A Christmas Gift for a Cigar Smoker: What to Buy When You Do Not Smoke Yourself

The best Christmas gift for a cigar smoker is usually not a cigar. It is the cutter, the lighter, the ashtray or the case he reaches for every time he smokes one, so the first place we would look is our cigar accessories. Taste in cigars is personal. Tools are not. A good cutter works on whatever he smokes, and he will still be using it years from now.

If you do not smoke yourself, that is good news. You can choose something excellent without knowing a Robusto from a Toro. And if you would still rather put cigars under the tree, there is an easy way to do that too. It all comes down to one question.

Start with one question: do you know what he smokes?

Not roughly. Exactly. The name on the band.

If you do, the gift is simple: more of the same, by the box, or the tools to go with it.

If you do not, do not guess. Someone who likes mild, creamy cigars will not thank you for a box of strong ones, however handsome the box is. Give him something that works with every cigar he owns instead.

There is a way to find out without asking. Every cigar wears a paper band with the maker's name on it. Look in his ashtray, his humidor or his jacket pocket and take a picture of the band. Send it to us at Info@Cigarinc.com or call 1 818-719-9885, and we will tell you what it is and what goes with it. If you already have a rough idea of what he likes, the Cigar Finder turns four easy answers into a short list.

If you do not know his brand, buy the tools

Every cigar has to be cut and lit, and it has to rest somewhere while he talks. That is three gifts already, and none of them depends on his taste.

A cutter. The Brizard V Cutter in black croco leather makes a deep wedge cut instead of a flat one. The action is smooth, the blade is solid stainless steel, and it comes in its own leather pouch. It is the kind of object a person buys once. We keep more than a hundred cigar cutters, and we put the best of them side by side in our luxury cutter and lighter guide.

A lighter. For most cigar smokers a torch is the practical choice. It lights a wide cigar evenly and it holds its flame outdoors. The El Septimo Emperor Napoleon fires three torch jets and wears a gold finish with the Napoleon artwork sealed under a protective coating. It looks like a gift before he has even used it. The rest of our lighters run from pocket torches to table pieces.

An ashtray. The gift nobody thinks of and everybody uses. The El Septimo Peacock ashtray is ceramic, with rests wide enough for a large cigar, and bright enough to live on the table rather than in a cupboard. If this is the direction you like, we wrote a whole guide to choosing a luxury cigar ashtray.

Something to carry one in. The Brizard single cigar tube in rosewood holds one cigar, up to a 60 ring, inside a double layer of Spanish cedar. It slips into a jacket pocket, and it is made in the USA.

Or all of it in one box. El Septimo puts a crocodile-pattern travel case, a lighter and a cutter together as one matching set, in green or orange. It is the easiest answer in this guide. The larger Emperor Napoleon set pairs a torch lighter and a guillotine cutter with a porcelain ashtray on a leather base, all in the same artwork. Both sit with the rest of our accessory gift sets, and we explain what belongs in one in our guide to cigar gift sets.

Six gifts that work with whatever he smokes. Prices and stock are live.

If his cigars live in a drawer, give him a humidor

Cigars dry out. A humidor is a cedar-lined box that keeps them the way they left the shop, and plenty of people who smoke every week still do not own a good one. If his are sitting in a drawer or a kitchen bag, this is the gift that makes every cigar after it better.

For a first humidor, the Brizard Cylindrical Desk Humidor stands upright on a desk, wrapped in tan leather and lined with Spanish cedar. It holds ten to fifteen cigars and comes with its own humidifier. For someone who buys by the box, the Brizard Airflow holds thirty to forty and includes a hygrometer, the small dial that shows the humidity inside. Both are among our desktop humidors. If you are weighing a box for the desk against an electric cabinet, our humidor guide walks through the choice.

What cigar should you give as a gift?

Give a small pack from a respected house, in a medium strength, unless you know his brand. Four or five cigars in a tin or in tubes need no humidor, suit most smokers and still feel like an occasion. Save the full box for the year you know exactly what he smokes.

You do not know his brand. The Davidoff Winston Churchill Belicoso comes as a tin of four. It is a medium cigar, creamy, with a little spice and black coffee, and Davidoff is a name most cigar smokers know on sight. The AVO Syncro Toro Selection is four Toros, each a different blend from the same line, so he gets to find a favorite.

You want it to look like a gift. The Zino Platinum Crown Series Barrel arrives with every cigar in its own aluminum tube, ten to a box. The Byron 175 Tribute Set is four aged cigars, each sealed in a tube, in a display package. We smoke them in order, smallest ring to largest, across one long evening. It is a rare set, and we cannot promise another once ours are gone.

You want to give him El Septimo. The Salvador Dali Toro is the one we would hand to almost anyone: medium in body, with sweet coffee, cherry and a little vanilla. It comes by the stick, in a bundle of ten and in a box of twenty. For the person who has smoked everything, the 20th Anniversary Doble Gran Reserva is a limited release made to mark the house's twentieth year, sold by the stick or in a box of fourteen.

One caution. A full box needs somewhere to live. If you are not sure he owns a humidor, give the tin, the tubes or the small pack, or give the box and the humidor together.

There is more from each house in our Davidoff selection and in the full El Septimo collection, which runs to more than 150 listings. We also compared the great houses in our guide to luxury cigars.

Cigars that are easy to give, from a tin of four to a box of twenty.

A Christmas gift for a cigar smoker, by who he is to you

The same shelves, sorted by the person rather than the product.

Who it is for	What we would give	Why it works	Price today
A husband or partner who smokes every week	Brizard Cylindrical Desk Humidor	He has the cigars. He may not have a proper home for them.	$250.00
Your father	Byron 175 Tribute Set	Four aged cigars in tubes, made for one long evening.	$300.00
A brother or a friend who smokes now and then	Davidoff Winston Churchill Belicoso, tin of four	Medium, well known, and no humidor needed.	$39.00
Someone who has just started	AVO Syncro Toro Selection with a Brizard V Cutter	Four blends to try, and the tool to cut them.	$39.00 and $130.00
Your boss or a client	El Septimo crocodile travel case, lighter and cutter set	One box, three matching pieces, nothing to assemble.	$357.00
The collector who has everything	El Septimo x S.T. Dupont Napoleon Ping lighter	Two soft flames and the sound a Dupont makes when it opens. A lighter for the study.	$1,606.50

Every price in that table is the live price on our site today. We have written "he" throughout for simplicity. Every pick here suits a woman who smokes cigars just as well.

If you would rather shop by what you want to spend, our guide to luxury gifts for cigar lovers sorts the same shelves by budget. And if the gift is meant to be furniture, the Maccarrone Supersport 40 is a desktop humidor built by hand in Tuscany, with inlaid wood under a high-gloss lacquer and room for about forty cigars.

The short version

If you know the name on his band, buy more of it, or the tools to go with it. If you do not, buy the tools: a cutter, a torch lighter, an ashtray, a case, or a set that holds several of them. If it has to be cigars, give a tin, a set in tubes or a small pack from Davidoff, AVO, Zino, Byron or El Septimo, and keep the full box for when you are sure. That is all a Christmas gift for a cigar smoker needs to be: something he will use, chosen by someone who paid attention.