Small christmas gifts for staff now they are WFH

[booboo57]

any ideas? In previous years I have bought the teams I work with Advent calanders. It's harmless fun. Solves lots of problems of whether to give a proper gift or not, whether to send card or not, comparison jealosuly (always give them all the same one). Low cost/token present so no one feels the need to recepricate. Also do it on 1 December so sets the tone/expectation and bit of fun opening windows at work together etc, etc.
The logistics this year are a bit of nightmare with everyone wfh. They don't seem to fit an A4 envelope so will have to buy a load of larger ones or should I get jiffy bags. I'll have to check the personal bits of their Personnel records to get their address. I'll have to go down to the post office to post them all and frankly a bit scared of the PO as I'm vulnenable. I was hoping to keep it under a £5 each and one thing the same for all genders and ages. My team is 9 people. I want to do something nice but it's stressing me out.

[Penville]

I’m sure no-one will mind if you don’t do it this year, it sounds like a nice office tradition but not something people will be expecting in a Covid WFH scenario.

If you did want to do something a card seems the obvious choice but I guess you’re trying to avoid the precedent? You did mention cards are problematic.

Not the cheapest solution but if you really want to do advent calendars you could buy them each one from Amazon? You’d still need to look up the addresses but it solves the packaging/post office issues.

www.amazon.co.uk/Lindt-107609641-Advent-Calendar-160g/dp/B00654DUJI/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=advent%20calendar&qid=1605539186&sr=8-3&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[starsinyourpies]

I also usually do a desk drop of token edible gift with a card but think I'm going to have to skip it this year!

[ferneytorro]

Watching this with interest as I would usually buy my team of 9 something at Christmas. Last year I got them a small hotel chocolat gift but I can imagine the postage will be more than the gift! Hoping others have good ideas. Big boss will probably be doing online vouchers for the whole department but I wanted something to post.

[Rosiethepig]

May be cheaper to post a card with a small chocolate in it
...mini chocolate santa or similar as this will be in a small envelope?

[TeaOneSugar]

I usually only buy for direct reports, I was thinking of getting something delivered directly, not sure what yet. Sending a gift set from M&S or Hotel Chocolate seems less thoughtful but appropriate to the current circumstances. It'll be more expensive definitely.

[daisydalrymple]

How about a pair of Christmas socks each, with a net of chocolate coins? Can easily pick up at Asda / M&S depending on your preference. Still send for 1st December.

[HiyaMeAgain]

Have a look on Etsy, some fun gift ideas on there, and some include fee postage

[Pumperthepumper]

Scratch cards?

[Barmbraic]

Could you do a digital advent calendar? I googled there and the first one was coming up at about £3 per person for 9 calendars. You enter their email address and they get a link. You could open them together on a team call/coffee break each day.

[Happenchance]

I wouldn't post chocolate if any of your staff have dogs. It's toxic to them and lots of dogs get to the post before their owners.

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

Can you just do digital vouchers £5.00 Each and do Costa or Greggs or somewhere staff can grab a takeaway coffee/cake?

[Sadik]

Orchard cards do advent calendar cards - they cost about £3.50 each and go as normal letter post.

[Sadik]

Meant to say, they do loads of different ones, so you could get a different card/calendar for each team member & compare pics etc if you do zoom meetings (no chocolate included!)

[booboo57]

Lots of suggestions thank you. I really want to do something as they've been brilliant adjusting to the whole wfh thing .

[LemonDrizzles]

A good quality but fun pen. Maybe some funky post it's?

[ferneytorro]

Some good ideas. I've just looked at Tesco and they do a virtual gift card that, when the recipient clicks on it, has a little animation that opens the envelope, "glitter" come out and shows your message. You can preview before you buy.

[tentative3]

If you decide to stick with advent calendars you can buy postage online and print and stick it to the jiffy bags, plus Royal Mail rolled out a load of parcel post boxes which should take an advent calendar sized parcel, so no need to go into the post office assuming you can acquire jiffy bags some other way.