What Survives the Post: 10 Nordic Gifts to Send Abroad

What Survives the Post: 10 Nordic Gifts to Send Abroad

The parcel to another country is a different problem from the present you hand over. It has to be light, because weight is what you pay for. It has to survive a sorting belt, a van and a letterbox the recipient is not standing next to. And it has to be worth the paperwork at the other end, which rules out the pretty thing that arrives in three pieces.

Nordic kitchens and tables are full of objects that pass that test without anyone designing them for it: woven cloth, cork, leather, enamel over steel, a single piece of wood. The ten below are flat, light or genuinely hard to break, and all are in stock in the UK, Germany, Norway and Denmark, so you can compare prices on ScandiDeals before you tape the box.

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1. Lexington Tree Tea Towel – Folds Flat As Paper

Half linen, half cotton, woven as a red windowpane check with a folk tree in the middle: two birds, a heart, a star at the top. At 50 by 70 centimetres it is the size that dries a pan rather than smearing it, and linen only improves after a wash or two, when the weave gives and the cloth stops being stiff. The Tree tea towel goes in first and lines one side of the box.

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2. Marimekko Pieni Unikko Pot Holder – Poppies, Quilted And Washable

Maija Isola drew Unikko in 1964, and Pieni is the small-scale version of it: the same poppy, printed down to a size that fits a quilted square of 21.5 centimetres. This one is pale pink and off-white with olive stems, bound in pink, with a loop for a hook. A pot holder is the rare gift nobody already has two good ones of. The Pieni Unikko pot holder weighs nothing and cannot break.

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3. Almedahls Polka Dot Apron – Linen Dots, Long Ties

Known in Swedish as Pricktyg, dot cloth: rows of soft taupe circles printed on a natural ground, in a bib apron with one deep front pocket and ties long enough to come round and knot at the waist. The colour is quiet, which is why it suits someone whose kitchen you have not seen for a while. The Polka dot apron folds down to the size of a paperback.

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4. Formgatan Cork Trivet – Weighs Almost Nothing, Takes Heat

A 22-centimetre disc of cork, dark seams running between paler patches, thick enough to sit a cast-iron pot on without the table noticing. Cork is the ideal postal material: it is already the packaging. The cork trivet adds a few grams to a parcel and absorbs whatever knocks the rest of the box takes on the way.

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5. Aida Raw Leather Coasters – Six Dark Pebbles, Stacked

Not cut as circles but as soft pebble shapes, six of them, in leather so dark brown it reads as black until the light moves across the grain. Each is embossed with the word Raw in one corner. Stacked, the set is no thicker than a phone, which is how you post six of something. The Raw leather coasters suit a table that already has too much pattern on it.

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6. Muurla Moomin Enamel Mug – A Cup That Cannot Chip

Enamel fused to steel, a dark green rim, and Tove Jansson's characters in a summer garden running right round the side: Moomintroll among the flowers, a sun overhead, more of the family round the back. It holds 37 centilitres, which is a real mug rather than a souvenir. Enamel is the one drinking vessel you can post with a clear conscience. The Moomin enamel mug also goes camping.

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7. Rosendahl Rå Wooden Spoon – Dark Ash, Right Through

The ash is heat-treated rather than stained, so the colour goes the whole way through the wood: a deep roasted brown that a scratch will not turn pale again. The bowl is a shallow oval, the handle round and long enough to keep a knuckle out of a simmering pot. The Rå wooden spoon is one object with nothing to come loose in transit.

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8. Aida Raw Butter Knife – Smaller Than The Card

Teak, cut as a single piece, waisted in the middle so your thumb knows where to sit, with a blunt rounded blade that pushes cold butter around without tearing the bread. It is the cheapest thing on this list and the one most likely to be used every morning. The Raw butter knife slips in beside the greetings card and costs nothing in postage.

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9. Kay Bojesen H4 Bottle Opener – Walnut In The Palm

A brushed steel head on a walnut handle that tapers out to a teardrop, so the weight sits in the hand rather than the fingers. Kay Bojesen is the Danish workshop behind the wooden monkey, and the kitchen tools carry the same habit of rounding everything a hand touches. The H4 bottle opener is small, dense and completely indifferent to being posted.

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10. Iittala Nappula Candle Holder – Steel, Nothing To Break

The small Nappula stands 107 millimetres high: a rounded oval base, a short stem and a cup for a taper candle, the whole thing polished until the room bends across it. In polished steel it is light for its size and there is no glaze to chip, which is the problem with posting most candle holders. The Nappula candle holder looks best as a pair, so send one now and one at Christmas.

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Final Thoughts

The constraint turns out to be a good editor. Once glass and ceramics are off the table, what remains is the part of a Nordic kitchen that gets handled every day: cloth, cork, wood, enamel, a piece of polished steel. None of it needs explaining in a note, and none of it will sit in a cupboard waiting for a special occasion that does not come.

Pack the textiles flat against the sides, let the cork take the knocks, and put the mug in the middle. Then compare what the shops are asking across the UK, Germany, Norway and Denmark on ScandiDeals before you buy, because the same piece rarely costs the same thing twice, and the money saved is roughly what the postage will take.