From a festive vegan offering to one containing a hefty Christmas ham, these are our food writer’s picks of this year’s finest hampers

Festive hampers tend, like many things about Christmas, to be more exciting to receive (there’s always a faintly decadent Brideshead Revisited vibe about such wicker-clad bounty) than to consume (So. Much. Chutney!). For obvious practical reasons, many companies focus on preserves and packets of tea which, grateful as you are for the thought, may not be things you’d have chosen to line the back of the cupboard for years to come.

However, the carefully chosen selection below – which, having spent a day tasting my way through, I can personally vouch for – is near guaranteed to bring genuine cheer from delivery to dispatch. Instead of the usual boring biscuits and tedious teabags, there’s stuff you actually want to consume over the holiday, from cheese to champagne. Because the spirit of Christmas is all well and good, but if you’re going to spend your hard-earned money, you want more than the thought to count.

The feelgood one:
Ukrainian Christmas hamper
_{£174.99 at Experience Ukraine}

The vegan one:
The Yuletide vegan hamper
_{£165 at Fortnum & Mason}

The cheesy one:
Christmas cheeseboard
_{£55 at Highland Fine Cheeses}

The traditional one:
Ham and chutney pig board
_{£94.95 at Emmett’s}

The cosy one:
Christmas in a Box
_{£30 at Ginger Bakers}

The fancy one:
The Darcy
_{£260 at Thackray Brown}