A co-founder's guide to December timing, hampers and what survives the post
Christmas Chocolate Gifts: What to Send, and When to Order It
About the Author
Giles Atwell
Co-Founder, Russell & Atwell
Co-founder of Russell & Atwell, the fresh chocolatiers. Giles met Steve Russell at Godiva after both had done time at Cadbury, and together they have spent forty years working on world-famous chocolate brands. Chocolate also runs in his family: his grandfather started a chocolate company in 1921. On our packaging, Giles is the one with the pencil behind his ear, which means he looks after demand and the sums.
When should you order Christmas chocolate gifts?
Order by Wednesday 16th December for standard post, and by Sunday 20th December for Express Delivery. Hampers suit a household, letterbox boxes suit an individual or an address you are not certain about, and the commonest mistake is sending something perishable to an office that shuts on the 19th.
Christmas is the one time of year when a chocolate gift is judged less on taste than on whether it turned up. So this guide is about timing and choices, not adjectives. We make fresh chocolate, which means we start thinking about December logistics in roughly August.
When do you actually need to order?
Order by Wednesday 16th December for standard post, and by Sunday 20th December for Express Delivery. Work backwards from the day you want it to land, and remember the arrival date is not the send date. Please also note that we are a small business in a period of very high demand, so the general principle is to order as early as you can to give us maximum time to pack and send.
Two things move that deadline earlier. Anything personalised is made to order rather than picked off a shelf, so it needs longer. And the most popular flavours often sell out early: premium chocolate is produced in planned batches, not pressed out on demand, so early December stock is whatever is left over rather than the full range.
The best way to guarantee the exact flavours you want is to pre-order from our range from 1st November - all pre-orders are reserved for you and then posted out in December.
| What you are sending | Order by |
|---|---|
| Full range of Flavours (before any risk of selling out) | Pre-order by 15th November |
| Chocolates that will keep deliciously fresh through the festive season, until at least 6th January 2027 | Order after 1st November |
| Last Order Date: Standard post for pre-Christmas Delivery | Wednesday 16th December |
| Last Order Date Express post for pre-Christmas Delivery | Sunday 20th December |
| Our despatch lead time for Standard Delivery | Typically 3-4 days, but can be longer in peak seasons. Delivery is via RM48 Royal Mail Service (like 2nd class post) |
| Our despatch lead time for Express Delivery | Typically 1-2 days, but can be longer in peak seasons. Delivery is via RM24 Royal Mail Service (like 1st class post) |
What are the last posting dates?
Royal Mail's December dates are published, usually in early November, including First Class, Tracked 24 and 48, and Special Delivery.
For fresh chocolate and our small business, work to a date earlier than the Royal Mail deadline rather than right up to it and allow us time to hand-pack your order. Royal Mail's own guidance for food is Tracked 24 or Tracked 48 as a minimum, on the basis that it should survive up to 48 hours in the network. Our fresh chocolates are brilliantly naturally preserved in transit thanks to the little drop of honey.
And the posting deadline tells you nothing about whether anybody is in. A perishable gift arriving on the 24th to an empty house is a wasted gift.
Hamper or a letterbox of chocolates?
A hamper suits a household. A box suits a person. That is genuinely the whole decision, and getting it round the wrong way is why hampers turn up at flats where one person eats crackers for a fortnight.
Hampers and bigger multipacks work when the gift is meant to be shared: a family, a couple hosting, a team in one place. They cost more, arrive in a bigger box that won’t fit through the letterbox, and require someone to be in to take them.
Letterbox packs work for one person, for an address you are not sure about, or when it needs to go through a letterbox without a signature. They are also much easier to send late, because a letterbox pack doesn't need a delivery slot.
See our letterbox chocolate gifts →
What chocolate survives being posted?
Solid chocolate travels well in cold weather. Filled and fresh chocolate needs a delivery date you can rely on.
Chocolate melts at around 34°C, which makes December the easiest month to post in Britain. The risk is rarely transit; it is the box sitting in a warm hallway or on a radiator for three days at the other end.
Ours keeps for four to six weeks in the fridge, arrives with at least four weeks of that still on it, and for the festive range will always keep deliciously fresh until at least the 10th January. Our chocolates travel in pouches in a purpose-designed postal box. That is why we have a firm cut-off, rather than taking orders up to the last minute.
