gifts for hosts?

[allthings]

Hey all,

when my boyfriend and I travelling europe this christmas, we will be staying with a friend of mine in england and her family, my boyfriend's dad's family in n.ireland and my friend and her family in france.

Now, I obviously want to thank them for their hospitality by bringing 'Australian' themed gifts, or any gifts that are appropriate to the culture, etc etc (e.g. i have no idea if bringing a tea-towel with a map of australia on it would be considered rude, you know, get in the kitchen and make my food with this tea-towel!)

does anyone have any gift ideas? so far i have:

australian music cds
australian movie dvds (both of these for my friends, i know what they like and will watch and listen to)
vegemite
flowers
cute stuffed koalas (not the made in asia ones, the post office sells australian made things like this)

... what else? Preferably light stuff!

[MuvverRussia]

I wouldn't bother with Vegemite. You can get it pretty easily over here. Same with Australian music cds.

What about aborigine decorated stuff like boomerangs etc? They normally go down pretty well and are quite light.

[allthings]

oh, I hadn't thought about that. I don't know, it's quite hard to get anything that is authentic relatively cheaply. I don't want to take anything tacky!

Oh, yeah I realise a lot of Australian music cds can be bought overseas, but I was thinking more along the lines of more local bands that haven't had a huge release overseas or haven't been released at all!

[skye]

For thank you cards, I ordered some online that have my photo (me in front of a beautiful lighthouse on the Oregon coast) and inside they are pre-printed with "Thank You" and my name, address, email etc. Thought it would be a nice idea for my hosts!