With December 25 looming ever larger on the horizon, these 5 Christmas gift ideas will save you from the inevitable shop dash and bring a big smile to the faces of the ones you love.
As it starts to dawn on us just how close Christmas is, we begin to look about us searching for ideas for the perfect gift for our nearest and dearest.
We pat our pockets, doom-scroll Etsy and charge fruitlessly from shop to shop.
Well, get ready to wake from that Christmas gift nightmare. In fact, you’ll want to pinch yourself because you’ll think you’ve fallen asleep again and started a new, lovely dream about discovering the perfect gifts for all your friends and family - well, those of drinking age anyway.
Here are 5 perfect gifts to get into the Aussie craft spirit of Christmas.
Brimming with 25 x 30ml bottles of unique, rare, unsung or limited edition gins, this Aussie craft gin advent calendar is genius.
The clever folk at White Possum have created a gin tasting masterclass with over two dozen different gins to experience, each behind its own little door. The front is a design by local artist and cartoonist Jess Harwood.
One to shop for sooner rather than later (though catching up will mean you’re legally allowed to open more than one bottle a day), this is the ultimate way to enjoy the lead-up to Christmas.
2. Gift sets like Starward Distillery’s three pack
What’s better than one bottle of beautifully handmade Australian craft whisky? Easy: two bottles. And what’s better than two bottles? Even easier: three!
And that’s what you get with Starward’s superb Christmas trio.
Starward have blessed three charming 200ml bottles; one with their famed Two Fold made with both wheat and barley spirits aged in red wine barrels and another with their delicious Nova single malt, full of chocolate, dark fruit and spice.
And finally you’ll find a precious bottle of Starward Fortis - the house’s cask-strength single malt. This powerful creature, matured in American oak ex-red wine barrels, is all about the burnt fig and blackberries, vanilla and ripe fruit.
In the Nip of Courage shop, you’ll also find other gift packs from the likes of Never Never Distillery and its gin threesome, 78 Degrees with its own gin trifecta and Imbue Distillery with four gins to sample.
As connected to Christmas as Santa and probably just as famous, Mariah Carey’s iconic ballad is the true signal that the festive season is here.
To honour the Queen of Christmas, the clever mixologists at Nip of Courage have knocked up an exquisite ready-to-drink Aussie cocktail - the All I Want For Christmas Negroni - using Australian craft spirits of course.
Featuring the Ultimate Diva and her Yuletide yodel on the label of this 1-litre bottle, it’s a centrepiece to any Christmas dinner table.
4. Full-size spirits
What would Christmas be without a bottle of something special under the tree? Nip of Courage is the ultimate destination for Aussie craft spirits with well over 200 different tipples to choose from.
Check out our incredible gin collection here - we also have some recommendations for gin for G&T or if you’re a negroni fan, these gins are great too.
If whisky is more your style, here’s our full catalogue with some of our favourite special single malts and limited releases here. And for whiskies that are still amazing but on the lighter end of the price scale (we’ve all got that uncle we have to keep sweet, right?) check out our whiskies under $100.
It may be the wrong time of year for a hoodie, but there’s nothing wrong with being prepared! So why not show your support for Australian craft spirits and put a special edition Nip of Courage hoodie in someone’s stocking?
Artwork on the back is by the brilliant Bad Bartender aka Blue Valentine - you can read more about her here - and features the distillery angels, who take their cut from every batch.
However and wherever you’re celebrating Christmas this year, make sure you raise a glass of Aussie craft spirits to the excellent craftspeople behind the stills dotted about this great broad land we call home.
Cheers.