If you’re playing Santa Boss at your office this year, then you know it can be difficult to come up with worthwhile gift ideas for staff. What is an appropriate Christmas gift for a boss to give employees? The right gift takes some thought. It even took a series of time traveling ghosts for Ebenezer Scrooge to come up with a good gift for his clerk Bob Cratchit and family in the Christmas Carol. Unfortunately, this blog isn’t a supernatural yuletide-ghost. But like a strong glass of eggnog, it should leave you abuzz with holiday spirit and great gift ideas.

But before you decide on a gift, there are a few important questions to answer.

-What is the gift budget?
-What is your office culture?
-What age range are your employees in?
-Is it a small, close team?
-Is the gift work appropriate?

Answering these questions will help you save time by ruling out gifts that our too expensive or inappropriate.

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​​Gift Ideas for Employees at a Startup

Working for a startup company has its own perks and disadvantages. The camaraderie and casual office culture is one benefit of working on a lean team.

If you’re leading a team of galaxy brained industry disruptors, then you have the leeway to have more fun with employee holiday gifts than giving the usual corporate sanctioned popcorn tin. So feel free to get creative and more personal than a C-suite executive might.

The Ultimate Beer Lover Gift

Winding the workday down with a brew is Startup 101. Especially craft beer. Employees at startups tend to be young adults who are fresh out of college and looking to have fun and feel fulfilled at work. Startups also tend to have smaller staff, and with fewer employees to buy gifts for, you can spend a little bit more on each member of your staff.

This craft beer gift basket is the perfect way to thank your staff for working hard and probably forgoing a good salary in exchange for equity. With a great selection of beers, a pint glass, bottle opener, and other cool accessories, it’s the perfect gift to get the holiday party started.

Every employee wants to say “beer me” to their boss, and now they can.

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​Yatra Bluetooth Speakers

The gift of music is a gift that keeps on giving. And a bluetooth speaker is a great gift for employees. Practical and useful, it’s an easy way to give your staff something really cool and functional.

A good bluetooth speaker should have great sound, durability, and be portable. That’s why the Yatra Aquatune speaker is a great gift for employees. It’s lightweight and water resistance, with a solid battery life.

It’s the perfect employee gift, especially at a startup with young, active staff who can take the Aquatune hiking, to the beach, or clip it to their bag when going for a bike ride.

The Yatra speaker is also great to have in an office for impromptu happy hours. Whether it’s used for playing Spotify playlists or catching up on podcasts, everyone can find a use for speakers.

Classpass Gift

One of the disadvantages to startup employment is a lack of traditional benefits that come with working a corporate gig. You might not be able to provide a 401k or health insurance yet, but you can give a Classpas gift pass as a way to provide gym and health benefits to your staff.

Classpass lets users pop into gyms and work out classes without a gym membership, providing flexibility and exposure to a lot of different gyms and workout routines.

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Personal Gift Ideas for Employees

There are situations where you feel that you owe one, or a small group of employees, a really special gift to say thank you or congratulations.

Maybe it’s someone whose work pushed your company across a chasm to reach a new goal. Or maybe they’ve recently received a promotion and are excelling in their new role, and you’d like to pay a special congratulations. Christmas is a great time to give this gift. As the year ends, it’s fitting to say thank you for your work before a new quarter begins.

For employees, receiving a personal gift from their boss can be really meaningful. It doesn’t have to be something expensive or ornate. Small tokens are appreciated too.

Here are a few ideas.

​Engraved Whisky Bottle Set

Famed self-improvement write Dale Carnegie is quoted as saying, “a person’s name is to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”

That quote rings true even for the written name, which is why this engraved bottle set adds a touch of class and intimacy to the whisky collection.

In addition to adding the employees name, you can also add a short message to express your admiration for the work they’ve done.

This gift set also has an air of celebration to it, with a cigar included with a bottle of Scotch, a rocks glass, and whiskey stone set for dilution-free chilling.

This gift set is for closers.

​​​Inspirational Book – Start With Why

Books are important for the growth of a career. They can offer insights that redefine how you might approach work, your career, and the day-to-day aspects of learning how to perform better at a job.

It’s important for employees who are early in their career to learn how to grow. By giving a book, especially one that has helped your own career, it’s a personal acknowledge that you see potential in an employee and want to help them unlock it in order to find success.

There are a TON of books to choose from in business, self-help, and mindfulness. Finding a book isn’t difficult. But you want to make sure you have a good reason for giving a particular book.

As mentioned, if there is a book that personally helped you in the past, then give that. Or, start with books that have had success and broad appeal like Start With Why by Simon Sinek. This books has inspiration at its heart, which makes it a great gift to give.

Give to Charity

Crowdsourced fundraising for charities is having a moment on social media recently, altruism is trending. Many people ask friends, family, and followers (the Big 3 Fs) for donations to charities dear to their hearts in lieu of gifts or cake for birthdays and holidays.

It’s a noble outgrowth of social media communities, and though the act of donation-as-gift has existed for some time, crowdsourced fundraising has reimagined it for current times.

