Anyone been invited to one in a Thai household for a New Year Celebration Dinner

What is one expected to bring to such an event ?

I see lots of hampers on sale and reckon that's an appropriate gift ?

You could give them one of those two metre high cement elephants. Who wouldn't want one of those!!

A nice bottle of wine (or 2). Thais are big wine consumers these days. Avoid the 399 THB bins as there is nothing better than cooking wine in them these days!

Yes bottles of wine or Black Label....hampers would be nice but make sure not the yellow wrappers type....these are for merit making for temples( just joking ).

Happy New Year...Sawadee Pee Mai...

Yes bottles of wine or Black Label....hampers would be nice but make sure not the yellow wrappers type....these are for merit making for temples( just joking ).

Happy New Year...Sawadee Pee Mai...

Hahahha I have bought those for the temple before and know the difference but thanks for pointing it out

Bring a bucket of KFC....no not really...Scotch never seems to be out of place here, whether it's wedding, funeral, or party....wine is almost a joke here, the scotch will go a lot further.

The Thais are also giving tons of those pre-wrapped gift baskets with birdy chicken essence and bird's nest soup and the like. There are also variety baskets with everything from ovaltine to alcohol depending where you grab one from. It's an easy and nice-looking gesture. personally don't care for hardly anything in most of them, but the Thais seem to love them - already seen pictures of friends receiving n giving them on Facebook. And there wouldn't be heaps of them in the stores if they weren't a desirable gift.

I actually saw someone with two of those in the Immigration parking lot the other day. Agreed, most of the contents are kind of boring.....but you know the rule here: Style; not substance.

The Thais are also giving tons of those pre-wrapped gift baskets with birdy chicken essence and bird's nest soup and the like. There are also variety baskets with everything from ovaltine to alcohol depending where you grab one from. It's an easy and nice-looking gesture. personally don't care for hardly anything in most of them, but the Thais seem to love them - already seen pictures of friends receiving n giving them on Facebook. And there wouldn't be heaps of them in the stores if they weren't a desirable gift.

yes.. although part of me suspects that it's all a ploy by the company that produces Liquid Horror, sometimes referred to as Essence of Chicken.

Trying to convince people that this is what you do: give a huge pyramid of Liquid Horror in a basket with a big bow tie on top.

Anyway I had a party two days ago and Thais attending brought all kinds of stuff.. Wine, cookies, cakes, etc. Only theme I could detect is that it's mostly edible (or drinkable) stuff.

I'd personally go with something that I also like myself, be it wine, beer, spirits, etc. Or if not drinking then possibly a Christmas cake / stollen kind of thing. They do really nice/fancy ones at better bakeries.

Just avoid the Liquid Horror.

Edited December 27, 201411 yr by WinnieTheKhwai

Yeah,that Essence of Chicken is really nasty stuff. Someone gave us a hamper of it once and I a very difficult time figuring out what to do with it. Trying using it like I would chicken broth in cooking, but it has so much sugar in it that it totally trashed out a good cooking pot. Ended up giving the other containers to my Thai teacher who was thrilled.

Lawrence, is there anything from your home country you could bring that would be appropriate. For example, I'm from the U.S. and would put together a hamper with maple syrup, Hershey chocolate, oreos, Pepperidge Farm cookies -- food products from the U.S. that I suspect Thai people would like.

Yeah,that Essence of Chicken is really nasty stuff. Someone gave us a hamper of it once and I a very difficult time figuring out what to do with it. Trying using it like I would chicken broth in cooking, but it has so much sugar in it that it totally trashed out a good cooking pot. Ended up giving the other containers to my Thai teacher who was thrilled.

+1

We were given a huge hamper of the stuff by our neighbor when our child was born. It sat in the kitchen for about 18 months before I opened one jar, tried one teaspoon and threw the rest of the jar away. It was terrible. A few months later I ended up giving the whole thing to our housekeeper who was very grateful. The next day I noticed she had chucked all the jars in the trash bin outside - and kept the hamper.

I think a bottle of Whiskey would be the most appreciated... and maybe a box of chocolates for the kids.

Also a few lanterns to send off!

Brands essence of chicken, so popular a gift to keep the "Grands" alive. I did a bit of interweb reading on the product and the marketing is brilliant, there are very few human conditions that it can not cure or enhance... and a whole slew of "scientific studies" performed in China to back up the claims.

I went partying with a friend and his brother in laws one time

Woke up with a stinking headache so the mother in law says "drink this - hangover cure" and handed me chicken essence

Didn't cure the hangover but did make it seem much better than drinking the chicken essence