A healthy gift tells someone you care about them. And is much more imaginative and personal than sox, jocks and chocs.

Here are some interesting ideas that will not only make gift buying easier for you, but may even help friends and family adopt a healthier approach to their wellbeing.

Food gifts

Healthy gourmet food gifts are always appreciated at Christmas time when many people have extras to feed. Present food gifts in a basket, hamper or a box partially filled with tissue paper (Find these at $2 shops and discount stores). If perishable, cover with Gladwrap, cellophane or decorative fabric. Tie with ribbon or raffia.

Food gifts are especially popular with blokes, which is just as well as many men are hard to buy gifts for.

• A bag of omega-3 rich walnuts in the shell. Tie the bag with a Christmas decoration Add nutcrackers, or recipes for walnut and apple cakes or a low-fat Waldorf salad
• Good quality balsamic vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil with a hand-written recipe for salad dressing
• Hand made pasta with a pasta bowl
• Inside a paella pan (find at specialty home ware stores), place a bag of risotto rice and a paella cookbook.
• A set of risotto bowls with a bag of dried mushrooms, truffle oil and risotto rice
• Non-perishable ingredients for your favourite meal and a greeting card that includes an IOU promising to prepare the dish in his or her home at a later date
• Fill a clear-glass jar or soup tureen with layers of colourful soup beans - black beans, butter beans, black-eye peas, navy beans, baby limas and split peas. Add your favourite recipe
• Fill a basket or pasta pot with a variety of dried, vegetable-based pastas, like spinach linguini. Add tins of tomato-based sauces, a shaker of Parmesan cheese, packets of sun-dried tomatoes, virgin olive oil and sprigs of dry oregano.
• Fill festive canisters with muesli, sun-dried fruit, and cinnamon sticks or raisins
• Vegetable seeds and a gardening book
• A juicer and box of seasonal fruit is a great gift for a family
• A children’s healthy recipe cookbook, an apron and a card offering a cooking lesson from you
• Jars of homemade jam or other preserve such as chutney or pickles
• A Christmas cake. Choose a healthy recipe and divide it into four to make several small cakes to distribute to family and friends instead of one large one
• A cookbook for healthy salads plus salad utensils or a salad bowl
• A basket of season such as cherries or mangos

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Wellbeing and fitness gifts

Here are some suggestions for gifts that promote health and wellbeing.

• Season pass for a single or family to their local public swimming pool or Aquatic Centre
• Gym membership
• A course of lessons for: yoga, swimming, golf, surfing, Tai Chi, ballroom dancing, martial arts, skateboarding, ice-skating, etc Gift certificates for: shiatsu massage, acupuncture, or other alternative therapy
• Pedometer or step counter
• Exercise DVDs
• Sport heart rate monitor watch (guys love these)
• Massage roller and massage oils
• Water bottles to take on walks
• Backpack with a ‘camel back’ for cyclists, bushwalkers and runners
• Sun hat and quality sunscreen
• Beach tent for a single or families
• Books – a good read is great for de-stressing and keeping the mind active

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Healthy gifts that don’t cost you a cent

Homemade coupons or gift vouchers for your time and expertise are a fun and thoughtful gift. Here are some ideas that are good for you as well as the recipient:

• Make a vegetable garden
• Cook a low-cal gourmet meal at their place. And tidy up afterwards
• Lessons in something you’re good at, be it aerial skiing or tenpin bowling
• Outdoor chores such lawn-mowing & car-washing

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