23 Corporate Holiday Gifts Employees Won't Regift

The best test of corporate holiday gifts for employees is not whether people say thank you. Everyone says thank you. It is whether the thing is still in their house in March.

Most corporate gifts fail that test. Here are 23 that tend to pass, grouped by what they actually are.

Things people wear

The category with the best keep rate, because clothing either fits into someone's life or it does not, and they find out immediately.

1. Custom socks. Two sizes, so nothing is left over. People wear them to work and think about you on a Tuesday.
2. Knit beanies. Genuinely useful for about five months of the year in most of the country.
3. Merino wool scarves. The upgrade pick. Feels like a real gift rather than merch.
4. Custom blankets. Nobody has ever thrown away a good blanket.
5. Quarter zips. The safest apparel bet if you get sizing right, which is the whole difficulty.
6. Knit tote bags. Quietly the highest use rate of anything on this list.

Things on a desk or in a kitchen

7. A serious insulated bottle. Not the cheap ones. The difference is obvious in the hand.
8. A good desk lamp. Remote teams especially.
9. A notebook people would actually buy. Cheap notebooks are the most regifted object on earth.
10. A tech pouch. Solves a real daily annoyance.
11. A mug from a local ceramicist. Costs about the same as a printed one and reads completely differently.
12. A plant. Low cost, high delight, occasionally fatal. Send an easy one.

Things people eat and drink

Consumables have a hidden advantage: they cannot clutter anything, so there is no guilt in accepting them.

13. Coffee from one local roaster. One good bag beats a sampler of six mediocre ones.
14. A condiment or hot sauce set. Weirdly memorable.
15. Real olive oil. Most people have never bought themselves the good stuff.
16. Chocolate from an actual chocolatier. Not the tin.
17. A cocktail or mocktail kit. Include the non-alcoholic version by default.

Things that are not objects

18. A museum or zoo membership. Lands especially well with parents.
19. Audiobook or streaming credit. Unglamorous, heavily used.
20. An extra paid day off. The honest answer. Costs more than a mug and is worth more than everything above it.

Things that give something away

21. A donation to a cause the employee picks. The picking is the part that matters.
22. A product that funds something. Works when the giving is real and specific, fails when it is vague.
23. A company match on their charity of choice. Turns a gift into a statement about the company.

The two mistakes that sink most of these

Ordering late. Custom production runs four to six weeks, and December is the worst time to find out. For delivery by Christmas, the last day to order is December 7.

Ordering too few. Almost every client who runs short does it the same way: they count current headcount and forget new hires, contractors, the office that got left off the list, and the people who ask for a second pair. Order for the company you will have in December.

Where we fit

We make the first six, and they are the company gifts we know best. Knit in North Carolina, seamless toe, Y-stitched heel, designs knit into the sock rather than printed on top so they do not crack or fade.

Part of our profits go to nonprofits serving youth experiencing homelessness. Over $225,000 to date.

Working on this now? Tell us your headcount and where to send a sample pair. If you already have a budget range in mind, share it and we will tell you what it covers.