Coronavirus care packages: 7 thoughtful gifts to send to someone special

Mark a milestone with a delivery of a thoughtful present.

Is there a more enjoyable moment of the day in our lockdown reality than the knock on the front door to signal the delivery of a package?

It is sandwiched in there, in between the daily walk outdoors, finding a good movie you haven’t seen already on Netflix and discovering that you already have all the ingredients needed in the recipe you’re reading.

Alright, you haven’t got tahini, but there is never any to be found anyway. I think the vegan cookbook authors have made it up.

The less enjoyable parts of living amongst a scary pandemic range from the horror-filled, like the daily death toll on the news and random government announcements that make you feel like you’re living in a zombie apocalypse movie and the constant fear for friends and family, and the sadness of not being able to celebrate a great milestone with them.

Babies have been born, birthdays and anniversaries have passed, great personal and professional occasions all tinged with a touch of dejection —though my Mum did say her surprise Zoom birthday party with the full extended family was her best birthday ever.

So if someone you love is about to pass a great milestone, make their day a little more love-filled with a double dose of delivery delight and a really great present.

Here are some terrific care packages to deliver to their door.

New Moon Blooms

Irish creative events team Frog Prince is putting its many talents to good work this lockdown, creating a new letterbox florist with boxed blooms made by their award-winning floristry team. Designed to fit neatly through your letterbox, they include 15 stems of seasonal flowers and fragrant foliage, such as this beautiful Venus 7 Mars bouquet, €45.

Bread41

Bread41, the bakery on Pearse Street in Dublin is delivering to Dublin and available for collection, with two days’ notice required on orders. You can order bread, pastries, pies and flour and the baker’s choice of six pastries for €16 for delivery or collection.

Sheridans Cheesemongers Hamper

Keep it Irish with a Sheridans Irish cheese hamper fro €20. This hamper focuses on three of the cheesemonger’s favourite Irish cheeses – Sheridans Mature Cashel Blue, Cooleeney Mini, 15 Fields Cheddar and Sheridans Irish Brown Bread Crackers – as well ass delicious brown bread cracker so the lucky receiver can just open and eat.

Dubray Book Subscription

The Dubray Books Gift Subscription Service, €200, will deliver a new book each month of the year. The recipient receives a gift card and a questionnaire which they return with details of their favourite genres and Dubray will personalise a year’s supply of books to their particular interest each month.

BuJo Home Meal Kit

It’s likely you’ve already seen this one all over your Instagram feed. BuJo gourmet burgers in Sandymount are delivering The BuJo Home Meal Kit, €40, express delivery to anywhere in Ireland. The kit comes complete with 12 beef burgers, eight buns, cheese, sauce and pickles. Handsome Burger are doing something similar in Galway, starting from €30.

Aperol Spritz Kit

Do you know how hard it is to get your hand on a bottle of Aperol these days? Not anymore — you can get soda water, prosecco, a bottle of Aperol and two equally important globular glasses for €29.50 from stuffuneed.ie, a website filled with all manners of treasures.

Papier Personalised Notebooks

Papier combines two of life’s greatest joys: having your name on something, and new stationery. My beautiful monogrammed 2020 diary has proved to be my least economic purchase this year, but no worries, I’ve made up for it by buying lots of personalised notebooks. I’ve bought a personalised floral one for a friend to keep Portuguese lessons learned on Duo Lingo in, and another polka dot one for a friend beginning an online course. They’re affordable, at about €23, come in designs to suit every style, plus you can add a gift box and note.

Featured image: Papier

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