Vittles Christmas Gift Guide 2025
Over fifty silly, fun and delicious gift ideas suggested by the contributors to Vittles’ second print issue.
Good morning and welcome to the Vittles Christmas Gift Guide 2025! Before you go on to read, you could always do right by the ones you love and get them a gift subscription that will provide access to the entire Vittles back catalogue. It is possible to time it so it arrives exactly on Christmas Day.
Vittles Magazine and Prints!
For the first time ever, you can also gift Vittles in a physical, printed format. What says Christmas more than a beautifully illustrated magazine comprising 150+ pages about the strange, perplexing and terrible aspects of food? If you pre-order a copy before 1 December, you will receive it for a discounted price, with an extra discount for paid subscribers (see the announcement here for details).
For the festive season, we’ve also added new prints by Sing Yun Lee and Wendy Huynh to our print shop. Head to Vittles Prints to see the selection, which also includes all our Issue 1 prints, restaurant photos from Michaël Protin, and the beautiful map of Soho by Anna Hodgson and Harry Darby.
Contributors
Jonathan Nunn – JN; Rebecca May Johnson – RMJ; Dan Biddulph - DB; Adam Coghlan – AC; Sing Yun Lee – SYL; Tania Sanchez – TS; Niloufar Haidari – NH; Kelly Pochyba – KP; Emefa Ansah – EA; Karl McDonald – KM; Joel Golby – JG; Simran Hans – SH; Lily Kelting – LK; Feroz Gajia – FG; Kenneth Lam – KL; Rukmini Iyer – RI; Ella Bucknall – EB; Beatrice Barr – BB; Riana Austin – RA; Odhran O’Donoghue – OOD
This year we asked contributors to Issue 2, along with our mentees, to suggest entries for the gift guide. Naturally, we received a lot of suggestions based around the subject of Bad Food, which we start with:
Bad or Beautiful
Fried Egg Beret
Sometimes when I’m out wandering the urban tundra that is the London Borough of Waltham Forest in the biting frosts of pre-Christmas November, I find myself musing over my lifelong reverence for the glorious fried egg. Then, I wonder whether there is any synergy that the world has failed to spot: enter the Fried Egg Beret. DB
Chinese Pee Pee Doll
A small, hollow ceramic figurine, often called a tea pet, that squirts water when hot water or tea is poured on its head. It is typically made of unglazed clay, and is used to indicate water temperature for brewing tea, with some believing it could have been an early thermometer. A weird and playful object to whack out during otherwise formal tea ceremonies. I like to squirt guests with the pee doll and get them to open their mouths. Available online, in Chinese supermarkets and in Chinatown. KL
Egg Mayonnaise T-Shirt
In spite of the intense and passionate love I harbour for Café Deco, mayonnaise is a bad food in my book due to my phobia of cold, wobbly sauces. So, I have never tried their iconic egg mayonnaise, but wearing Luke Edward Hall’s elegant and charming rendition of it on a t-shirt or tote bag would be the best way for a condiment coward such as me to consume it. SYL
Banana-Shaped Banana Hand Cream
This banana-shaped banana hand cream is a crowd-pleasing joy. Dinky enough to fit in your handbag, it smells like banana bread and is inherently silly. RA
Lavender Syrup
Anyone who knows me personally has to deal with me going on about the time I lived in LA and all the iced lavender honey lattes I drank there. These are still nearly impossible to find in London, but I have been able to (almost) recreate the experience with this delicious natural syrup from a farm in Wales. I also like to add it to a cup of milky earl grey for a twist on a London fog or use it in sparkling mocktails. If I’m feeling particularly ridiculous – which is what Christmas is all about, after all – I will add a little drop to some champagne. NH