Guest Post by Shelly Garcia

 A few months ago, my friend’s father passed away. She says she was not really that close to him, but he was still her father. I wanted to show some respect, so I decided I wanted to send her something.

 I was very indecisive about what to get her. I checked online because I wanted to have it delivered to her house. I checked for flowers, candy, food and I finally decided on a fruit gift basket.

 There are many different styles of gift baskets to choose from, but I found the perfect one for her. It was big enough that she could share with her family, yet not too big. I didn’t want something so big that the fruit would go bad before someone could eat it. The one I chose had a variety of fruit. Also had some chocolate hidden in there, too. What goes better with fruit than chocolate, right?

She was very happy when it was delivered. She said it was fresh and tasty and like it was just picked from a garden. I think that’s the most important thing when sending a fruit basket. It needs to be fresh, and for me, full of color. I would appreciate that someone sent it to me, but if I received one that had rotten, smelly fruit, I think I would be a little upset. The fresher the better, right?

Something else that I like to look at is the basket it comes in. You can reuse those baskets for plants, mail, coffee filters, and, in my case, make-up. Some people put plastic fruit in them. That’s not my style. If I put fruit out, I want it to be real. I don’t want any guests coming over to grab something out of the basket and take a big bite only to find out that it is a plastic apple. I would feel so embarrassed, wouldn’t you?