The Cook’s Kitchen

I normally don’t start thinking about the holidays until after Thanksgiving. I think this is as a result of the trauma I suffered working at a fabric store for three years. By 9 p.m. October 31st, all traces of Halloween had been moved to clearance, the holiday trees had been erected and decorated and Christmas music played around the clock. And we sold holiday fabric year round.

I went out to my little suburban oasis at Prince George’s Plaza mall in Maryland today and according to them, the holidays are here. Every store is pushing holiday party dresses and boxed sets of stuff. Starbucks is using holiday-themed cups and selling Christmas blends.

So I got in the spirit. I began my holiday shopping today and I’m glad I did. Target has some great items in their value bins, which are usually located in the front of most Target stores. There are some great foodie items for stocking stufffers, office giveaways and package adornment.

First, in the back of the photo, they have little bags of Ghirardelli coffee in double chocolate or chocolate hazelnut. These $1 packages make one pot of coffee. This would be a great gesture for all your office mates, especially if you have a ton of them.

They also have little boxes of Mrs. Fields Chocolates. The peppermint box has three peppermint truffles with little chunks of the candy visible in rounds of chocolate. The other box, the cookie recipe chocolate box, has one piece each of dark coconut macaroon, chocolate chip cookie dough and brownie truffle. I stocked up on these as giveaways for neighbors — I never want to be empty handed.

The other thing I grabbed were these little bags of five holiday cookie cutters with silicone grips for $2.50. At the very least, I figure when I wrap up gifts I can use these in lieu of bows, tied to packages with ribbon. These are so much more useful than bows.

You may want to get these soon; it’s my experience that these items go fast at Target. They also have icing, sprinkles and a variety of hard candies in the value bins too. Get them while they’re there!

This article originally appeared on Kelly the Culinarian.