16 Best Tết Gifts 2025: Unique Vietnamese New Year Ideas
Tết is the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. 2025 is the Year of the Wood Snake, a charming little creature that represents water, fire, soul, introspection, and sacredness. The year of the wood snake promises to be a spiritual journey starting with a celebration of luck and good fortune.
As Vietnamese families prepare for the Vietnamese Lunar New Year 2025, or Tết 2025, they anticipate exchanging meaningful gifts that bring joy and fortune for the Year of the Wood Snake.
Gift-giving during the Vietnamese Lunar New Year 2025 holds deep cultural significance, with many families carefully selecting traditional and modern items for loved ones to celebrate Tết 2025. It is a way to generate good luck for the giver and receiver, and the tradition is held for all cultures that celebrate the Lunar New Year, like Vietnam, China, and Korea. The wood snake's qualities of intelligence, wisdom and transformation can be used to inspire meaningful gift choices.
Symbolic Lunar New Year Gifts
1. Lucky Money (Li Xi)
Lucky Money is a universal tradition for Lunar New Year celebrations. For your Tết 2025 gifting, money is given in red envelopes symbolizing good fortune. It is a classic yet meaningful gift, often given from elders and seniors to younger family members.
2. Tết Cake and Chung Cake
By far the most traditional gift to give for Tết 2025 is the combination of Tết cake and chung cake. These are special cakes made with glutinous rice, bean, and fatty pork wrapped in banana leaves that color the rice green. One is round and the other is square, representing the earth and prosperity. They can be home-made or bought in beautifully wrapped gift sets.
3. Fruit Baskets
Fruit baskets make for classic Vietnamese gifts during Lunar New Year 2025, symbolizing abundance and prosperity, perfect for sharing with loved ones during Tết 2025. Fruit symbolizes abundance and prosperity, and they are a tasty treat for your loved ones to enjoy. Oranges and tangerines are particularly favored for Tết gifts, given in fruit baskets. Jars of dried fruits are also popular to send to distant relatives.
4. Lunar New Year Plants & Flowers
Living plants like money trees, peach blossoms, apricot flowers, and kumquat trees represent good fortune and new beginnings in the new year. Decorative plants are a favorite gift for relatives with a green thumb, providing beauty all year.
Modern and Trendy Gifts
5. Edible Bird's Nests or Bird's Nest Gift Baskets
Edible bird’s nests have long been valued for their rejuvenating qualities, high protein content, and traditional association with longevity and wellness. As a Tết 2025 gift, bird’s nests reflect the giver’s wish for health, prosperity, and a mental wellbeing in the new year. Gifting bird’s nests is particularly thoughtful for elders or health-conscious family members, as they can be enjoyed in nourishing soups and delicacies that support immunity and vitality. Beautifully packaged for the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, these gift sets bring elegance and significance to any Tết celebration, making them a unique and health-oriented choice for 2025.
6. Vietnamese Tea, Coffee, or Wine Gift Sets
If you’re searching for top Tết gifts 2025, consider tea and coffee gift sets or wellness items that align with Vietnamese New Year traditions and are loved by recipients. Traditional Vietnamese tea is a timeless Tết gift for any relative or teacher. Sharing tea is a beautiful Tết tradition and dry tea bags allow you to share a fragrant and refreshing gift that can last all year. In recent decades, gift sets of coffee and even bottles of wine have become popular and might be a good choice for the right relatives to gift on the Vietnamese New Year 2025.
7. Special Edition Candies and Sweets
One of the best ways to celebrate the specific year is through Lunar New Year special edition candy boxes and themed sweets. This year, you can find many Year of the Wood Snake themed boxes of tasty candies, both traditional Vietnamese sweets and more conventional western candies to suit the tastes of your far-flung relatives. The boxes are often lucky red with beautiful decorations for each year's theme. These sweets are great gifts for both adults and children because everyone loves sugar in fun shapes.
