If you have bought from a small company for many years, you sometimes like to know how they are getting on? So before our peak busy period in 2026, we thought we’d give you an insight into what has been going on with our planning for Christmas this year.

 

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The Cost of Christmas Hampers in 2026

Every Christmas hamper is, in a sense, a record of the year it was packed in, and 2026 has been a demanding year to record. Some of our suppliers have raised their prices by 10% every six months, and that compounds quickly. A few could not make the transition at all, and several have ceased trading this year. When that happens, we have to enter the market to source from alternative providers, and update every hamper that the product is listed in. The Macros and the reference errors in the spreadsheets go haywire so its not something we particularly enjoy.  Our hampers from last year have risen by around five to six per cent, but delivery costs are soaring due to fuel surcharges.  We have held prices this year because we are hoping it is temporary.

The rising costs have been offset by savings in Labour Costs associated with Sales and Marketing, including money spent on making the business more energy efficient. The majority of the time we do not fill every lower price point with a new hamper. There is a point at which a cheaper hamper stops being an Irish Gourmet hamper, it moves into the realm of a white good fulfilment business,  It’s an area we don’t think we have the capital behind us to serve as well as what is required for such voluminous orders.

 

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Christmas Hamper Demand This Year

Most households have less to spend once the essentials are paid this year, so we aren’t predicting a bumper, growth year. We anticipate a similar number of orders to last Christmas, with more of them for our smaller hampers and fewer for the largest. We planned this year's projections around that, rather than hoping for a better December than the economy suggests. It does mean more hampers to pack for less revenue, at a time when employing people has become markedly more expensive through taxation and shifting thresholds. 

In a market that is not growing, those costs cannot simply be passed on. So the directors carry more of the work themselves, and every piece of technology we adopt has to prove that it genuinely improves productivity. A sequence of AI tools now takes care of much of the detail behind order processing, stock matching and packing schedules. What it cannot do is pack a hamper well or personalise it with care, and that remains skilled, human and labour-intensive work. Our core team has come through many Decembers, and we are ready for the peak in the middle of the month.

 

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The Irish Producers Behind Our Hampers

The food inside an Irish Gourmet hamper is Irish wherever Ireland makes it well. For many small producers on a small island, a steady volume order from us has been a genuine route to market. It brings their brands in front of people who appreciate good food, and it gives them the confidence to try something new. We have not swapped them for cheaper international suppliers to protect our margins. We only look abroad when 1 of 2 things happens 1) an Irish product our customers love stops being made. Chocolate spread is this year's example. Several Irish producers made one a few years ago, but it is a difficult product to make well, and in time it stopped paying its way. We will not put a spread containing palm oil into a hamper, so we looked to Switzerland. Our hampers now carry a pistachio spread and a chocolate spread from Rhythm 108, a clear step above anything on a shop shelf and rarely found in a hamper. 2) When something crosses our path that you simply can’t ignore or resist, it makes its way into the Wee Shop where it can be added to an Irish Gourmet Hamper.

Twenty-Three Years of Irish Hampers Online

Irish Gourmet began in the aftermath of the dot-com bust, when hamper companies still sold through printed brochures and advertising in regional papers. We were young, with plenty of time and no money, and we bet that buying would move online before Google had come to dominate search. So the time went into clean code and pages that search engines could read, and the bet paid off for more than two decades. We know how much of that was good timing. Search is changing again as AI alters how people find things, and specialist websites like ours will see fewer visitors arrive by that route. This may well be one of the last years in which our website alone brings new customers to us. That makes those of you who return every Christmas an integral reason for why we can continue to trade from one year to the next.

 

Ordering Christmas Hampers Early in 2026

Online security has become a constant task this year. Attacks on businesses across the UK and Europe have brought extra layers of authentication, and many customers now meet them as forgotten passwords and stubborn logins. In November our team has the time to sort these out with you patiently. By December every hour is consumed from 7am to 11pm literally, so each problem resolved now helps the busiest weeks run more smoothly for everyone. December orders are still very welcome; an early one simply lets us look after it with more care.

How We Email Our Hamper Customers

When we started, we turned a printed brochure into a website. Our emails this Christmas do something close to the old brochure's job, only now they are addressed to you. Everyone receives one general email to say we are still trading and a selection from a specific price range for this year. You might receive an email featuring hampers chosen in light of what you have bought from us before. Your purchase history is the only thing we use, and it is all we need to know. There are no inflated claims, and we will not compete for space in your inbox. Personalisation of this kind, done with restraint by a small business, is one of the few places where AI genuinely makes things better for the customer because it is used directly at our instruction to limit inconvenience.. It tells you that behind every order are people who will answer for the service, the quality and every promise made.

Irish Gourmet is a small family business, run by siblings, and after 23 years we are still so very excited to be of service and grateful for every order. Like any vintage, 2026 has been shaped by its conditions, and we have worked hard to make sure these 2026 hampers are the best we have ever produced. Thank you for staying with us, and we hope to send you fabulous Irish hampers for many more Christmases to come.

From: The Irish Gourmet