It's that time of year when people start looking for business holiday gift ideas. Whether you're looking for something to give to your employees or to your best customers, it's important that the items you select send the right message and properly express your appreciation.
Popular Business Holiday Gift Ideas
Logo Merchandise
Giving quality merchandise with your company's logo on it can be a great way to say thank you to your employees and customers during the holiday season. Employees often enjoy receiving nice shirts or tote bags embroidered with their company's logo. Giving this type of gift to your team members has the dual benefit of providing workers with an item they'll enjoy as well as having a residual marketing benefit for the company. After all, every time the person who receives the gift wears the shirt or uses that bag, he or she becomes a walking billboard for your company.
While shirts and tote bags might not be appropriate logo gifts for customers, coffee mugs, nice pens, calendars, and other types of logo items make great gift items and can also be used as additions to a gift basket. These type of merchandise can also be used as thank you gifts and promotional giveaways throughout the year.
Gift Baskets
Gift baskets make excellent holiday gifts. You can order pre-assembled baskets or put together your own. Some of the most popular business gift baskets include those filled with gourmet goodies, tea and coffee, and fresh fruit. Gift baskets don't have to be food baskets. They can contain a variety of items, including stationery, desk supplies, gift certificates, tickets to events, and more.
If you order pre-made gift baskets, you can have them drop shipped directly to recipients no matter where they are located. If you choose to make your own baskets, you can give each one a personal touch by including a unique combination of merchandise based on each recipient's personal preferences.
Traditional Turkey or Ham
One of the longest standing business holiday gift ideas is still quite popular -- the ham or turkey give-away. These holiday hams or turkeys are given to employees and/or customers. If you like this idea, you can purchase frozen turkeys or hams to share with people on your business gift list, or you can give the recipients a gift certificate for a local supermarket or specialty ham or turkey retailer, such as Honey Baked.
Holiday Goodies
If you want to show appreciation to a group of people, such as entire office staff, consider dropping off holiday goodies that can be enjoyed at break time during regular workdays. For these types of gifts, tins of cookies, popcorn or decorated cakes are appropriate and often appreciated.
Tips for Business Holiday Gift Giving
- Plan Ahead: It's a good idea to make decisions about purchasing holiday business gifts early. If you wait until the last minute to place your order, you may find that you aren't able to get the exact items that you want.
- Shipping Deadlines: If you're shipping gifts to some of the people on your business gift giving list, pay close attention to holiday shipping deadlines. A holiday cake that arrives late won't make the same impression as one that arrives in a timely manner.
- Office Closings: Many companies close for several days during the holiday season. Don't assume that all of your customers will be keeping the same holiday hours as your company. If you show up with a holiday cake at many offices on December 23, you'll find yourself knocking on a locked door or walking in on the company's private employee holiday celebration.
- Schedule Considerations: Remember that many people take vacation around the holidays. If you're sending or delivering perishable items, make sure the recipient will be available to accept and properly store the item before you ship it.
- Don't Get Personal: Avoid giving business gifts that could be interpreted as too personal. Even though many people enjoy receiving bath salts, body lotion, and other types of personal care items as gifts, such products are not appropriate holiday gifts for clients or employees.
