Send Yourself a Sample
A stress-free guide for getting employee gifting done on time and on budget
The holidays are knocking on your office door, and you still need to make sure your people feel appreciated for all their hard work.
We’ve got you covered.
Whether you’re sending gifts to 30 employees or 30,000, this guide gives you:
This playbook is built for busy teams navigating tight budgets, distributed workforces, and the pressure to make gifts feel meaningful and personal without giving you hand cramps from writing 100 notes in ink.
Before you pick a platform, write a message, or ask your designer for a branded anything, start with how much you’re going to give.
So, how much is the right amount?
It depends on your company’s size, structure, and what holiday gifting means in the context of your broader employee rewards strategy.
There’s a common tendency to break out gifting into tiers, like $50-$100 for employees and $150-$200 for managers, for example.
Tiers make sense on paper, but they can also create jealousy, confusion, and the sense that some people are worth more than others.
Ultimately, we go against the grain here. We think consistency in your employee rewards and employee appreciation programs matters more than the amount you’re giving.
If you’re not prepared to defend the difference between a $75 gift and a $125 gift, then don’t. Instead, give everyone at your company a gift worth the same amount.
A flat $75 gift companywide might be the simplest way to show appreciation without sparking debate. It’s fairer and faster.
We believe salaries and bonuses are better ways to handle employee tiers and individual contributions. Holiday gifting is about recognizing teamwork companywide.
After reviewing programs from hundreds of companies and checking out industry benchmarks from sources like the Society for Human Resources Managers, Incentive Research Foundation, and other internal HR data, we consistently see organizations that spend more than 1% of payroll on employee recognition experience better results.
Once you’ve landed on a number, your next move is getting someone to approve it.
If it’s already late in the year, you don’t have time to make a case through a slide deck. So, start by going directly to the person who owns the budget for employee recognition spend.
Show them you’ve already thought through this by:
By giving them the answers, you avoid giving them more work. That makes it easier for them to say yes, and to say yes quickly.
Once you have your budget approved, you need to figure out how much runway you have and adjust your approach to match.
If you’re working with four to six weeks, you can segment recipients based on departments, or job roles, or location. You can give managers time to add personal messages. It’s ideal, but by no means required.
With two weeks to go, you’ll need to focus on delivering a flexible, digital gift with short, simple messages.
If you’ve got less than a week, it’s time to standardize the gift amount, turn to a platform that allows bulk sending and instant delivery, and write short messages.
This is the ideal window because you’ve got plenty of time, but not so much that momentum will die halfway through the project.
You’re not behind. You just need to prioritize speed and simplicity.
Don’t worry, Giftly has your back here
Where most gifting programs go off the rails is not because of the gift itself. It usually comes down to how the gift was delivered, or how the recipient perceived the intent behind the gift.
If you send a branded hoodie, for example, an employee is probably going to shrug and stuff it in the back of their closet. Not ideal, but not the end of the world. If that hoodie doesn’t show up until the new year though, now it looks thoughtless both because it was generic and it was late.
In theory, it’s nice to have something for your employees to actually open. But physical gifts come with lots of complications at the holidays.
For one, shipping is expensive and can eat into your budget. You end up getting less stuff, or less nice stuff, for your spend. It’s also difficult to personalize physical gifts without extra budget. And not everybody wears a size small, or loves the color blue.
On top of that, shipping snafus happen. When they do, you risk your gifts arriving late or, in a nightmare scenario, not arriving at all.
If you’re set on sending something physical, make sure you start early (like September). Otherwise, you’re best off going digital.
Most companies say they want their gifting program to “feel personal”. The problem is, they stop at simply uploading names into an email template.
You should go a step further. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, but if you reference a team achievement, or even include a sentence from a manager who knows the recipient best, it goes a long way.
If your gift feels like it could have been sent by anyone and to anyone, it will feel more like a box you checked instead of a gift you gave.
It’s easy to picture the people we see every day. When team members are in the office, we pass them in the hallway, or grab lunch with them across the street. But as workforces have shifted, so has the dynamics of what makes a team. Holiday gifting needs to follow suit.
Your remote employees shouldn’t feel like they're an afterthought when it comes to holiday celebrations. In-person events can be great, but if you have people outside the office, it comes across that they matter less than the people closest to HQ.
Digital delivery solves a lot of that. It gives every employee the same experience of receiving a thoughtful message, a nice gift, and a moment to feel recognized for their hard work.
When that experience is consistent no matter where someone lives or works, it tells everyone in the organization that they are part of what makes the company great. That’s what most people want at the end of the year: a reminder that their work mattered and someone noticed.
The end of the year means different things to different people. For some, it’s Christmas. For others it’s Diwali, Hanukkah, the Lunar New Year or, heck, nothing at all. Some people love the season, while others are just trying to make it through.
That’s why it’s important to be inclusive. Use language in your holiday communications that leaves space for everyone. Think “holiday appreciation” instead of “Christmas cheer”.
Your managers want to do the right thing, but knocking out the Q4 list is already a heavy lift. If you expect them to keep up with custom messages, handle logistics, or act as delivery drivers to make your holiday gifting program work, it may not get done the way you hope.
That doesn’t mean managers shouldn’t be involved. In fact, they can help make the gift more personal, if you give them tools that make it easier.
Try asking them to fill in a few, short blanks on a pre-written template you’ve drafted. Or, ask them to send you a short list of team accomplishments for you to include in the note to the team.
