Secret Santa and Corporate Gifts: Thoughtful Ideas for the Office and Your Clients

Office gifting is its own particular puzzle. You are buying for someone you see every day but might not know well. The gift has to be generally liked, not too personal, not too cheap-looking, and it usually has to come in under a set price. It is no wonder so many Secret Santa gifts end up being chocolate.

Client gifts are harder again. A thank-you to the business that sent you work all year should feel generous, and it should reflect well on you. Here is what we suggest for both.

Secret Santa: one good thing, well chosen

Most office Secret Santas land somewhere between $15 and $25. At that price, the trick is to buy one thing that is clearly nice rather than two or three that are clearly filler.

Desk pieces are the safest bet, because everyone has a desk. The Made of Tomorrow Sticky Notes in Slate or Maison are the kind of stationery people notice, and the Memobottle Universal Desk Stand keeps a flat water bottle upright and out of the way of keyboards.

For a colleague whose taste you know a little better, a single SANTAL perfume oil is a small luxury, and the Ecoya Fragranced Hand Cream is a gift almost nobody minds receiving twice.

If the rules allow a little more, the Ecoya Car Diffuser is our favourite answer to "I have no idea what they like". Everyone who drives to work has a car that could smell better.

Client gifts that reflect well on you

A client gift is a small piece of your brand arriving on someone else's desk. It should look considered, be useful or beautiful, and ideally be something they can share with the team or take home.

Home fragrance is a strong choice because it works in an office or at home. The Ecoya Fragranced Reed Diffuser comes boxed in two sizes. Ecoya rates the 200ml at up to six months, which means your thank-you is still in the room well into winter.

For a more masculine-leaning client or a mixed team, the Smith & Co. Tabac & Cedarwood Hand & Body Wash is warm and woody, and looks good on any bathroom bench, including the office one.

Gift sets save a great deal of time when you are buying several at once. The Best of the Best Perfume Oil Trio holds SANTAL, ROUGE and GYPSY in one box, and our Gift Sets collection gathers the rest.

For your most important relationships

For the one or two clients who really matter, give something that will stay in view all year. The 2027 Stendig Calendar is a design icon that hangs on the wall for twelve months, which is a long time to be quietly remembered.

Buying for a team in Tauranga?

If you are a local business buying several gifts at once, come in and see us at 270 Maunganui Road, Mount Maunganui. We are open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm, and we offer complimentary gift wrapping in store and online, which takes one job off your list in the busiest month of the year. If you cannot get into the shop, you can order online and we will send them to you.

Supporting a local shop with your end-of-year gifting also keeps more of that spend in the Bay, something we wrote about in why your choice to shop small matters.

In Short

Good Secret Santa gifts usually cost $15 to $25 and work best as one clearly nice item, such as quality sticky notes, a desk stand for a water bottle, a single perfume oil, a hand cream or a car diffuser. Good client gifts look considered and can be enjoyed at work or at home: boxed reed diffusers, a woody hand and body wash, perfume oil gift sets, or a Stendig calendar for the most important relationships. Flux Boutique at 270 Maunganui Road, Mount Maunganui, is open Monday to Saturday 10am to 4pm, offers complimentary gift wrapping in store and online and ships orders across New Zealand.