It's the most wonderful time of the year! Christmas is probably the premier chocolate holiday and I always like to look at all of the lovely chocolate products that they come up with each year. It just makes such a great gift (or a little something to keep to oneself while shopping). And on the subject of gifts....

As is obvious we have this lovely coupon from Charles Chocolates for everybody to use and I think that they have a lot of items that would make wonderful gifts, but they may not have something for everybody. And so I'm putting together a quickie list of gift ideas and people who are having promotions or sales and might make somebody happy this season. The list will be horribly incomplete and will, sadly, only feature places I actually know. If you think something else belongs on the list by all means leave a comment! Your ideas may be tons better than mine!

When It Has To Be Chocolate
The chocolate lover on your list can be one of the easiest or most difficult persons to shop for depending on their tastes. For some only the finest dark chocolate will do and some just want to try everything and others like to stick to varietals for their fix. It can be difficult to get things just right for some people, but I have a few options that should help with any taste.

The first and possibly easiest option is Chocosphere. They carry an amazing array of chocolates from around the world and do up custom gift bags, baskets, and boxes with the option to make special request as to their contents. So you can specify the tastes that the person you're shopping for has and they can fill the order appropriately. They can make it easy to shop for even the most discerning chocolate connoisseur or just somebody who loves to taste chocolates from around the world. Of course, if you know exactly what they like you can order the specific items and build your own special package. They also have a great section of gift ideas including some great samplers, gift certificates, and a chocolate of the month club.

The next option is to go to any of the chocolatiers with a solid online presence and see what they have to offer. It might pay to go with one in your general region to help guarantee delivery at this semi-late hour. I’m not going to go over all of the options as there are a million and a half. I will hit a few who have specials going on, though. Vosges (Chicago) has some fantastic gift items available with free ground shipping through the 15th, John and Kira’s have free shipping on orders over $75, See’s ships their gift cards for free, if you’re in the UK then Charbonnel et Walker give you free drinking chocolate with each order over £30 and free shipping to boot, and there is always the 15% off from Charles Chocolates (San Fran).

The online chocolatiers are great and all, but there is a lot to be said for the local chocolatiers. If you can give a good and thoughtful gift and support the little guy (or gal) then by all means do so. You don’t have to worry about shipping, you get to see exactly what you’re getting and more than likely pick out exactly what goes in the box.

And, if things come down to the wire then there are always the mall shops (Godiva, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory) and semi-regional stores (Betsy Ann in the Pittsburgh area, Anthony Thomas in Central Ohio) to fall back on. And they can be fantastic options, too. Whenever I have brought Betsy Ann around to work people have raved about it. The thing is this: buying chocolate at the grocery store doesn’t say much. Buying from a specialty store does. Nuff said?

And now a few, erm, specialized categories.

For the Tea and Chocolate Lover

• I already mentioned Charles Chocolates but I feel I should mention their Tea Collection. For the dark chocolate and tea lover there really aren't many ways you can do better than this. I have heard wonderful things about it though I have not yet tried it (I used the coupon to get myself some), but given their track record I expect it's fantastic.
  
• MarieBelle, who some may remember from Hot Chocolate Week last year, have their own ideal gift in this category: Dark Obsession Chocolate Rose Tea. The actually have a lot of teas and hot chocolates and offer up a nice combo pack with tea, coffee, and hot chocolate.
  
• And that's not all! SerendipiTea have a lovely box set of Chocolate Tea that they offer. It's actually a really beautiful set that comes in a nice wooden display box with separate canisters for each of the six teas it comes with.

• I can’t say enough about John and Kira’s figs. They are magic.
  
• Fran’s Chocolates also does figs as well as dipped apricots, orange peel, and ginger.
  
• Charles Chocolates has their Orange Twigs (yummy) and marmalades.
  
• Recchiuti has some interesting fruit items (Key Lime Apples?).
  
• MarieBelle has Tropical Fruit Caramels.

For the Caramel Lover

• Fran’s Chocolates is right there at the top of the list. She is famous for her caramels.
  
• As I just mentioned, MarieBelle has those Tropical Fruit Caramels.
  
• Lillie Belle Farms has some Scovie award-winning Cayenne Caramels that are supposed to be out of this world.
  
• The fabulous Recchiuti also has Fluer de Sel Caramels available.

• For the chocolate lover who might find themselves in New York City there is the option of a walking tour from Chocolate ZOOM.
  
• If your chocolate lover loves to bake then cookbooks are a wonderful way to go. I have a fondness for one called Chocolate Obsession (though I consider Cocolat from Alice Medrich to be the prize of my collection and almost always the first book I consult).
  
• Help the chocolate lover on your list make their own chocolate with the help of Chocolate Alchemy.

I have another list of sorts, but it’s beyond the realm of typical gift giving so I’m going to hold it for a separate post.