Food is the hardest Christmas present to get right for someone who lives with coeliac disease, Crohn’s or a food intolerance.
A box of chocolates or a tin of shortbread comes with a label that needs reading, sometimes with a “may contain” line at the bottom, and quite often it ends up being passed on to someone else in the family. A bath and body set gets round that, because it goes on the skin and in the bath rather than on the plate.
Why food is the tricky present
Free-from ranges are easy to find in most supermarkets now, but a gift chosen by someone else still has to be checked by whoever opens it. Biscuits made in a factory that also handles wheat can carry a “may contain” warning, and some fudge is made with barley malt, which contains gluten. And the person doing the checking is the one you bought it for, on Christmas morning, probably while you’re watching them read the back of the box.
What about the office Secret Santa?
Secret Santa is where food gifts slip in most often, because a box of fudge is the easy default when you’ve drawn a name you barely know. If you’ve drawn the colleague who brings their own lunch every day and asks what’s in the canteen soup, they’d probably much rather unwrap something they can actually use while the whole team’s watching.
A small toiletries gift works well here. A shower gel, a hand cream or a little bottle of oil goes straight into a desk drawer or a washbag and gets used through the winter.
The family hamper can go in the bathroom
Hampers are the classic family present and the hardest to make safe, since every jar and packet has its own label. A bath and body box gives the same feeling of something generous to unwrap together. NUXE files these under Gift sets, and one Christmas box in that section holds a 100 ml dry oil, a 15 ml perfume and a 100 ml shower oil, packed in a gold clutch bag that’s part of the present.
The shower oil is for the morning, the dry oil goes on straight after, and the perfume is the last thing before heading out, so the whole box gets opened and used up in the bathroom.
Going to dinner at theirs?
If a friend with coeliac disease is cooking for you over the holidays, they’ve already planned a gluten-free menu, often days in advance. A dessert or a box of mince pies brought from outside has to pass a label check before it goes on that table, and it puts them in the position of refusing your present at their own party. Choosing something for the bathroom shelf means your present stays out of their kitchen altogether.
Before you order anything
A toiletries set solves the food problem and nothing else. It says nothing about how someone’s skin will react. On food packaging, a “may contain” line means the manufacturer has decided there’s a risk of cross-contamination, and Cambridge University Hospitals’ dietetics team points out that some manufacturers print it even when that risk is very small. The ingredient list on a cosmetic is read for a different reason, which is what goes onto the skin. If your friend has eczema or a known allergy to a cosmetic ingredient, that list is theirs to read, so ask them first or let them pick.
The thing to sort out in the next couple of weeks is who on your list gets food and who gets something for the bathroom, so the sets can be ordered and posted before the Christmas rush.
