Christmas Mead Ideas

I'm new to the brewing game and have just finished my first batch of mead (haven't had a full taste yet, because I'm waiting until my friends can share it with me).

I really enjoyed my first experience and I'm thinking of making a batch of spiced Mead for Christmas gifts. Anyone have any good recipe suggestions?

Here is one that I have enjoyed and still have a couple bottles left saving for this years holidays.

Spiced pumpkin cyser

1 gallon recipe

1/2 gallon apple juice.
1 15oz can pumpkin purée (primary and secondary)
1/2lb mashed sweet potatoes (primary and secondary)
1.25lb - 1.5lb honey (honey adjusted to meet gravity of 1.070)
Water to 1 gallon
1 cinnamon stick
2 whole clove
1/2 tsp all spice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1/2 tsp yeast energizer
Yeast (London ESB 1968)

Bake the potatoes till they are soft and mash them to add in with pumpkin. Add all to primary and adjust gravity with honey to 1.070. Make sure to follow instructions with the smack pack for the London ESB 1968 yeast and then pitch the yeast. This should ferment dry and clear quickly leaving a 10%ish ABV mead. After the first 30 days rack to a new container on top of another set of pumpkin purée and sweet potatoe. Let this sit and rack every 30 days till no sediment drops. I think this mead was amazing dry so probably don't need to back sweeten.

Wow that does sound really delicious. I'll definitely try this one.

Mmmmh, that does sound good. Maybe you could try something with mint leaves for the peppermint effect? I dunno.

I did one for last year which turned out great.

For a three gallon batch:
4 kg wildflower honey (from a local bee keeper)
3 grams Saffron
1 cinnamon stick (10 grams)
800 grams of tasty apples (frozen and thawed)
45 grams raisins
Yeast (Lalvin 71B)

Boil 2 kg of the honey until the sugar caramelizes (ca 1 hour or to taste).
Dissolve the saffron in some boiling water. The basic idea I had was to use less saffron, but I got totally confused when I made the mead and ended up adding 3 grams all together. In retrospect it was a rather nice mistake since I like the taste of saffron.
Let it age for at least a year until you drink it.
OG: 1.122
FG: 1.010