Royalists are yelling at me for implying that King Charles and the entire royal establishment rides on the Duchess of Sussex’s coattails. For the record, I never said that the palace is copying Meghan, but they’ve clearly been using Meghan and As Ever to draw attention to the royal product lines. And there are a lot of royal product lines! There’s the palace/Royal Trust product line, there’s a Windsor Castle line, there are Sandringham and Highgrove-branded products and on and on. As far as I know, all of those lines are successful. But Meghan and As Ever generate global headlines every single day, so there’s been a huge effort to connect As Ever with all of these royal product lines. Just days after As Ever’s Advent Calendar became available for pre-order, suddenly the palace was promoting *their* Advent calendar too. And now this – today, Meghan will introduce Christmas baskets to her As Ever holiday line, and wouldn’t you know, the palace had already introduced their “Christmas hampers” just days before.
Meghan Markle has entered the Christmas hamper market for the first time, this week launching a new ‘hostess basket’ with her As Ever brand…after Buckingham Palace unveiled its own hamper 2026 collection.
The Duchess of Sussex’s ‘Holiday Collection’ basket has a leather As Ever tag with gold lettering and comes pre-filled with peppermint and lemon-and-ginger tea caddies, a trio of spreads, flower sprinkles and Meghan’s scented candles.
While the price is yet to be announced, an earlier version of Meghan’s hosting set, which contains many of the same products, costs $155 (£117), while the most affordable royal version, The Sweet Treats Hamper, retails for £70. The latter includes chocolate chip shortbread biscuits from the royal household, clotted cream fudge, salted caramel chocolate, chocolate bars and a tin of hot chocolate.
It is part of a collection of eight royal hampers, including an unfilled offering that starts at £45 and is completely customisable.
Meghan announced she is creating a festive range for her lifestyle business, As Ever last week, when she opened pre-orders for a £112 chocolate advent calendar that is only available to buy in the US. It followed the release of Buckingham Palace’s own advent calendars, including a milk chocolate box with 24 pieces like Meghan’s offering that’s £100 cheaper.
Other products in Meghan’s ‘Holiday Collection’ include ‘botanical confection’ chocolates developed by Los Angeles brand Compartes as part of an ‘ongoing collaboration’ and two decks of ‘parlour cards’.
They keep making a big deal about the price differentials but it’s clear that the palace-branded stuff is more customizable, and if customized a certain way, the palace-branded items would easily be as expensive as As Ever’s products. They’re trying to say that the palace’s Advent calendars are super-affordable but they’re empty! You have to buy all of the candy and tchotchkes to fill it separately. Same with the hampers. Anyway, it’s going to be so funny to watch all of this in the lead up to Christmas. The British press is having a ball with this. They refuse to say that As Ever is still only sold in the US as well. It’s not like British folks in dire need of Advent calendars or Christmas hampers even have the option to buy Meghan’s products. Although I would love it if she had her own pop-up shop in England. Please, they would wet themselves.
Photos courtesy of As Ever and As Ever’s Instagram.
For personal reasons I’d love it if they stopped fighting over who gets the U.K. consumer and focus on a country where neither are sold yet…
Hmm I dunno Canada? Maybe Canadians would like to buy some jam please? And a hamper or two?
Yes! Totally agree
Where I live, a hamper is for your dirty clothes. It’s just a gift basket. They’ve been around forever. Neither the palace nor Meghan invented them.
Yeah, this feels like semantics. Meghan has done bundles and such before. And yes what we would call a gift basket they call a hamper, it seems. Anyways Meghan is coming out with more chocolates and some other things soon. Hopefully more apple butter since I didn’t get it on the last drop.
Jais, do you know why the Palace launched a “gift basket”—deliberately named that way—so soon after Meghan announced hers?
Because they’re hoping people will get confused and buy it in large numbers, thinking it’s Meghan’s basket :)))
The same thing happened with the jam, though only for a brief moment, because everyone quickly realized it was a deliberate move.
Is clotted cream fudge a normal, widely available thing in the UK? Because I obviously don’t want to support the BRF in any way, but clotted cream fudge sounds freaking amazing and, for a chocolate hater like me, more tempting than the As Ever holiday offerings (don’t worry, Meghan still gets plenty of my money for honey and jam).
It is, in fact, amazing. It’s got a crumbly texture that melts in your mouth. I had some when I went in 2019 from a chain called Roly’s. I wish I had bought more to bring home lol.
@Miranda, same! I refuse to give the Windsors a penny, but if anyone here knows another reliable place to order some from, I’ll be all over it! It sounds incredible.
I’ve bought chocolate clotted cream at Whole Foods. Not sure of the brand, but it was was delicious.
Thank you!
They do mention that As ever is only sold in the US.
Tis the season for giving, dear Meghan please give us and by us I mean the entire world the chance to buy your products. It’s time to launch that international shipping.. I love candles and advent calendars and that hamper os beyond beautiful and wine Meghan . It’s the holiday highlight for me
That “cheaper” Advent calendar from the palace is an EMPTY BOX made in China and sold for nearly £30. You buy the chocolates separately at £5 each. 24 x 5 = 120; add the £30 box, and you get £150—or $199. That makes this Chinese-made product $50 more expensive than handmade, artisanal chocolates and packaging.
Those British clergymen attacking Meghan for selling an expensive product—claiming she has lost sight of the spirit of the season, unlike the Church and the Palace—ought to be prostrating themselves before the altar to atone for their lies and for exploiting Meghan to promote their own wares.
Over the centuries, many paintings have been created depicting the scene from the Gospel where Jesus drives the merchants out of the Temple. Clearly, there is room for more such works.
One of the clergy has deleted his post and locked his twitter account. He didn’t like it being pointed out that there was no reason to specifically mention Meghan’s Advent calendar when it’s not for sale in the UK. They suggested that he might have an ungodly reason to mention Meghan and not the high end British ones. He started to whine about being attacked by the Sussex Squad and then slunk off.
What a coward!!
So what are the Brits crying about if Meghan only sells merch in the U.S.? As much as they disdain Princess Meghan and pretend to ignore her, they are hyper-focused on her to the point of madness. Jeez.
If the ‘Christmas box’ comes empty, why do I need to buy it? I can just buy items to open each day.
Beauty retailers do Advent calendars as well.
Even comparing the items by price is ridiculous because Meghan’s is an actual business while the British press has been telling us for the proceeds from the Palace various shops go to the “charity” the Royal Collection Trust. The British press’ compulsion to compare Meghan to the Royal Family is obsessive and weird. Meghan’s a private citizen and should not be reported on like this.
Also, she collaborated with an existing retailer who has a huge say in the price this should sell for, it’s not just her being precious.
Compartés’ own Advent calendars are $120, so only $30 less than the limited edition Collab with As Ever.
Good thing I can’t afford any because if I could, I’d want to support Meghan, but I’d be torn between hers and the Compartés ones themed with foxes, which I adore. (Hence my name here)
I have been surprised that Meghan hasn’t targeted Canada for her As Ever products. It is obvious from the constant harping about prices that the writers have never had real quality chocolate. Where I live there are many outlets that make hand made chocolates which will charge you $4 to $6 per chocolate, so if you purchased 24 it would cost you up to $120, meghan’s Advent calendar is a steal at her price.
I’m guessing that working out intl shipping is a nightmare rn with the orange goon slapping tariffs, which then get suspended after days/weeks and all of that bs.
I feel for y’all living next door to our crappy administration.