A Miscellany of Christmas Gifts

Glitzy, funny, edible, quaffable, electrical – corporate Christmas gifts come in all guises.

Why do we do it every year? We all know Christmas happens at the end of December and that we really should think about in, in a corporate way, in August or September, and the sensible and organised of you will have done so. But there will still be hoards of people (including me) who have yet to order their corporate Christmas cards and gifts, even though (as in my case) it's been on the 'list of things to do' for months.

Well, this corporate Christmas gift feature should give you food for thought. Whether you want a gift to amuse or impress, to tickle the taste buds or to tune into your customers' techie side, it's all here. And talking of tickling taste buds, lets start with …..

TASTY TREATS
There is nothing more traditional than giving or receiving a hamper at Christmas time. The Corporate Merchandise Company CMC supplies a range of festive hampers to suit any budget including the Christmas Hamper, a traditional hamper, filled with a wonderful assortment of classic festive fayre and fine wine (prices from £65.00) and the Luxury Xmas Hamper, a premium hamper filled with a fabulous collection of indulgent goodies including wine, Champagne and a wide selection of sweet and savoury seasonal foods. (Prices from £185.00). www.cmc-uk.net

John Lewis Solutions for Business is offering 'fresh' hampers for the very first time, with an array of the finest fresh produce available, complimented by an assortment of other fine gourmet treats. Products include fresh cheeses, smoked salmon, savoury game pies and other fresh cold meats. The refresher hamper at £85 is proving a popular addition to the new hamper range. www.johnlewis.com/Help/Help.aspx?HelpId=10

From Procurement International comes the PocketSurfer2, an ultra-portable device that easily fits into a pocket or bag and delivers the real web, just like at home, or at work. Weighing in at just 174 grams the PocketSurfer2 allows you to browse the web in its original layout on a full colour wide screen display using a mouse cursor and a full backlit QWERTY keyboard making it the most usable hand-held web device around. It doesn't hang about either, with page-load times of under seven seconds over GPRS. www.procurement.ltd.uk

SWEET TREATS
Everyone loves receiving a sweet treat throughout the festive period and Sweet Temptations has a wide range of confectionery ideally suited to Christmas gifting initiatives. Here are just a two:

Mini Mincelets: These individual bite sized mince pies, presented in attractive printed flow wrapper, make an ideal Christmas incentive gift. (Price: 33p each, minimum order quantity: 2,400 units, lead time: 3-4 weeks from artwork approval.)

Mini Panatonne Cakes: These traditional Italian favourites come beautifully presented in a stunning gift box, which can be fully branded with your companies' logo in up to four colour print. (Price: £3.83, minimum order quantity: 1,020 units.)

For those yet to do their corporate Christmas shopping, Sweet Temptations has developed an Express Delivery Service specifically to facilitate late and last minute orders on selected products. Whilst this service has been introduced to accommodate late Christmas orders, Sweet Temptations intend to offer their express delivery service as a year round proposition. www.sweettemptations.com

COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS
Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without the chocolate Advent calendar. CMC offers a Fairtrade Desk Top Advent calendar. These bespoke chocolate advent calendars make counting down the remaining days until Christmas so much sweeter! Each one contains 24 luxury Belgian chocolates. (Guide price: 250 at £3.33 each.) www.cmc-uk.net

And if you leave it too late to send an Advent calendar, how about one of GroovyChocolate's Unique 12 Days of Christmas chocolate calendars. 12 windows with a delicious piece of Belgian chocolate and windows numbered 1 - 12. Use either to count down to Christmas or Epiphany. (Min order 100, delivery 2 – 3 weeks.) GroovyChocolate also have a range of Christmas chocolate products, including traditional Christmas coins and chocolate tree decorations. www.groovychocolate.com

GLITZY GIFTS
However, if you prefer a real Christmas bauble, then you still have time. With a 4-week lead-time, all Business Baubles' finest quality baubles are sourced from mainland Europe. With just 500 baubles as the minimum order, it is not too late to place your order, any colour, any message using ink or glitter. Tailor make your very own personalised baubles for gifting, sending as a Christmas card alternatives, in-house decorations or Christmas event themeing, fund raising, brand merchandise ….. the possibilities are endless. www.businessbaubles.co.uk

The incredibly chic 'In the Pink' USB Flash Drive has a capacity of 1Gb, is simply indispensable and would be 'just the thing' for a girly Christmas gift. Use the 1Gb to store music, images and important files. It also makes transferring files from one computer to another really easy – no more messing around with old floppy disks or CD's! www.digitalera.co.uk

FESTIVE FUN
The Father Christmas Sticky Note Dispenser and Christmas Tree Shaped Post-its from CMC make writing those endless 'to-do' lists much more fun. You can even use them to write your Christmas present list! (Father Christmas Sticky Note Dispenser: guide price: 500 at £1.30 each. Christmas Tree Shaped Post-its: guide price:1000 at £0.72 each.) www.cmc-uk.net

TECHIE TREATS
For those with bigger budgets this JVC Camcorder from The Electric Incentive Company could be the perfect Christmas gift to capture all those special festive moments from the office party. This easy to use HDD/SD hybrid camera boasts a powerful 34x Optical Zoom, 800x digital zoom and a massive 30 GB hard disk drive – offering up to 37.5 hours of recording time. The device incorporates an 'easy-view' 2.7" wide screen colour LCD and comes complete with its own remote control. Price £330 VAT. www.the-eic.co.uk

From Print Run comes the Mini Digital Photo Frame so you can store and keep precious images close at hand. With a high quality digital picture and 2mb of member, you can store approx 50 jpegs, depending on side. The clever device also acts as an alarm, calendar and slide show. (Min order 100, unit cost approx £15.) www.printrun.com

HELP WITH CHRISTMAS CHAOS
Giving gifts on a corporate scale isn't just about perusing catalogues and choosing pressies. With a large scale gifting programme you've got to get to grips with fulfilment and delivery. Clear Prospects can not only offer product sourcing but also, UK warehousing, pick, pack and dispatch services, contract packing, stock control system, storage racking and palletisation, packaging provision and a dispatch services with most major carriers. www.clearprospects.com

We've covered gifts large and small, simple and technical, tasty and glitzy, but if you're still looking for that special something, try clicking the many links to the websites of the companies mentioned here. All these companies are just teaming with ideas, advice and information to help you make the correct Christmas gift choice that will ensure your company name remains in front of those who matter.

Finally, if you are reading this smug in the knowledge that all your cards are written, your gifts and brought wrapped and labelled, I hope it's given you some inspiration for next year.

Carole Bull
Editor

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