A Guide to Holiday Gifting and Showing Appreciation Throughout the Year

Holiday gifting comes around each December when budgets are closing, teams are stretched and other priorities are competing for attention. However, this chaos can be avoided if CEOs and founders treat holiday gifting as part of a year-round relationship strategy which is planned months in advance, tied to a clear business objective and designed to reward the very people who helped build their businesses.

Showing appreciation should not be viewed as an annual HR exercise but rather as part of employee experience, customer retention and brand building. Holiday gifting should be one moment within a wider recognition strategy rather than a standalone event.

The programs that work best aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets. They’re the ones who have been planned ahead with personalized gifts and formats that are easy to scale, no matter the size of your company and where it operates. This is why corporate gift cards have become standard in holiday programs.

Why Should Businesses Embrace Holiday Gifting

Customer and talent retention are things that executives take seriously and worry about. One easy way to address this is through holiday gifting holiday gifting. It is a known fact that employees who feel appreciated are more likely to stay at a company and to perform harder, and organizations with formal recognition programs report meaningfully lower voluntary turnover.

When Should Companies Start Planning Holiday Gifting?

The rule is to start planning holiday gifting earlier rather than later as there are substantial benefits to starting in summer or several months ahead. You need sufficient lead time to commit to the budget and, in the case of larger organizations, to win support for the program further up the chain of command. It is harder to access the funds once other projects and priorities start adding up and almost impossible to do at the last minute.

There are many benefits to early planning. Ensure that you secure budget approval, finalize both the holiday gifting objectives and who the recipients will be and diligently compare various reward options. This will help you avoid last-minute logistical problems. The earlier you begin, the more you can design something people genuinely value and will save you time and money in the long run.

What Are Your Holiday Gifting Objectives?

Treat corporate holiday gifting like any high-value initiative which serves a defined objective. If you can’t answer what you are hoping to achieve at the outset, you’ll struggle to demonstrate the impact achieved later on or to defend the budget the following year.

A Gifting Framework

Employee appreciation and retention aren’t the same goal, so you can’t measure them in the same way. Appreciation means people feel seen. Retention means the relationship is stronger going into the new year. Both are important but it’s how you achieve your aims that really matter.

What Makes the Perfect Gift?

The smartest move isn’t choosing the perfect gift but rather letting people select what they would like. It is rare that the same gift would suit both a junior designer in Berlin as well as a vice president in Boston. It only stands to logic that tastes differ, customers span countries and employees come from different backgrounds and cultures, so no single item is likely to appeal to all of them. And the evidence firmly backs this up. Incentive Research Foundation research shows gift cards rank among the rewards employees most want to receive which is why they remain the single most widely used reward in recognition programs. Choice wins every time because it removes the guesswork and lets each person select something that they want or matters to them. However, there’s an added benefit for the company giving the gift as it also resolves operational headaches.

If you opt for gift cards you avoid costly shipping costs, customs delays and cross-border logistics. What you’re building is a gifting experience that actually works for the people receiving it and, in the end, everyone is a winner.

Who Should Be On Your Gift List?

Employees are the audience CEOs think of first but they are not the only people who drive a company’s success. The festive season is an opportunity to recognize the wider network that creates value all year and this includes customers, referral partners, suppliers and local collaborators. What matters most is a clear, consistent approach to who’s included and why you have decided to give them something.

A gift is the perfect opportunity to tell all these people who matter to your company that they are valued and appreciated. However, there’s also another benefit worth remembering. Digital gift card platforms like Giftogram let you brand and personalize the cards you send, so a holiday program doubles as a subtle brand-awareness campaign that goes beyond thanking your own team. Sending a gift card ensures that you stay top of mind with those you send it to while also building goodwill that you can draw on later should you have to.

How Much Should Companies Spend On Holiday Gifts?

There’s no magic number for holiday gift budgets and it all depends on company size and what you’re trying to achieve. Instead of picking one figure, set tiers based on tenure, customer value or program goals. The same principles also apply when deciding how to price survey rewards. Start with the value of the action you’re rewarding, the time or effort required and the audience you’re trying to reach and then set a reward that’s fair, consistent and proportionate.

Is Gifting Only for the Holiday Season?

The holidays are just once time in the year where you can reward your employees and others that are important to your business. A real appreciation program also recognizes work anniversaries, customer milestones and the other moments that matter. You would do well to acknowledge the small stuff too including a completed project, a referral, a birthday or someone showing up for the community.

The CEO Holiday Gifting Checklist

If you decide to implement a company holiday gifting program, take the time to answer the following questions. This will prevent most of the problems that surface in the final busy and frenetic weeks at the year draws to a close.

• What is our objective with our holiday gifting program?
• What is our budget and is it realistic?
• Who are we giving gifts to and why?
• Does our approach work for remote and international recipients?
• What is our communications strategy?
• Is the delivery process as simple as it could be?
• Who owns the program internally?
• How do we measure the success of our gifting program?

Make Appreciation Part Of Your Business Culture

The best holiday gifting programs don’t succeed because of the money thrown at them but rather because they’re well-thought-out and intentional. When appreciation is carefully planned rather than improvised, the holidays become less about sending gifts and more about strengthening the relationships a business depends on every day of the year.