“Christmas is by far our busiest season, it’s the time when we can take a little longer to pack and send due to sheer demand (every order is hand-packed) and we’re most likely to run short of favourite flavours, especially from limited edition batches, the longer you leave it - so we always encourage people to order as early as you can - best is pre-ordering from 1st November, otherwise we strongly encourage you to order in early December!”
Giles Atwell, Co-Founder, Russell & Atwell
What should you spend?
£20 to £40 covers most gifts for friends, family and colleagues. Under £15 is a token, and over £50 is hamper territory or buying for somebody specific.
Worth being honest about price bands. A £25 box of something genuinely hand-finished reads better than a £45 tin of something mass-produced with a ribbon on it, and most people can tell which is which by the second chocolate.
Our Christmas range starts at £23 for a pack of 3 flavours in pouches (36 chocolates) in a letterbox-friendly box, via our luxury refillable glass jars from £32 for 2 (40 chocolates) all the way up to our popular multipacks - like the Mega Monty (£39.95) for 6 pouches (72 chocolates) and the Mega Monty Lux for £49.95 for 8 pouches (96 chocolates). You can also pick your own Pouches (from £7.99) and Jars (from £16.50), where the more you buy, the more you save.
What do you send someone who has everything?
Something that has to be eaten. That is the whole trick. A gift with four to six weeks on it cannot be put in a cupboard and forgotten, which is exactly what happens to the good tin. It is still there at Easter, and everyone knows it.
This is where fresh chocolate works so well - it’s just that bit more special. Ninety-nine per cent of chocolate is built to last twelve months on a shelf because it’s usually full of palm oil, cheap fillers, and preservatives. Ours is made with organic fresh double cream and butter from the Cotswolds, Fino de Aroma cocoa, wildflower honey and a pinch of Dorset sea salt, and it lasts weeks rather than a year. In December, that makes it an unusual thing to open, which is rather the point.
Can you send to more than one address?
Christmas time usually brings out the generosity in people - sending presents across the country. If you’d like to do this, we ask you to use a separate order for each address so you can follow progress once the tracking link comes through.
If you are sending to a list rather than a person, our corporate gifting guide covers minimums, lead times, and multi-address sending properly, or we can send a giant box to a single location that can make quite an impact!
Do chocolate subscriptions work as Christmas presents?
They work well when you want the gift to keep arriving after Christmas, and badly when somebody needs something to open on the day. Both are solvable: time the first box to land before Christmas and you get the unwrapping and the months afterwards.
We recommend our 6- or 12-month Discovery subscriptions where all you need to do is find out if the recipient is a ‘milk’ or ‘dark chocolate lover ’- we’ll then send them 3 pouches of chocolates every 60 days in a letterbox-friendly pack - so they don’t even need to be in for the chocolates to arrive.
What this means for you
First and foremost, you need the recipient to love the gift they receive - if you know their favourite flavours, then choose them specifically; if you’d like to hedge your bets, then choose one of the ‘Mega’ multipacks; then match the format to the address. A household gets a hamper, a person gets a letterbox-pack, and an address you are unsure of gets something that fits through a letterbox.
See our Christmas chocolates.
Made in small batches with organic Cotswold cream, delivered chilled, with at least two weeks of shelf life on arrival.
Shop Christmas Chocolates →Frequently Asked Questions
Q: When is the last day to order chocolate for Christmas delivery?
A: Order by Wednesday 16th December for standard post and Sunday 20th December with Express Delivery.
Q: Can you post chocolate in December?
A: Yes, and it is the easiest month of the year for it, because chocolate melts at around 34°C. The risk isn't the cold; it is the parcel sitting somewhere warm at the other end.
Q: Is a hamper better than a smaller (letter) box of chocolates?
A: A hamper suits a household that will share it, and somebody has to be in to receive it. A box suits an individual and can go through a letterbox without needing to be in.
Q: How long do chocolate gifts last?
A: A long-life box keeps for months. Fresh chocolate like ours keeps four to six weeks in the fridge, and the festive range will always last the whole season - so at least until 10th January - so it is meant to be given rather than stored.
Q: What is a good budget for a Christmas chocolate gift?
A: £20 to £40 covers most friend, family and colleague gifting. Above £50, you are in hamper territory or buying for somebody in particular.
Sources Used
- Royal Mail, sending food by post: Tracked 24 or Tracked 48 as the minimum service for food, and the 48-hour transit tolerance.
- Post Office, prohibited and restricted items: perishable parcels must carry a visible sender return address and be labelled PERISHABLE.