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Sympathy Gift Basket Ideas
If a friend or relative has recently suffered a loss, sympathy gift baskets can be a meaningful way of expressing your condolences and providing support. Condolence gift baskets are available at many florist shops and gourmet food retailers, but a personalized, homemade sympathy gift basket can help a loved one in knowing that you put your time and care into composing a basket for their healing and grief. Here are some of the best, most thoughtful sympathy care package ideas and how to make them.
How to Make a DIY Sympathy Gift Basket
One of the primary things to keep in the forefront of your mind when planning gifts for family of deceased loved ones is to incorporate their needs. Consider how this loss may have affected, or continues to affect them, and determine what should be in the grief gift basket based on their current and future needs.
Are they facing any level of depression since the loss? Do they now have to adjust to a new life without their partner, parent, child, or other significant person in their life? Thinking of these possibilities will help you not only to narrow down what should be included in the basket, but also help you to avoid a more generic gift like flowers.
Below, we’ll give you some sympathy gift basket ideas that can make a true difference in the life of the recipient of this thoughtful gift.
DIY Sympathy Gift Basket Ideas
One of the best ways to support someone who is experiencing a loss is to give them a helping hand in daily activities. Simple tasks can become monumental efforts to those who are grieving.
Sympathy Baskets with Food
Grief can cause people to struggle in keeping a regular diet and eating schedule. With this in consideration, one of the best things you can do for them is to relieve their burden of activities like cooking. This is why large, hearty dishes such as casseroles are so often passed between loved ones after a significant loss in the family – they fill you up quickly and can be frozen or stored for relatively long periods of time in the fridge.
While you can certainly create a grief basket that includes already-prepared meals, you may want to consider composing a basket of ingredients and simple, easy-to-follow recipe cards. One idea is to include pasta, a container of homemade spaghetti sauce, freshly grated parmesan cheese, and garlic bread for quick, easy-to-prepare meals. Other foods, such as cooked ham or turkey, can be kept in the refrigerator and eaten over several days.
You may also be able to include more perishable ingredients than might be found premade. Fresh ingredients may be a welcome change for the family after receiving heavy casseroles or frozen meals. The idea is to keep the meal simple so that there is little effort required by the individual or family.
Many families hold visitations or receptions either before or after a funeral so that friends and other mourners can stop by to pay their respects. Consider including comfort foods in your condolence baskets that are easy to share with a crowd. You might include several types of cookies, for example, which could be offered with coffee. Other options include nuts and dried fruit, cookie platters, brownies, or other easy-to-serve desserts. Any gifts for family of the deceased should include a note or sympathy card offering support.
Journals and Books
Some people don’t cope well with grief by discussing their emotions or talking about the situation. Forcing someone to talk about the loss and sadness they may be feeling can be counterproductive to their grieving process, so instead, help them by providing them with another medium of expression.
A journal, like one featuring encouraging quotes, can help uplift someone’s spirit in hard times. Also, if they do not wish to speak about their feelings, they still have the freedom of expression with writing, without having to exert themselves in other forms of communication.
If not a journal, you may want to include a meaningful book or other memorial gift. There are a range of books available for dealing with grief, and if you’ve personally found one that’s been particularly helpful for you in the past, it can be a good addition.
Alternatively, you might want to include a book by an author that you know the recipient likes, even if it’s not related to their loss – your friend might appreciate the distraction. Lighthearted books, such as fiction novels or perhaps even comics, can provide your family or friend a means to escape the reality of their situation by giving them a fun world in which to exercise their imagination.
Other Unique Sympathy Care Package Ideas
You don’t have to stop at food, journals, or books – so, what else can you put in a sympathy gift basket?
Let your grieving friend know that you care for them by adding some personalized touches on their condolence basket by including personalized picture frames, ornaments, teddy bears, or other customized comfort products.
There are many other gifts and mementos that you may want to include in your sympathy gift baskets. Items like memorial stones, funeral wind chimes, and personalized garden stones can all be affordable and meaningful gifts to include that can be used to create an outdoor memorial garden.
Giving Flowers or Other Plants in a Sympathy Basket
There is nothing wrong with sticking to the basics and giving your loved one a condolence basket full of flowers or foliage plants. In fact, it may match their character and interests more to do so, especially if they shared an appreciation for a certain flower or other plants with the departed.
The gifting of a plant for a person in grief can also be deeply metaphoric and surpass a simple gesture because of metaphoric symbolism. For example, if this person and their departed loved one shared a love for orchids, gifting them an orchid could represent the departed’s spiritual presence with them even after passing.
Many people like to send flowers to honor the deceased, whether they are part of DIY sympathy gift baskets or sent separately. If you’d like to include flowers in your basket, you should bring it to the family’s home rather than the funeral or other service. It’s also a very good idea to put the flowers into a vase or other container so that they are ready to be displayed and so that the recipient doesn’t need to worry about arranging them.
Considerations for Sympathy Gift Basket Ideas
When putting together sympathy gift basket ideas or gifts for the family of deceased it is vital that you recognize potential cultural differences in the way communities or individual families respond to the death of a loved one. A gesture or traditional practice that may seem simple and straight-forward to you may not make any sense for someone else and may even be offensive.
Consider Religious Sensitivities
Differences in religious beliefs and traditions may pose a challenge when you are considering gifting a friend or loved one a grief basket. Make yourself fully aware of what these differences may be before moving forward with a gift to avoid any potential for offense or disrespect. For example:
Do not gift flowers to a Jewish family that has experienced a death.
For a week after the funeral, the family members will typically be in deep mourning and may be observing a shiva. During this time, mirrors are usually covered, and mourners should not be worried about their appearance or the beatification of their home or surroundings. Displaying flowers at this time, therefore, is generally not considered to be appropriate.
Consider also that your friend or loved one may have differing religious beliefs. In this case, the gifting of a Bible verse or similar religious gift may not be appreciated. In circumstances such as this, you will need to be mindful of how you present your condolences and how they will be construed.
Keep Diet Restrictions and Allergies in Mind
Of course, the last thing you want to do when attempting to comfort your loved one is subject them to any illnesses or other diet-related mishaps attributed to your gift basket. Be careful in your choice of foods and flowers that contain potential allergens. Do your very best in crafting meals and snacks for your friend or relative by ensuring that nothing in the basket is going to make them sick or give them an allergic reaction. Even better, you can include foods to help your loved one stay healthy during a difficult time when comfort food is typically preferred.
Not only should you be aware of any potential allergies your loved one may have to flowers you include in a DIY sympathy gift basket idea, but you should also take note of ornamental plants that may be toxic to dogs, cats, and other pets if they happen to have any. The last thing you want to do is add a vet bill to their list of worries!
Remember that the purpose of your sympathy basket is to express condolences and provide a kind reminder of your support during a difficult time. Should you need additional sympathy gift basket ideas, check out our selection of comfort products and memorial gifts.
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