What's a good housewarming gift in Singapore?
On this page
- Housewarming gifts at a glance: what to give for each need
- Food and customs: bring food and avoid the taboo gifts
- Engraved gifts: something useful with their name on it
- Mini Me: a figurine of the whole household
- Scale model of their home: made to order from drawings
- Order dates: count back from the housewarming
- Frequently asked
A good housewarming gift in Singapore is food for the table, something the new home will use, or something personal enough to earn a place on a shelf, chosen with the household’s customs in mind. The table lists each gift by need, who it suits and how long it takes.
Housewarming gifts at a glance: what to give for each need
| You need | Give this | Lead time |
|---|---|---|
| A safe gift, any guest | Cake, fruit or dessert (halal for Muslim hosts) | Same day |
| What the home needs | An item off their list | Same day |
| A personal gift | Engraved titanium flask (no leather) | 5 to 7 working days |
| A gift for a traveller | Engraved steel luggage tag (leather strap) | 5 to 7 working days |
| A printed family or pet figurine | Colour Print or Paint your own Mini Me | About 1 week |
| A hand-painted family or pet figurine | Animated or Realistic Mini Me | About 4 weeks |
| A big family gift | Scale model of their new home | 2 to 6 weeks, quoted |
Lead times start when you approve the free proof or 3D preview. Items off their list, a Mini Me and a model of the home suit close friends and family. A Mini Me also works as a group gift, and a model of the home suits owners who want one of their own place.
Customs: many Chinese families avoid clocks and scissors, and pears if the hosts are a couple. Muslim hosts need halal food and no alcohol or pork. Hindu hosts avoid cowhide leather, so choose the flask over the tag for them.
Lead times: these are a rough guide for a piece up to about 10 to 15 cm across. Larger pieces take longer, so check with us.
Keychain
Photo luggage tag
Engrave their bottle
Mini Me figurine
Spelling: names and addresses must be exact, and the free proof is your chance to catch a mistake.
Food and customs: bring food and avoid the taboo gifts
Many housewarmings are a meal at the new place, so the default gift is food. The Harmony Circle guides to Chinese, Malay and Indian homes suggest cakes, egg tarts and fruit for a Chinese home, halal food only for a Malay home, and a tea set, chocolates or dried fruit for an Indian one.
What not to give:
- Many Chinese families: clocks and scissors, and pears if the hosts are a couple (Harmony Circle), as well as knives, umbrellas and mirrors (Cultural Atlas). Wrap the gift in red, pink or gold, not black, blue or white.
- Muslim households: alcohol, pork and anything not halal.
- Hindu households: cowhide leather (Harmony Circle) and alcohol.
Many Chinese families also roll a pineapple into the new home for luck, though its juice can stain marble. There is no set amount to spend: from a colleague, a dessert is plenty, while close friends and family buy from the hosts’ list or pool their money for one good thing.
Engraved gifts: something useful with their name on it
We laser engrave in-house, so the mark can’t peel or scratch off.
- A titanium flask with the family’s surname or the new address.
- A steel luggage tag on a leather strap. A photo of the new home, drawn as line art, with the street name or its map coordinates under it.
Before you order:
- Engraving takes about 5 to 7 working days once you approve the free proof, so you can’t pick one up on the way to the party.
- The tag’s strap is leather, and we don’t list which animal’s hide it is, so for a Hindu household, pick the flask.
Mini Me: a figurine of the whole household
A Mini Me is a small figurine sculpted from photos: the whole household in one scene (up to eight people in the painted styles), or the dog that came with them. Every one comes in a gift box, couriered to their new address or collected free from our Bendemeer studio.
- Hand-painted (Animated or Realistic): about four weeks after you approve the 3D preview, plus time to agree the artwork, so start five weeks ahead.
- Colour Print or Paint your own: about a week. Paint your own arrives unpainted with brushes and paints, an afternoon’s activity for the new household.
Before you order:
- You need two or three clear photos of each person. The likeness is a stylised 3D caricature, not a portrait.
- In the painted styles, each extra person costs about three-quarters of a single figurine. The printed styles fit up to four people at 10 cm, so a bigger household needs a painted scene.
