Gifts in Brooklyn

Gifts in Brooklyn: fruit for a shiva house, cake and balloons for a party

In Borough Park, America's largest Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood, a family sitting shiva is sent fruit or food rather than flowers, so a hamper or a fruit basket is the gift that fits that house. Gifts in Brooklyn are chosen the same way across the borough, by the door they're headed for rather than by the calendar: a house in mourning gets a basket, a party gets a cake and balloons, a child gets a toy.

Hampers and fruit baskets: for a shiva house or a Thanksgiving table

Shiva is the seven days of mourning a Jewish family keeps after a funeral, observed in Borough Park, among the Satmar community in Williamsburg, and in Midwood and part of Crown Heights. Flowers aren't sent to a shiva house. The custom instead calls for fruit or food, sometimes a charitable donation, and a card written by hand rather than printed. A fruit basket or a hamper answers that custom directly, and the card inside can be written in your own words at no extra cost.

The same format suits Thanksgiving, the fourth Thursday of November and a holiday built around the family table rather than any one person. A basket sent for the day goes to whoever is hosting, to sit among the other dishes rather than beside a single plate. The basket simply waits for whoever opens the door, however long that takes.

Cupcakes to share in Downtown Brooklyn, a cake that waits for candles

Downtown Brooklyn is the borough's business centre, and gifts in Brooklyn's offices work best when they need no ceremony: cupcakes split a floor without a knife or plates, each person taking their own. A whole cake fits a different address, an evening at home with candles to light, and Cake "Love" suits an anniversary or a date rather than an office desk.

A bento cake is smaller still, sized for one person and boxed with a short message written straight onto the icing. Any cream cake, bento or full-size, has the same limit: no longer than two hours at room temperature, and no longer than one hour once the room passes 32°C. The practical answer is to make sure someone is home to take it in rather than leave it waiting.

A woman in her sixties sits on a bench on the Brighton Beach boardwalk at sunset, holding a white cake box tied with ribbon on her lap, three pastel foil balloons on ribbons looped round her wrist, the ocean behind her — A cake box on her lap and foil balloons at her wrist: one gift that will be eaten today and one that keeps its helium for several days.

A balloon cloud or a box that opens: helium for a birthday at home

Balloon Cloud No. 1 fills a ceiling with balloons rather than a single bunch, built for a room a birthday will fill later in the day. Balloon Surprise Box No. 2 works the other way round: the balloons stay packed inside a box until someone opens it.

What decides which balloon suits which moment is the material, not the shape. Untreated latex holds its helium for about half a day, so it belongs to the day of the party itself rather than to a date set well in advance. Foil keeps its lift for several days, which leaves more room to plan ahead if the party isn't today. Either way, the order is placed for a chosen day with a time window, so the balloons are up for the moment they're needed rather than left waiting in a corner.

A courier's hands set a weight holding five pastel latex balloons on white ribbons onto an office reception counter, the receptionist's hands reaching for an envelope, faces out of frame — Latex balloons weighted on a counter: untreated latex holds helium for about half a day, so they belong to the day itself.

Plush toys and sweet gifts: a child at home, a teacher in late June

A plush toy such as Plush Bear #4 and a box of sweet gifts share one advantage over flowers or cake: neither needs water or a fridge, so both wait patiently for whoever opens the door. That makes them an easy choice for a child at home, where the gift might sit on a hallway table for an hour before anyone notices it.

New York City's school year runs into late June, which is when a sweet gift for a teacher fits without needing an occasion attached to it. Brighton Beach, home to the largest Russian-speaking community in the United States, is one more Brooklyn address where the same toy or sweet gift works exactly as it does anywhere else in the borough.

Gift delivery in Brooklyn: a bouquet and a gift to one door

Flower combos are already built around a bouquet, so a card, a balloon or a sweet gift doesn't need to travel separately from the flowers it accompanies. A toy, a box of sweets or a balloon can go straight into the same basket as the bouquet, and the card that comes with it costs nothing extra.

Delivery is priced per address rather than per item, so sending gifts in Brooklyn together with a bouquet to the same door counts as a single delivery, not two. Most orders are handed over on the day they're placed, and the florist photographs the finished order before the courier sets off with it, so whoever placed the order knows what left the shop. Both the day and the time window are chosen when the order is placed, through zones and delivery terms. How a gift is handed over also depends on the address, covered under hotels, wards and the weather.

A florist's hands lower a white box of macarons into a kraft bag where a small plush bunny already sits, a finished bouquet of spray roses in paper lying on the white table beside it — A box of sweets joins a plush toy already in the bag, with the bouquet waiting alongside on the table.

A sensible place to start among gifts in Brooklyn is the occasion itself. Hampers and fruit baskets suit a house in mourning or a Thanksgiving table, and cakes and cupcakes suit an office floor or a family evening. Helium balloons fit a birthday at home, and gifts to go with bouquets work when flowers and a gift should arrive at the same door together.