Australia-themed Christmas gift ideas
Australia-themed Christmas gift ideas for the Australia-lover in your life. Including soft toy koalas, Uluru jigsaws, historic novels, McLaren Vale wines, holiday photo face masks and kaleidoscopic kangaroo cushion covers.
OK, so you probably can’t travel to Australia right now. But that doesn’t mean you can’t whet the appetite via the medium of Christmas presents. The following list of Australian themed gifts – toys, books, homewares, wines and clothing – is meant as inspiration. In most cases, an Amazon link has been used, partly because it’s easiest, and partly because this site gets a small commission on anything bought through it. Please don’t take it as the only place to look, though. You might well find a better soft toy koala elsewhere, or prefer to buy guide books from independent book shops, for example. Shop where you like, but here are some Australia-themed Christmas gift ideas to get you started.
Australia-themed Christmas gifts: Toys
Several Australian creatures make for excellent cuddly toys. Plush and Company has an excellent large koala, while Wild Republic has a very cute kangaroo. If you’re prepared to go completely over the top, and get soft toys shipped from Australia, Stuffed With Soft Toys has some seriously excellent cuddly animals. The giant wombat is incredibly expensive, but an undoubted masterpiece of the genre.
If you want even cheaper, sillier stocking-fillers, then inflatable animals are a winner. An inflatable kangaroo or blow-up crocodile might do the trick.
Alternatively, why not go for a jigsaw? Ravensburger sells a fiendish 1,000 piece Uluru puzzle.
Australia-themed Christmas gifts: Books
For Australia-themed reading, guide books are the obvious choice. Lonely Planet has a relatively up-to-date, brick-like Australia guide as well as a more itinerary-themed Australia Best Trips book. If you’re buying for children, Dinobibi offers a nicely pitched Australia guide for kids.
Bill Bryson’s Down Under is more travelogue whimsy than guide book, but it has become an easy-reading Aussie staple.
Outside the guide book realm, Rachel Bright’s The Koala Who Could is a lovely picture book for younger children, while a Wildlife of Australia pocket-guide might be just the ticket for animal-lovers.
In terms of novels, Tim Winton melds character and landscape for grown-ups. Try surf town drama Breath as a starting point. For weighty over-arching history, aim for Phillip Knightley’s Australia: A Biography of a Nation or Robert Hughes’ The Fatal Shore.
The smart bet, though, is to go for one of two wonderfully-written, genuinely extraordinary true-life stories that most Brits have never heard of. The Dig Tree by Sarah Murgatroyd tells of the calamitous Burke and Wills outback expedition and Batavia’s Graveyard by Mike Dash is a meticulous account of the Lord Of The Flies-esque mutiny and shipwreck on Western Australia’s Houtman Abrolhos Islands.
Australia-themed Christmas gifts: Clothing
The Akubra is the classic Aussie bushman’s hat, although the real deal is pretty darned expensive. Cheaper imitations are widely available. The inexplicably popular Ugg boot also started out in Australia.
In the pandemic era, the essential thing to wear is a face mask. And you may as well have one that looks fun. Why not get one of assorted Aussie creatures or koalas drinking beer? Another way of doing it is turning your old Australia holiday photos into a face mask. Photobox lets you make personalised masks along with calendars, mugs and wall art.
Australia-themed Christmas gifts: Wine
It is possible to get good Australian beers and spirits in the UK, but the value for money isn’t there – British producers are doing just as good a job at a more competitive price. Wine, however, is something that Australia excels in. For the absolutely clueless wine-buyer, you can’t go too far wrong if you seek out a McLaren Vale Shiraz. These big, beefy but crucially fruitily flavoursome reds are the classic Australian wine.
Virgin Wines has a decent selection of Australian reds. Personal recommendations here would include Soaring Kite from the Adelaide Hills and the entire, superlatively good 5OS range. For something a little bit different, and fabulously more-ish, the Long Yarn sparkling Shiraz sounds a bit weird, but has an astonishingly good hit rate with anyone who tries it.
Australia-themed Christmas gifts: Homeware
Wall posters of Australian scenes could be a nice gift to brighten up a plain wall. Poster Lounge has plenty of wildlife and landscapes. For something more impressively authentic, Aboriginal Art UK sells ethically sourced art by Indigenous artists.
Then there are things like kangaroo drinks coasters, wildlife placemats and cutesy cushion covers. Sunshine Coast-based artist Tracey Keller does these things well, with kaleidoscope-style, colourful animal paintings. They’re sold in the UK through Artbox.