Buying or moving into a new home is an important milestone in life– one certainly worth celebrating! In this blog post, we’ll draw inspiration from classic housewarming gifts and traditions to help you come up with a thoughtful, unique gift to warm any home or heart.
Getting Started with Housewarming Gift Ideas
Housewarming parties date back to the Middle Ages when the owner of a new house would invite everyone who helped with the construction of the home to dine and celebrate together. In those early days before central heating, guests would bring firewood as a housewarming gift and quite literally warm the house with a roaring fire.
We love this history of housewarming gifts – especially the communal aspect of “breaking in” a new house and turning it into a warm, welcoming home. And although housewarming gifts have changed and modernized over the years, they still share the same goal of making a new house feel more like a home.
Traditional Housewarming Gifts & Their Meaning
Below are some traditional housewarming gifts for inspiration and creative ideas to help you modernize them:
- Wood: A wood gift traditionally represents stability, harmony, and peace. It’s also a nod to the original housewarming gift of firewood. A modern take on this classic gift idea could be a wooden charcuterie board or an elegant breakfast tray.
- Bread: Bread was traditionally given as a housewarming gift so that the new homeowners “may never know hunger.” To this day, a fresh loaf of bread makes a nice gift, especially when delivered inside a colorful dutch oven and paired with a delicious home-cooked meal.
- Salt & Herbs: This traditional gift symbolizes adding some spice and flavor to life. We love the artisanal salt and seasonings from Jacobsen Salt Co. - their products are beautifully packaged, high quality, and sustainably sourced.
- Honey or Sugar: Meant to encourage new homeowners to “enjoy the sweetness of life,” some honey or sweet treats are a super sweet housewarming gift. Wrap up some good honey with a honey wand and maybe a few eco-friendly beeswax food storage wraps for a classically-inspired yet creative housewarming gift.
- Wine: Traditionally, a bottle of wine sends the message: “may you always have joy and never go thirsty.” Wine is still a very common housewarming gift - but some cute cocktail glasses, bar accessories, or a nice bottle of champagne with a pair of flutes can represent the same message, but with a bit more festive flair.
- Candle: Candles are another traditional housewarming gift, representing a source of light, warmth, and hope for any dark or challenging times that may lie ahead. We love the idea of pairing a nice, scented candle with an elegant candle snuffer.
Curated Housewarming Gift Ideas Inspired by the Classics
The housewarming gift sets highlighted below are a few of our top picks. They’re pre-curated and feature small-batch, artisanal products inspired by classic housewarming gifts, but with a sophisticated, modern twist.
This luxurious Be Home housewarming gift set will make any new home feel more warm and inviting. The hand-selected gifts in this set include a handmade table runner, a beautiful candle, some delicious salted caramels, and fresh coffee - all sustainably packaged and ready to ship.
Shop This Gift Box
Inspired by traditional housewarming gifts that represent adding flavor and sweetness to life, this Compliment Your Kitchen gift set is both classic and contemporary. The items in this gift box– including olive oil, coffee-flavored cookies, and fruit crisps– will help stock up a bare pantry and give it some life!
Shop This Gift Box
As the name of this gift box implies, the items included are meant to encourage the recipient(s) to kick back and enjoy the Comforts of Home. The rose clay and lavender body bar, bar of single-origin dark chocolate, and lovely Black Salt & Birch candle in a reusable ceramic vessel will help the new homeowner celebrate and break in thier new space.
Shop This Gift Box
The beauty of these three pre-curated housewarming gift baskets is that all you have to do is pick one and personalize it… all the details and logistics will be taken care of for you!
Personalized Housewarming Gifts Based on Interests
If you know the new homeowners well, you can also draw inspiration from their specific interests and passions. For example, if they have a green thumb, a plant, or some vegetable seeds for their new garden could be a sweet way to get them even more excited about their new outdoor space. If they love animals, you could give them a hummingbird feeder or a birdhouse for their new backyard, or a housewarming gift inspired by their pets. For those friends who love to socialize and host parties, surprise them with a fun yard game or board game…. You get the idea!
Other New Home Gifts & Ideas
One incredibly thoughtful housewarming gift idea is some nice stationery or greetings cards with their new home address, maybe even with a sweet drawing of their new home!
Art can also be a special housewarming gift, but only if you know the homeowners and their taste well. They might have lots of blank wall space to fill, but you don’t want them to feel obligated to put something on display that they don’t absolutely love!
Another cute housewarming (emphasis on the warming!) gift idea, is a cozy blanket to help make their new home more warm, comfortable, and inviting.
Your Partner For all Things Gifting
We hope this article helped get your housewarming gift ideas flowing! If you want help putting together a custom housewarming gift for those new homeowners in your life, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
