It's our annual feel good, do good festive gift guide

Gift giving is one of life's merriest pleasures, so make the most of it and spread the eats around.

Hampers and feast aplenty. Source: Welcome Merchant

The festive season is all about the food - don't let anyone tell you differently! The best way to celebrate is to wrap food up and give it to those you love. It's like handing someone a love letter that they get to eat later. What could be more joyous than that?

Only one thing, of course, and that's if you combine your foodie gift with a bit of love and care for a small business, especially if it supports an important cause with a heart. It's like detonating two bombs in one: kapow for the business owner, kapow for your person.

Boom!

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Pack a treat

The social enterprise café Moon Rabbit has packaged up a gorgeous range of festive hampers ready to send to the ones you love. There are some serious gourmet goodies in every box, which is fitting given Moon Rabbit's top-notch foodie credentials.

Nice with spice

A jar of Spicy Salsa - African Sabol from SisterWorks supports women who are refugees, asylum seekers and migrants to connect with each other and their local and global communities. Sido's Sabol is a versatile Congolese relish you can slather on pretty much everything for a spicy kick that makes a difference.

Festive welcome

Support refugee and asylum seeker entrepreneurs by buying a hamper through Welcome Merchant. We especially like the Nourish Me Good hamper, which includes Syrian nut cake from Racha’s Kitchen, a Habibi chamomile, rose and verbena tea pouch from Beit e’Shai and a bottle of Aunty’s Ginger Tonic. You can also put together your own customised hamper to suit your giftee.

Kimberly cup

Environs Kimberley celebrated their 25th anniversary this year and created some merch to mark the occasion. This reusable cup would make an ideal gift and all profits go to support the organisation's tireless work to protect the Kimberley.

Choc full

Wait until you sink your teeth into these unconventional flavours. Source: Meltdown Artisan

Jen Lo's Meltdown Artisan handmade chocolates are 100 percent traceable back to the farmer, which supports cocoa growers through fair wages and sustainable farming practices. We are awarding Jen a chocolate star for integrity - Jen's own Dulcey macadamia stars, at that.

While we are deep in choccy territory, artisan chocolate made by social trader Mildura Chocolate Company is just the beginning. They reinvest 100 percent of profits into creating employment opportunities for people with disability and the disadvantaged. Their chocolate is handcrafted using the finest ingredients with packaging that features prints by ArtRageUs studio artists. This chocolate is literally brimming with goodness.

Starry oil

Foodies will appreciate a bottle of small-batch, limited-edition organic olive oil from Cockatoo Grove. You know you're onto a good olive oil when it's described like a bottle of wine: delightful aromas of ripe apple, sweet spices and almond, flavours of sweet apple with hints of grassiness and citrus leaf accompanied by a luscious velvety feel in your mouth. Are we allowed to drink this stuff from the bottle?

Set the table

It's tempting to buy the entire range of tableware at Aboriginal Bush Traders for yourself, but do try to keep some aside for gifts. Keep the Teddy Gibson tea cup, Ruth Stewart plate and Judy Watson teapot for yourself, of course.

Raving good puds

You know how when someone is into Christmas pudding, they're really, really into Christmas pudding? This self-saucing spiced rum and quandong pud from Dreamtime Tuka is the pud they'll keep raving about for years. Just so you know...

Big thanks

Thank a foodie with a gift box from for-purpose social enterprise Hey Good Thing. It's basically the social enterprise that supports other social enterprises. There's a memorable moment to be found here for everyone on your list this year. Little things like dream cloths, Hey Tiger chocolate or a Denik notebook. Or big things like a Flavour Bomb gift box.

Well-stacked

Every foodie needs a decent lunchbox to cart their picnic around, and a big stackable Tiffin Box by B Corp certified producer Let's Go Natureal does the job with style. You can get it from the Clean + Conscious awards website here.

Bee good

Beeswax wraps are the bee's knees for keeping your food fresh, so your mate will appreciate a kitchen four-pack from the family-owned company Bee Wrappy. Even better, the Bee Wrappy team donate a percentage of the sale price to OzHarvest.

Nature's sculpture

Speaking of doing good, Mudgee apiarist and disease specialist Andrew Wyszynski is helping to fight the Varroa mite virus that's threatening bees across NSW. You can support his work by gifting a jar of Maya Sunny Honey raw honeycomb. Each jar is a mini beehive sculptured by around 500 worker bees, just for you! An exceptionally sweet gift indeed.

Bragging rights

Half the delight in giving a jar of Tumami by Alice will be the bragging rights. Getting your hands on one of these jars of tomato and black garlic paste is nigh on impossible. But Christmas is for miracles after all.

Remotely good

Middle of Nowhere Creation's paw paw chutney is a paddock-to-plate product created on a remote cattle station near Hughenden, out the back of Northwest Queensland. You can get t from Buy From the Bush, an organisation that supports rural communities around Australia.

Caffeine kick

Any friend would welcome a cup of DHUWA Kickstart on Christmas morning. DHUWA means to 'feel alive' in the Bidjara language, which sounds like the best kind of gift around. Also, a cup from Tinsae Eldon, founder and roaster of Djebena Coffee, brings some of the richness from her Ethiopian heritage straight to our morning and afternoon cups. Be sure to pop some corn for the ultimate Ethiopian coffee ceremony snack!

Home for hope

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre has a slew of gifts your food-loving friend will adore. For starters, a bunch of produce bags (so handy), an eco cutlery set (so necessary), or a gorgeous new apron. Have a look around their full product range - all proceeds go directly towards supporting people seeing asylum.

Bush Christmas

A jar of wattleseed balsamic vinegar from Jala Jala will your Christmas salad in no time. Jala Jala means very good in founder Sharon Brindley's Wajarri language and that sums up her range of native ingredient products to perfection. Also, try Jala Jala's own lemon myrtle white chocolate or finger lime dark chocolate.

Kingly gin

This is such a fun idea for a Christmas bevvy. Distillery Botanica has infused its classic dry gin with frankincense, gold and myrrh. It's also thrumming with more than a hint of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and a fruity kick. Another triumph from one Australia's pioneering micro-distillers, horticulturalist Phillip Moore (check out his Mr Black cold brew range as well...)

Wattle on

We love everything Nornie Bero does and her small-batch, handmade wattleseed hot chocolate is right up there with her best. The packaging is full of uplifting cheer, the drink is warm and the flavour is incredible.

Board member

Annie sources her ingredients from her own North East Victorian garden or sources as close to home as possible. Source: Homemade by Annie

Homemade by Annie is a home-based business with products created using ingredients sourced mainly from Annie's own garden. She's put together the quintessential festive platter condiment box with zucchini relish, mint jelly, quince paste and fig salami, so every cheese board angle is covered.

Tea time

Roogenic has this lush pavlova-inspired blend out for Christmas. Think Australian festive flavours like strawberries and mango mixed with good-for-you ethically-sourced bushfood ingredients including strawberry gum leaf, quandong and Kakadu plum leaf. Roogenic works closely with their Indigenous partners to develop employment opportunities, land care initiatives and the sharing of traditional culture between generations.

Roogenic Australian Chrismas tea Source: Roogenic