This is everything you need in a house warming gift.

Hear me out.

This is a bottle of champagne, with four dozen chocolates, made to look like a pineapple.

What people don’t understand is the symbolization behind pineapples: hospitality.

Apparently, Christopher Columbus was the first to write about the pineapple in one of his journals.  He wrote that when he landed on the island, they were served sweet fruit – which then became a tradition: to be served pineapple at native feasts.  The pineapple was then brought back to Europe in the late 1400s where everyone could enjoy the sweet taste.  The tradition of serving pineapple to guests continued in colonial America and symbolized the warmest welcome that a hostess could extend.  However,  pineapples weren’t cheap – and hostesses even rented pineapples if they were desperate to create a dining experience above their means (although these were not eaten and were just set out as decoration, but then sold to more affluent clients who could afford to buy and eat the fruit).  It was said that even the guests who went to a home that only displayed the fruit, still felt honored that their hostess spared no expense on their behalf.  Therefore, the pineapple became a symbolic image of welcome, warmth and affection between all who dwell inside the home.

Well, now that I schooled you on the apparent symbolic meaning of the pineapple, lets get to the actual gift.

Here’s what you need:

• bottle of champagne (although, Korbel isn’t technically a champagne seeing how this is bottled in California and “true” champagne is only bottled in Champagne, France)
• box of Ferrero Rocher, 48 count
• green tissue paper (this was not in the photo because my original plan did not work)
• a piece of plain white printer paper
• tape
• hemp rope
• hot glue gun
• large cellophane bag
• yellow ribbon
• scissors

 

So, I started off with an idea from a Pinterest post, however – after attempting to do it that way and it epically failing, I decided to figure out a different way to do it.  Originally I had wrapped duck tape around the bottle – sticky side out – and stuck the chocolates to the tape.  However, when I woke up the next morning, the chocolates were laying all over the table.  So, I searched for different ideas and found one that had the chocolates hot glued to the bottle.  While I understood this would adhere them better, I didn’t want the chocolates to actually be stuck to the bottle, I wanted you to be able to remove the chocolates if need be.  So, I took printer paper, cut it to size and taped it to the bottle.

Then, I glued all of the chocolates to the paper, but the chocolates only went up so far.  So I used some hemp rope to finish off the bottle covering.

In the photo, it shows actual grass for the fruit’s greens, but this ended up not working because they wilted in moments and looked absolutely horrible… so I ended up ripping the grass out of the rope as best I could, and cut leaf-shaped pieces out of green tissue paper.

To finish off the pineapple, I used a large basket cellophane wrap and cut it in half (along the sealed line).  I gathered all of the ends at the top and tied it off with some yellow ribbon.

 

We ended up putting this in a basket with champagne glasses, but I had suggestions for other things as well:

• cheese & crackers
• gift card to home repair store (Lowes, Home Depot)
• gift card for restaurant or pizza delivery
• Netflix gift card
• personalized hand towels
• Redbox gift card
• Candles
• Throw blanket, candles, cheese and crackers (for a date night theme)
• Bottle top and glass charms (to go with our gift of champagne glasses)

 

 

See – a pretty neat gift, no?