There's a particular kind of dread that sets in around the second week of December. You know the one, a spreadsheet with everyone's names on it, half a dozen unread emails from suppliers, and a horrible suspicion that the “lovely” hamper you ordered in a hurry is actually just a jar of chutney and some crackers wearing a ribbon.
We've watched it happen every year, to businesses who are brilliant at everything else and somehow still leave gifting until the last possible fortnight. So, consider this your gentle intervention. September might feel early to be thinking about Christmas (the leaves have barely turned) but it's exactly the right moment to get your gifting sorted while you can still think straight, and while your choices haven't been narrowed down to “whatever's still in stock.”
Here's what we'd tick off, in order, if it were us…
1. Work out who's actually getting a gift
Before anything else, get the list down on paper - properly, not just “clients and the team.”
Split it by relationship: your top-tier clients, your wider client base, your internal team, and anyone else who's quietly kept your business running this year (suppliers, freelancers, that one IT contact who always picks up the phone). The gift doesn't need to be the same for everyone, and honestly, it shouldn't be. A gift that says “thank you for a brilliant year” to your biggest client should feel different to the one that says “you're part of the team” to someone in your office.
2. Set a real budget
Not a ballpark figure scribbled on a Post-it, an actual number, broken down by recipient tier, agreed with whoever signs off the spend. Doing this in September means you're deciding calmly, with the whole picture in front of you, rather than approving whatever number lands on your desk in the last week of November because there's no time left to argue about it.
3. Note any dietary needs or preferences
If you're sending food and drink hampers to a list of any real size, someone on it will be vegan, gluten-free, or simply not a fan of stem ginger. It takes ten minutes to flag this now and saves an awkward email exchange in December when everyone's patience is thinner. It also means your gifts arrive genuinely thoughtful, rather than thoughtful with an asterisk.
4. Decide how personal you want to go
This is where the interesting decisions live. A ready-made hamper is a lovely, reliable choice for a longer list. But if you want your top clients to feel like more than a line on a spreadsheet, a bespoke selection, built around their business, their tastes, even their brand colours. This is where the real impression gets made. Neither is wrong. It's just worth deciding deliberately, rather than by default.
5. Sort out delivery details, especially for remote or hybrid teams
If your team or client list is spread across multiple offices, home addresses, or time zones, this is the checklist item most likely to catch you out in a rush. Get addresses confirmed now, while people are actually checking their inbox, rather than chasing them in the second week of December when half your recipients are already on leave.
6. Think about the message, not just the gift
A handwritten note, a well-worded card, a line that sounds like it came from a person rather than a template. These are the little details that turn a nice hamper into a gift someone remembers. Worth drafting your messaging now, while you've got the headspace to get it right, rather than typing “Thank you for your business this year!” into forty cards at 6pm on a Friday.
7. Commit to your supplier before the end of September
Suppliers who do this properly (bespoke branding, handwritten notes, seamless multi-location delivery) can only take on so much before the calendar fills up. The businesses who get the best of our time, our attention and our detail are the ones who come to us early. It's not a countdown clock or a flashing banner, just a genuinely better outcome for anyone who decides early rather than late.
8. Set your own deadline (earlier than you think you need to)
Whatever your supplier's actual last order date turns out to be, build in a buffer before it. Real life happens: someone's away, an address bounces, a client list needs one more round of sign-off. Giving yourself a week of breathing room is the difference between “sorted” and “sorted, but only just.”
That's it - 8 things, all doable well before Mariah starts playing on the radio. None of it is complicated. It just needs doing now, while September still feels like it belongs to you, rather than in December, when it very much won't.
If all of this seems like too much on top of your usual workload, you’re in luck. Our team takes all the stress out of gifting, we're here to help you build the list, plan the budget and the bespoke bits. We make gifting for businesses easy, and we'd genuinely like to help you get ahead of it this year.
Book in for a call today and you’ll likely qualify for our Early Commitment Offer. When you commit to your 2026 order early you’ll get a complimentary hamper, priority fulfilment and dedicated account management, with the reward scaling the larger you commit.
Caaren x