While you don’t have to crowdsource funds, donating to important charities on behalf of your employees can show you’re interested and aware of the causes that inspire the employee.

It’s a goodwill gift that is truly a win for all parties involved. Donating as a gift also spares the employee from getting a trinket they don’t really have use for.

The link above for Charity Navigator, a service that helps you find charities and also rates charities to highlight trustworthy groups who are actually dedicated to helping the causes they claim to serve.

Bulk Gifts Ideas for Your Office

If you have a larger team then it can make life much easier to order gifts in bulk to cut down on costs and time spent selecting gifts.

We mentioned earlier that configuring a budget for gift spend is important when selecting gifts for work, it is especially important for mid or large sized offices where costs can get very expensive. Bulk purchases can help limit expenses by leveraging order volume for lower pricing.

But just because you buy in bulk doesn’t mean the gifts can’t interesting or cool. But it does make the gift selection process a little more difficult. But that’s why we’re here to help.

​Travel Cocktail Kits

These little kits can fit in a carry on suitcase or even just coat pocket for a commute on the subway.

With cute packaging and a wide selection of cocktail recipes, these travel kits make for a great bulk gift by being unique and being so much more than a branded shot glass.

They’re a bit pricey individually, but the company offers wholesale pricing that can significantly drive pricing down. Mix and match recipes for a nice selection and let your employees know it’s okay to let their hair down once in a while.

Branded Sweatshirts

This might sound like the stuff of corporate retreats, but when you’re dealing with bulk purchases, then options for cool employee gifts do get limited.

But you can avoid the personalized coffee mug route and instead by some cool and comfortable crew neck sweatshirts.

Startup culture has really relaxed dress codes across offices, even in more conservative industries. Just look at how Patagonia decided to prioritize bulk orders of their fleece vests away from corporate companies because of the prevalence of their vest as the new suit jacket.

By providing comfy brandy crewnecks to your crew, you can tap into the streetwear and atleisure clothing trends and offer employees a comfortable work appropriate sweatsuit to wear on casual Fridays.

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​Succulents

Did you know you can buy plants on Amazon? And with the succulent craze in full bloom, it’s a trendy gift. You can buy packs of 20 cacti for under $50. It’s a great deal.

It’s also a unique gift that can have the benefit of making your office greener if employees decide to keep them at their desks.

Like cats for pet owners, succulents are low maintenance options for plant owners, so you’re not burdening employees with another task.

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Gift Ideas for Executives

The Executive Whisky and Cigar Set

Scotch and cigar smoke, nothing quite says business like those two combinations. Except of course, tailored suits and black cars. But we’ll stick with indulging in a nice nightcap for this gift selection.

This whisky set, provides scotch, 9 whiskey stones, a stainless steel flask along with chocolates and nuts. And that’s in addition to multiple cigars, a cigar cutter, and a leather cigar case lined with Spanish Cedar.

This gift says “Welcome to the big leagues” in the best way.

And it will make a big impression on whichever employee lucky enough to receive it. The best thing is that this executive set comes with two rocks glasses, so hopefully you can both share a scotch on the spot after the gift has been given.

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Engraved Watch

The wrist timepiece is becoming an endangered species. A sophisticated watch has been swapped out for other ways to tell time like cell phones or fitbits.

But the increasing rareness just makes the effect of a nice watch more impactful. The gift of a custom watch is, ironically, timeless. It’s something an employee can wear forever, in any big meeting or special life event. So make sure you put some effort into making the watch live up to its hype.

With the Shinola custom watch program, you choose from a selection of watch bands and dials to craft a watch that your employee will love.

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Yeti Wine Tumbler

Yeti makes high end and high quality outdoor gear like coolers, chairs, and drinkware to make the outdoors a little more comfortable.

These wine ramblers are perfect for outdoor concerts, a lakeshore sunset, or offshore fishing.

And it’s one of those gifts thats great because despite how useful they are, they’re an item that someone might not splurge on for themselves. These ramblers hit a sweet spot of gift giving: the luxury item that isn’t necessary, but makes life a little better.

Gift Ideas for Experiences or Group Outings

Group Cooking Class

A group class for cooking can be really fun. You’ll probably only take a smaller team or staff to one, but it’s a casual cooking class is a great way to build camaraderie and have real fun in the process.

Rock Climbing

We couldn’t resist the pun here, so here we go. Take your staff to new heights with a rock climbing excursion!

Don’t worry, this isn’t an outdoor activity with high risk. With the growth of rock climbing gyms, you can take your staff on an exciting team building excursion and learn rock climbing skills like knot tying, belaying, and climbing. It’s a lot of fun, and can be a completely new experience for your employees.

Axe Throwing

Not as dangerous as it sounds, axe throwing is growing in popularity for corporate outings and birthday parties. It’s like a Paul Bunyan version of bar darts. You can form terms, and aim your axes at a target to score points. Competitive and ridiculous, it’s the perfecting team outing.