Gifts for the Kitchen & Food Lovers
8. Lunar New Year Recipe Books
Lunar New Year cookbooks are a great gift for the chefs and aspiring chefs in your family. Cookbooks like Every Grain of Rice feature traditional Lunar New Year recipes that can bring new flavors and timeless authenticity to your dinner table this year and many years to come.
9. Cooking Essentials
Gift your family chefs with cooking essentials that make it easier to prepare traditional foods like dumplings and noodles that represent prosperity in the new year. A beautiful wok, a double-boiler to make perfect bird's nest soup, an automatic dumpling steamer or a rice cooker to make perfect rice every time are all great gifts that will streamline traditional meals and reduce the effort for your beloved cooks in the family.
10. Snack Combo Gift Sets
Students and busy relatives can benefit from beautiful arrangements of pre-packaged snacks that are popular treats during Lunar New Year festivities. Year of the Wood Snake snack sets include things like nuts and seeds, dried fruits, sweet rice balls, almond cookies, and candied ginger.
Unique and Creative Gift Ideas
11. Lunar New Year Puzzle Sets
Many families and children enjoy a creative challenge. Lunar New Year puzzle sets. These puzzles often feature intricate designs like dragon dances, traditional dances, and beautiful traditional scenes. This year, many puzzles will feature elegant to adorable wood snakes with ornate surroundings. Lunar New Year puzzles can bring families together, offering a fun and engaging activity that everyone can enjoy.
12. Feng Shui Items
Popular Feng Shui gifts like crystals, dragons, and wealth-bringing items to attract prosperity in 2025. This makes them an excellent Tết 2025 gift that many of your relatives will appreciate.
Personal & Thoughtful Gifts
13. Health & Wellness Gifts
Show your consideration and love for your relatives with gifts that support their health and wellness. These represent good health and personal growth in the new year. Traditional Vietnamese Lunar New Year wellness gifts include cordyceps mushrooms, ginseng, medicinal teas, and bird's nests which can each be used to promote the health of your loved ones, wishing them wellness and longevity.
14. Parallel Sentences
Cau Doi is a beautiful and traditional gift of Vietnamese calligraphy featuring inspirational phrases for luck and prosperity. Framed calligraphy and hanging scrolls show your love for your relatives and the sentiments you want to share for the rest of the year.
15. Art and Home Décor
Share beauty and joy in the new year with traditional crafts or paintings symbolizing the Year of the Wood Snake. Artwork can feature natural elements and fortune symbols, lovingly chosen to suit the tastes of each relative who receives your gifts.
Lifestyle and Experience Gifts
16. Lunar New Year Experiences
For relatives that enjoy travel, consider gifting special travel experiences to culturally significant places for your family like Vietnam, China, or Korea to celebrate a few of the 22 days of the Lunar New Year in a beautiful and ancient place. Give the gift of luxurious getaways, spa retreats, and exclusive Lunar New Year festivals that your family members will remember for a lifetime. Travel is a meaningful gift for both the young and old, and something you can share with your beloved family.
Celebrate Tết 2025
Celebrating Tết 2025 with thoughtful, symbolic gifts adds to the joy of Vietnamese Lunar New Year 2025, allowing families to honor traditions and embrace the spirit of the Wood Snake. Tết gifts are a wonderful way to bring fortune, joy, and prosperity to your loved ones in the Year of the Wood Snake. Choose thoughtful gifts that reflect the qualities of the Wood Snake like intelligence, transformation, and wisdom for your loved ones. One of the best gifts you can give is an edible bird's nest, sharing the gift of health, longevity, and a luxurious food traditionally enjoyed by royalty.
Find beautiful gift baskets of edible bird's nest collections with Golden Nest. Allow us to help you celebrate the Lunar New Year with beautiful, rejuvenating gifts for your loved ones with high-quality and ethically sourced edible birds' nests. Choose the best gift baskets for your relatives for Tết 2025.