Scale model of their home: made to order from drawings
We make architectural scale models, mostly for developers and architects. We 3D print them in plastic, layer by layer, and often add laser-cut parts (how they are made). A model of a family’s home is quoted the same way, from drawings, PDFs or sketches.
Before you order:
- Each model is quoted as its own project, so it suits a family pooling for a gift, or owners ordering their own, better than a present from one guest.
- We need a floor plan, so for a surprise you will have to ask the owners for it. Most models take 2 to 6 weeks.
Order dates: count back from the housewarming
Count back from the date using the table at the top. A Mini Me or an engraved gift can go by courier straight to the new address, or you can collect it free from our Bendemeer studio. If the date is close, tell us before you order and we will say honestly whether it fits.
Sources: Harmony Circle guides to Chinese, Malay and Indian home visits; Cultural Atlas; SUTD. Customs vary by family, so when in doubt, ask the hosts.
Frequently asked
What is a good housewarming gift in Singapore?
A good housewarming gift in Singapore is food for the table, because many housewarmings here are a meal at the new place: cakes, fruit or a dessert the family likes, halal if the hosts are Muslim. For close friends and family, give something for the home itself: whatever is on their list, or something personal enough to earn a place on a shelf, like their name engraved on something they'll use or a figurine of the family.
What should you not give as a housewarming gift in Singapore?
In Singapore, avoid housewarming gifts that many families link with bad luck, and anything their faith rules out. For many Chinese families, that means clocks, scissors, knives, umbrellas and mirrors (and pears if the hosts are a couple). Wrap the gift in red, pink or gold rather than black, blue or white. For a Muslim household, no alcohol, no pork, and any food must be halal. For a Hindu household, skip anything made of cowhide leather, and alcohol is best left out. When you aren't sure what a family keeps, choose something that can't offend: good food, fruit or something for the kitchen.
Why do Singaporean families roll a pineapple into a new home?
Many Chinese families roll a pineapple into a new home for luck, because the fruit's name in Hokkien and Cantonese sounds like a phrase for prosperity arriving, and they roll it in from the front door on moving day. One practical warning from a Singapore University of Technology and Design lecturer: pineapple juice is acidic, so a pineapple left on a marble floor for days can stain it. Roll it, then move it off the stone.
How much should I spend on a housewarming gift?
There is no fixed amount for a housewarming gift, unlike the wedding ang bao: a guest who barely knows the hosts can simply bring a dessert or a box of fruit. Close friends and family usually give something for the home, and pooling money as a group buys one good thing instead of five small ones. A modest gift that suits the household beats an expensive ornament chosen for a home you haven't seen.
Is a practical or a decorative housewarming gift better?
A practical gift is better, unless you know their taste well, because a new home is short of ordinary things for months, and the owners have usually planned how it should look, so an ornament picked by someone else tends to end up in a cupboard. If they have a list of what they still need, buy from it. Choose a decorative gift only when it is about the people, not the decor.
How far ahead should I order a personalised housewarming gift?
Order a personalised housewarming gift about five weeks ahead for a hand-painted Mini Me (about four weeks once you approve the 3D preview, plus time to agree the artwork) and about a week for a Colour Print or Paint your own Mini Me. An engraved gift takes about 5 to 7 working days once you approve the proof. A scale model of the home is quoted per project and most take 2 to 6 weeks. If the housewarming is sooner, tell us the date.
Can you make a model of a friend's new flat or house?
We can make a model of a friend's new flat or house, made to order rather than off the shelf. We work from drawings, PDFs or sketches, quote every scale model as its own project, and most take 2 to 6 weeks. The catch for a surprise gift is the drawings: you may need the owners' floor plan, which means asking them. It suits a family pooling for a first home, or owners who want a model of their own place.
Can I give an engraved gift to a Hindu household?
An engraved gift suits a Hindu household if you choose the titanium flask: it has no leather, whereas the steel luggage tag has a leather strap and we do not list which animal's hide it is. Cowhide leather is not a suitable gift for Hindu families, so the flask is the safer engraved pick there.
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