wine glass markers, 8-pack

Wine Gifts for the Host Who Has Everything

For the host who already owns four corkscrews. Wine-adjacent gifts that add something to the ritual instead of another bottle to the rack. Everything here is under $50. Three of the four replace something the host is currently cursing, so they get us...

Replaces the thing they curse every Friday. The lever pulls a cork in two motions and handles synthetic corks without shredding them. It is bulky, so it lives in a drawer, and it needs about 8cm of clearance above the bottle.

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Rabbit original lever corkscrew

A marble sleeve that spends two hours in the freezer and holds a bottle cold through dinner. Thirty dollars, and it weighs about two kilos. It cannot chill a warm bottle, so start cold.

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Kota Japan marble wine chiller

Three small bottles that turn supermarket gin into something that tastes like a bar. They last about a year of fortnightly drinks. Aromatic, orange and one wildcard. Check the caps on arrival; cheap sets leak in transit.

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Scrappy's New Classics bitters set

Twelve white hemstitch napkins, six inches square. Seventeen dollars is bulk-pack money, so nobody has to be careful with them. Pure white shows every drop of red wine, and bleach takes the hemstitch out.

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Hemstitch cocktail napkins, 12-pack

Kitchen Gifts They'll Use Every Week

Host gifts that live on the counter rather than in a cupboard. Each one is something a household replaces the moment it breaks, so none of it ends up on a shelf above the fridge. This is the section for the host who cooks, rather than the host who or...

Keeps one stick of butter soft on the counter under a water seal. Thirteen dollars, stoneware, and it holds a standard 113g stick. Change the water every few days or the butter sours.

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Ceramic butter crock with lid

One 8-ounce stoneware cocotte, oven and dishwasher safe. Twenty-two dollars each, so it is a gift for one person rather than a set. The enamel chips if it goes from freezer to oven.

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Le Creuset mini cocotte, 8 oz

Wide enough for spatulas, tall enough for tongs, heavy enough not to tip when a ladle comes out one-handed. Eighteen dollars. Spoons are sold separately, so budget for a set if this is the whole gift.

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Nucookery ceramic utensil holder

Two 60ml bottles, one herb-infused olive oil and one vinegar, boxed. Nineteen dollars buys a few dressings rather than a pantry. Two ounces goes fast in a household that cooks daily, so treat it as a taste rather than a supply.

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Viva Oliva oil and vinegar set

Cross-back straps, two pockets, no ties at the neck. Seventeen dollars and it washes at 40 degrees. The linen blend creases, so it looks rumpled straight from the dryer and stays that way.

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Cotton-linen cross-back apron

Table and Serveware Under $50

Serveware that gets used when you are invited back. One good piece beats a matching set of four, so buy the single board rather than the boxed set. Everything here is under $50 and none of it needs its own cupboard. Wood and marble both want hand was...

Four hemstitched linen napkins, 20 inches square. They start stiff and soften with every wash. Seventeen dollars for four is the honest price for real linen, and they outlast the plates they sit beside.

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Linen dinner napkins, set of 4

A marble board about 12 inches across, with a leather handle. Twenty-eight dollars and heavy enough to stay put while you cut. Marble stains with oil, so wipe it rather than soak it.

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Marble cheese board with leather handle

A 12-inch olive wood board, dense enough that a knife leaves no scar. Thirty-seven dollars, and the grain is why you buy this over cheaper acacia. Hand wash only; a dishwasher splits it.

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Thirteen Chefs olive wood board, 12 inch

A nine-inch stoneware bowl with an uneven glaze. Twenty-five dollars, and the irregularity is the reason to buy it rather than a fault. It is heavy, and the glaze can craze under a hot tap.

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Stoneware serving bowl, 9 inch