Boots used its Christmas Showcase 2026 to set out a broad gifting proposition built around exclusivity, new brand launches, convenience and value.
Hosted by broadcaster Steph McGovern, the media event enabled the Boots’ team to take journalists and content creators through the key trends and products for this year’s festive period.
Taking to the stage, Rebecca Hitching, Boots business unit director for general merchandise, explained that the healthy and beauty giant has refreshed its range again for the season.
There are over 60,000 products in the 2026 gifting range: “Over a quarter of the brands are exclusive to Boots, and we’ve got 50 of those that are new this year.”
Fashion-led collaborations are a prominent part of that push.
Following an earlier partnership with Anya Hindmarch, Boots has teamed up with Bella Freud on beauty gifts spanning wash sets, make-up bags and lipsticks.
Hitching said the retailer was “really trying to move up our creative” through partnerships with iconic UK designers, adding: “If people love fashion out there, they will love these gifts.”
Unsurprisingly, fragrance remains a key gifting option for 2026, but there is also an increased wellness theme running through the wider offer. There is a blending of beauty, scents and self-care.
An example is a new Floral Street collaboration, which takes the fragrance brand into bath and body.
Hitching explained: “Fragrance is really important at Christmas. You’ll hear about fragrance layering… but this is absolutely how you do it in bath and body.”
Wellness wonders
Boots has also partnered with Sweaty Betty on gifts including water bottles, candles and a gym-ready set. While, matcha kits and Boots’ own wellness brand, Wellthy, extend the range beyond traditional health and beauty gifting.
Core Boots names remain central, including No7, Soap & Glory and Liz Earle.
No7’s Korean beauty-inspired line also moves into gifting, reflecting the retailer’s effort to balance “well-loved staple brands” with newness.
Hitching added that Boots has introduced around 90 wellness brands across its range, while online demand for wellness products saw a 200 jump in search year-on-year.
Convenience is another part of the Christmas pitch. Boots is combining its 1,800-store estate and boots.com with free next-day Click & Collect on orders over £15.
Those late minute Christmas shoppers need not worry either as online ordering is available until 23 December. Around 500 stores will offer rapid delivery through Deliveroo or Uber Eats. Hitching reported that 15,000 customers relied on the late online cut-off last Christmas, and 9,000 used on-demand delivery.
Additionally, value is delivered through gifts under £10, weekly Beauty Icons deals, Star Gifts and the retailer’s three-for-two promotion. Boots is also leaning on Advantage Card personalisation through its app. As Hitching put it: “Loads of choice, really easy to shop with us.”
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Following a game of pass-the-parcel, wrapped in Boots’ branded paper, McGovern was joined by three experts from the retailer’s team to really put the products at the heart of the showcase.
Beauty: collectable packaging, minis and K-beauty
Boots’ director of luxury beauty and cosmetics Alice Rafferty suggested the strongest beauty gifts combine recognisable names with packaging that feels special. Her standout was the P.Louise Christmas range, which includes 25 products, 10 exclusive to Boots.
“She just does the most incredible packaging,” Rafferty said, pointing to bows, keychain make-up and giftable formats. “Your mum, your daughter, your sister — they’ll all love this beauty.”
The panel also highlighted the continued pull of discovery formats. Boots’ luxury beauty advent calendar is priced at £150 but valued at more than £700, with 19 full-size products.
The retailer’s first K-beauty advent calendar arrives as its Korean offer expands into body care, fragrance and wellness products.
Minis also remain an accessible route into premium and trending brands, serving as stocking fillers, teacher gifts and low-risk trials.
Rafferty also picked Charlotte Tilbury’s Beauty Secrets set as a hero from Boots’ recent brand intake, with further launches including Olaplex, Kate Somerville, By Terry and Kopari.
Wellness: gifting routines and time out
Practical routines and wellbeing are also moving into the gifting space, according to Heather Cronshaw, wellness category development manager for Boots.
Her product star was the Zooki Collagen Heroes gift set, bringing together collagen, electrolytes, vitamins C and D, and a Gua Sha massage tool in a travel bag.
“We’re seeing a massive surge in our customer interest in wellbeing at the moment,” she said, adding that Zooki was “really leading the charge”.
The emotional framing is as important as the ingredients. “Customers at Christmas want to give something that shows they care and that consideration,” she said.
The best wellness gifts encourage recipients “to take time for themselves” during a busy season.
That thinking also underpins a wellness gifting collection built around daily collagen shots, noise-reduction earbuds for personal downtime and Boots’ own sleep-support products.
Fragrance: from a single bottle to a scent wardrobe
Fragrance remains one of Boots’ most important Christmas categories, but the buying behaviour around it is changing.
Chelsey Saunders, Boots director of beauty for fragrance, skincare and hair, explained: “Customers aren’t just buying fragrance anymore; they’re literally choosing a fragrance wardrobe.”
Shoppers are combining perfume with shower gels, hair and body mists and lotions to create a more personalised, layered result.
Saunders selected new launches from Chanel and Jo Malone London as seasonal standouts, noting that Boots had already seen thousands of searches for Jo Malone on boots.com before the brand arrived.
Fragrance coffrets (crackers) also answer the demand for experimentation. A Marc Jacobs set of four mini scents, for example, lets recipients layer familiar and newer fragrances. “It definitely shows thought and consideration, even if you’ve literally put zero thought and consideration into it,” Saunders joked.
Taken together, the panel showed how Boots is organising Christmas gifting around three linked ideas: beauty as discovery, wellness as care and fragrance as personal expression.
Across all three, exclusives, smaller trial formats and high-value sets give shoppers reasons to trade up without losing sight of affordability.
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