Offer them ready-to-send messages they can use to communicate with their team about the gifts. Also make sure to give managers a heads up before you launch the gift program so they feel informed and involved without feeling overwhelmed.
If you do decide to send a digital gift, it’s important to follow up with employees. Or, to use a tool that does it for you.
After all, inboxes get full during the holidays. Your gifts are likely to land during peak vacation time. That makes it easier for them to get overlooked, and then your nice message of appreciation gets lost too.
Make sure to hit a few touchpoints that share details about the gift. Give them instructions on how to redeem it and emphasize your thanks for their hard work this year.
After you’ve sent out gifts, send a follow up message to anyone who hasn’t redeemed their gift.
If you are using digital gifts, think carefully about delivery. If you are sending gifts out by email, consider whether your employees all have and regularly check their work emails.
Many frontline workers like construction crews or hospital nurses don’t necessarily keep a close eye on email.
If that’s the case, make sure your gift provider offers a text option. You have to make the same consideration of whether your team is regularly on their phones, but the odds are better that most people have smartphones you can send a text message to.
If your workforce doesn’t have access to that kind of tech, or is just unlikely to look at it often, you should work with a gift provider that can also send physical cards.
Ultimately, remember you need to be able to meet people where they’re at when you send them their gifts.
Here are three simple templates to support your internal rollout for a digital holiday gift.
Each one reinforces the message behind the gift: we see you, we appreciate you, and we want this to be easy to use.
Use them as-is, or adjust the tone to match your brand. What matters most is that your team hears from you clearly, and more than once.
Subject: A gift to say thank you
Body:
Hi [First Name],
As we wrap up the year, we want to take a moment to say thank you. Your focus and creativity, and the care you put behind your work made a real impact.
To show our appreciation, we’re sending you a holiday gift you can choose and redeem on your own time. You’ll receive a separate email with your gift and a link to redeem it. Keep an eye out! It’ll arrive by [Date].
If you have questions or run into issues, you can always reach out to [Support Contact].
Thanks again for everything you’ve done this year. We’re glad you’re here.
– [Your Team Name / Leadership / Company Name]
Subject: Your holiday gift from [Company Name] is here
Body:
Hi [First Name],
Your holiday gift is in your inbox!
You’ll be able to choose how you’d like to receive it, whether that’s ACH, PayPal, or a prepaid, physical card.
If you have any questions, reply to this email or reach out to [Support Contact].
We hope you enjoy it. You’ve earned it.
– [Company Name]
Subject: Don’t forget to redeem your holiday gift
Body:
Hi [First Name],
Just a quick reminder to redeem your holiday gift from [Company Name], if you haven’t already.
It only takes a minute to choose and redeem your gift. If you missed the original message or need help, you can reach out to [Support Contact].
Thanks again for everything you brought to the team this year.
– [Your Team Name / Leadership / Company Name]
The best holiday gifts are the ones that employees are excited to use because they already fit into their lifestyle.
Your holiday gifting program should offer a range of options to reflect the many personalities and interests on your team.
Here are some ideas that work across roles, locations, lifestyles, and preferences. Use these just as a starting point, not a definitive list.
Give employees the opportunity to enjoy a meal at home with their family or out with their friends.
Gifts that support rest, relaxation, and recovery help employees come back for the new year feeling refreshed and ready to work.
Experience-based gifts create memories. They’re a strong option for employees who prefer doing over owning, and they work well across age groups.
Charity-focused gifts give employees a sense of purpose and impact. They’re especially powerful when paired with values-driven messaging from leadership.
Not every gift has to be something people can hold or spend. Time is often the thing employees want most and get the least. Give people space to unplug, rest, or give back.
If you’re unsure what to offer, flexible spending options like Giftly are the best bet.
A platform like Giftly lets you brand your card and include a personalized message, so it is just as thoughtful (and even more useful) than any gift you can come up with for your team.
A holiday gift is a great way to cap a successful year for your team. But the best employee appreciation programs don’t stop in December.
To really create a company culture of recognition, you should use your holiday gift to launch into a year-round program.
Start by tracking redemptions from your holiday gifts. That helps you understand what worked and what didn’t. Who opened the email? Who used their gift? Who didn’t, and if something fell flat, why?
Beyond the redemption data like Giftly provides, you can send out a two-question survey:
Think of it like a Net Promoter Score for your recognition and rewards program. Asking for this kind of feedback shows employees you’re committed to making their experience at the company better.
With all this data in hand, start thinking about frequency. Build in smaller, more frequent moments of recognition throughout the year. These can be spot bonuses for team wins, “just because” gifts on holidays like Employee Appreciation Day, or thank you notes and shoutouts during the week.
The more consistent you are with these moments of recognition, the more your end-of-year holiday gifting will feel like part of an intentional culture and not just a performance put on by leadership at the holidays.
A holiday gift won’t fix burnout or undo a tough quarter. But it can show people they matter and their work didn’t go unnoticed.
So whether you’re sending something simple or building a full campaign, know this: it’s worth doing. And it’s worth doing with care.
Need help launching your gifting program?
Whether you're working on a tight deadline or planning for next quarter, we can help you build a simple, scalable, on-brand experience. Let’s talk.
Gifts & Rewards Perfectly Suited to Your Business. Easy to send. Awesome to receive.
Gifts & Rewards Perfectly Suited to Your Business. Easy to send. Awesome to receive.
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