The Best Popcorn Tins (and Other Food-Filled Tins) to Gift for the Holidays | Eater

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I have rarely met a popcorn or cookie tin that I didn’t love, or at least respect. That’s because the best, coolest popcorn tins — and snack or cookie tins in general — have a prioritization of aesthetics that goes unmatched in a lot of other food packaging. This year’s brand new Walkers shortbread tin is intended to be next year’s vessel for presenting your homemade cookies at the office party. Popcorn and cookie tins are designed to last, and eager to be upcycled into the perfect storage container for your buttons, wrench sets, or Sonny Angel dolls. Arguably the highest functional form of the Royal Dansk butter cookie tin is, after all, that of a sewing kit.

As Thrillist’s Kristen Adaway reported in 2022, the origins of popcorn tins, and popcorn in general as an all-American snack, can be traced to the dawn of movie theaters and the Great Depression. Corn was one of the most readily available and affordable crops in the U.S., and the added element of packaging popcorn in a tin, while ambiguous in origin, can also likely be traced to the snack’s thrifty beginnings; on the site of Topsy’s Popcorn, an over 60-year-old Missouri-based brand, President Bob Ramm says that resource-savvy companies probably just upcycled their oil cans in packaging.

Over the years, popcorn tins have become increasingly creative and varied in design; there has never been a better time to scoop up a popcorn bucket that looks like an Edwardian hat box, or to gift your friend a Sanrio-themed tin. And as we enter the holiday season, we also enter prime tin season. The following tins were conceived with fun, longevity, and giftability in mind, so let’s find you the perfect one for upstaging your sibling at the White Elephant party this year.

Compartés is like the Dior of chocolate, because it makes some of the most delectable, impeccably packaged sweets you can buy online. This Oscar Wilde-worthy popcorn tin contains chocolate-covered popcorn, and it even comes with a gold handle.

Popcorn tins contain far more than popcorn these days. Rubirosa, for example, has taken a perfectly nostalgic and colorful popcorn tin — lid included — and filled it with 3 pounds of its organic pastas in various shapes, including lumache (think, fancy snail-shape) and trottole (Italian for “spinning toy top”).

Gudetama is one of the hardest chillers in the Sanrio universe, and now everyone’s favorite anthropomorphic egg has taken on the shape of a tin canister containing tiny, Gudetama-stamped custard biscuits.

My home bar cart is no stranger to Ghia, the brand behind one of the tastiest N/A apéritifs on the market for folks who favor a botanical-heavy, bitters-adjacent beverage in a 1970s-esque bottle. The brand partnered with White Bark Workwear to create its first organic hemp and cotton apron (and yes, there are ample pockets), and wrapped it up nicely in an Italian cafe-inspired tin.

This is one of those cookie tins you can leave out year round. Inspired by traditional ceramic Spanish tiles, this Trias tin houses 36 equally traditional, almond-forward Spanish cookies, including ametllat (almond sugar cookies), neulet de almendra (a crispy, almond praline-filled cookie), teula de caco (almond cookies with chocolate), and more.

The business model of Tom’s Perfect 10 is simple: introduce a new granola every month that aspires to reach “Perfect 10” status (so far, according to the site, Ginger Zing and Classic are the flavors that have met Perfect 10 status). Tom’s has also blessed us with this foursome of some of its most popular flavors (Affogato, Peppermint Brownie, Mangonada, and Golden Apple Cider) to give you a little sampling of its marquee mixes. (As a bonus, the compartments of the tin will make it one mean sewing kit container after the holidays).

For the obligatory child or gamer in your life, bring home this set of two sour strawberry hard candy tins that pay homage to everyone’s favorite Italian plumber.

This royal blue tin contains milk and dark chocolate, truffles, pretzels, and almonds, and it sure would be a class act at hanukkah this year. Just look at that trompe l’oeil tufting, and tell me your most fabulous but uptight aunt wouldn’t fall in love with it.

A bestseller for a reason. Williams Sonoma’s chocolate peppermint bark is a holiday mainstay, and one of my go-to gifts for White Elephant parties. This year, I’m excited to try its Guittard dark chocolate iteration of the classic.

Giadzy is the Italian-inspired food and lifestyle brand line of Giada De Laurentiis, and it certainly delivers on high-impact packaging (please see: the brand’s gold-enshrouded olive oil). Naturally, Giada’s amaretti cookies come complete with their own cherubs, courtesy of this vintage-inspired cookie tin.

Last but not least, you can always give someone the gift of eating popcorn out of your face. This personalized popcorn tin is a bold move, and one of the more unique ways to immortalize your legacy.

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