We get this question a lot. You’re ready to start planning for holiday, but you don’t want your gift to be too early…and you certainly don’t want your gift arriving late! When is the best time to send a holiday gift? I wish we had an easy answer for you, but it’s actually really complex.
Here are a few things to think about.
1. What size company are you ordering from? Smaller companies tend to need more time to handle an influx of orders. My local bookstore last year cut off holiday orders on December 7th! Over 2 weeks before Christmas. I ordered some planters from Etsy last year and I underestimated the shipping time and they ended up arriving about a week late. So, if shopping small is important to you (cheers to those of you who shop small!), you’ll want to get your orders in around Thanksgiving if you are shipping to your home for an in-person holiday celebration, and earlier if you’re shipping to your home, wrapping the gift and then shipping.
2. Are you ordering something that is made-to-order? As an example, our Turkish Towels are very popular. They can be made in almost any color, so our corporate clients often purchase custom colors to go with their brand palette. Then, they may put together a specific mix of products to create their custom luxury branded corporate gifts. We may be biased, but we think this is such a great way for businesses to really elevate their corporate gift boxes! However, these do take time. Our towels are hand-loomed in Turkey. It can take 3 months to get the custom towels in hand. So, for these clients, we need about a 4-month lead time! So, basically…let’s get the order in…now.
3. What quantity do you need? Most companies keep a limited amount of product on-hand. So, if you are going to go really heavy on one particular item, it’s possible they will need a longer lead time in order to replenish their stock from their suppliers.
4. Will the person you are sending the gift to be home during the holidays? How many of you travel during the holidays? You certainly don’t want your gift to be sitting on your recipients’ doorstep for 2 weeks, right? And if they work at an office, it’s reasonable to think they might not be back until after the new year!
5. What holiday does your recipient celebrate? This question probably sounds funny to those of you purchasing family gifts. But, for corporate clients, you may not know if the recipient celebrates Hanukkah, Christmas, or another holiday. This year Hanukkah begins on November 29th. Keeping in mind that not everyone celebrates on December 25th, you may want to order a few weeks ahead of time to ensure your gift arrives before the recipient’s primary holiday.
There are some other benefits with sending gifts early. They often receive more attention because they don’t get lost in the mix with other gifts arriving right at the holiday. It opens up more holiday-themed gifts the recipient will have time to use – a holiday-scented candle, snowflake socks, or a ticket to a holiday activity like ice skating. If it’s a gift for a group, such as an office gift, you’re also more likely to catch more people if you send it prior to people leaving for vacation.
As you can see there is a lot to consider when trying to time your holiday orders. What do we recommend for beCAUSE minded? While it’s not a hard cut-off, we recommend purchasing Christmas gifts by December 5th if you’re not ordering anything that is custom-made (i.e. branded corporate gifts or custom colors). This means your gift would arrive between December 6th and 15th. We ship all the way through December 23rd, but with FedEx and vacation schedules, it can get dicey when you ship too close to the holiday, so getting your order in early is definitely the way to go!
We hope this helps you plan your amazing holiday gifting this season!
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