Holiday Gifts $30 and Under

By Kristin Donnelly, Megan Krigbaum, Christine Quinlan, Jessica Romm

Stellar holiday gifts, $30 and under. All tasted, tested and hand-selected by our pickiest editors.

Courtesy of Lisa’s Cookie Shop, Chocolate Gourmet’s and Chelsea Market Baskets

Incredible Cookies

Kitchen Sink cookies from Lisa’s Cookie Shop are chewy and chunky. $7.25 for 7; lisascookieshop.com.

Chocolate Gourmet’s “Damn Good Cookies” line lives up to its name with tender rugalach. $27 for 12; chocolategourmet.com.

England’s Artisan Biscuits’ fruit and almond fingers are enticingly crumbly. $7 a box; chelseamarketbaskets.com.

Courtesy of Spoonsisters

Souped-Up Ladle

Spoon Sisters’ ingenious two-in-one straining ladle with perforations on one side is great for serving soups and making stocks.

$22; spoonsisters.com.

Courtesy of drinkupny.com

Spicy Spirit

St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram, an update of the traditional rum-based Jamaican liqueur, is produced (unexpectedly) in Austria. It’s nicely spicy, which makes it ideal for spiking a holiday punch.

$25 for 375 ml; drinkupny.com.

Courtesy of S. Wallace Edwards & Sons

Old World–New World Ham

S. Wallace Edwards & Sons of Surry, Virginia, introduces an Americanized version of Spain’s famed serrano ham punningly dubbed “Surryano” ham. The company cures Berkshire pork in the Spanish style—i.e., with longer aging and much less salt than Virginia ham. Then, for a New World touch, they smoke it over hickory.

$20 for 12 oz; virginiatraditions.com.

Courtesy of Madécasse

Vanilla Gets Versatile

More flavorful than vanilla extract and less expensive than whole beans, Madécasse’s pure vanilla powder can pinch-hit for both.

$13 for a 1.1-oz jar; madecasse.com.

Dinner-Party Cards

TableTopics pose questions meant to spark dinner-party conversation. A card in the “Wine To Go” set, for instance, asks, “What’s the most you would pay for a highly rated, rare bottle of wine that you covet?”

$9 for 40 cards; tabletopics.com.