Christmas Gift Ideas for Colleagues

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…at least it was until you remembered that you need to sort gifts out for people in work - including your boss! Eeeeep!

You want them to feel appreciated but there’s that niggle in your head making you feel like you need to spend more than you’d like to to get them a decent gift and you certainly don’t want Sarah from marketing to give a more expensive bottle of wine and out do you. We get it - buying Christmas gifts for work colleagues can be tough.

So here’s a thought: why not do a team collection. Your boss gets a bottle of single malt rather than 4 mugs saying “best boss”, Evan in accounts gets a voucher for something he actually wants rather than a pile of chocolate boxes - and you might even do quite well out of it yourself.

One year, rather than getting a load of small presents, I got a voucher with which I bought a bluetooth speaker I’d had my eye on for a while. I was delighted!

“this time of year, obviously it's nice because you're all festive and everybody is happy to kind of take part and contribute.” - Irene, Collctiv user

We’ve put together a list of Christmas gift ideas for colleagues and how a gift collection could help you. Stay to the end to see how easy it is.

Colleague Christmas gifts you could afford on your own.

Here’s some things that you could get flying solo - assuming a budget of around £20/25….

• A weekly planner (you could even get this personalised!)
• A mug - especially one carrying a message like ‘Best Boss’ or ‘Hot Stuff’
• A fragranced candle
• A paperweight complete with inspirational quote
• Sweet treats
• A bottle of something cheeky (spirits, bubbles, wine)
• Smart Squeeze stress ball
• Hand cream set
• Wooden whiskey stone set

Lots of good stuff there I hope you’ll agree…..but compare that if you will to what you could get with a group gift;

Group gift ideas for colleagues for Christmas

• VIP treatment at a swanky Spa
• A self-heating mug
• Deluxe wooden chess set
• Supercar experience
• Michelin-star restaurant voucher
• Wine aerator and decanter
• Coffee machine (a proper one!)
• Cashmere scarf
• Personalised leather satchel or briefcase

Now we’re talking right?

A significant gift without the office politics of who got what and how much they spent….where anonymity is powerful! No ‘competition’ over who got the best present or chats at water cooler about favourites. And, if you’re not overly keen on your boss you can put in less than normal and they’ll never know! A win-win.

‘But it’s such a pain’ I hear you say! Not with Collctiv. We’ve taken the pain out of collecting money from groups. Simply download the app or visit collctiv.com/signup, create a pot, share the link on email, Slack, Teams, Whatsapp….anywhere, and start collecting immediately! People paying in don’t need to download anything. They receive one link and can pay in immediately. No more chasing around for the money you’re owed at the office Christmas party.

Still stuck for ideas? More xmas gift ideas for colleagues, by category.

Group gifting isn’t for everyone. We get that. You might be the only one that needs to buy for someone, or you might have someone you want to buy something for individually. Whether you’re group gifting or going on your own, here are some more gift ideas for your colleague’s this silly season.

Quirky Christmas gifts for colleagues

• A clearly impossible jigsaw - it’s literally entirely transparent!
• Toilet mini-golf set
• Dogs vs Cats Chess Set
• World’s smallest Jenga
• A Potato Pal - their face/your face….but on a potato. What’s not to love?
• A shower beer holder (I’ve already bought one whilst writing this blog!)
• A meat bouquet. Flowers are so last season, get them a bouquet of salami instead!
• Mini beer pong
• Cards against humanity

Premium Christmas Gifts

Nothing says premium like a branded hamper of goodies. Here’s our top suggestions (also good for group gifting….and expensive enough too!)

• The White Company calm hamper
• Christian Louboutin miniature Eau de Parfum set
• GHD Platinum+ Hair Straighteners
• Estee Lauder Transformative Face and Eye gift set
• Fortnum and Mason hamper
• Bang and Olufsen earphones
• Waterford Crystal Cocktail glasses

Personalised Christmas gifts

What about something that’s got them written all over it - I mean literally. Something personalised. Here are a few things that work really well as personalised gifts:

• Wooden chopping boards
• Pocket knife
• Leather luggage tags with initials
• Monogramed make up bag
• Notebook and pen set
• Wooden jewellery/cufflink box

The easy way to collect for group gifts for colleagues this Christmas

You’ve decided that a group collection is right for your colleague or boss and as an organiser, you’re going to take on the task. Kudos to you! If you’ve never used Collctiv before, it’s easy, it’s free and it’s going to save you being left out of pocket (it was started for exactly that reason - our CEO, Amy, was done being left out of pocket and designed an app that made it  easy not to be). It also keeps you trawling through your banking app trying to keep track of who has paid. All payments in one pot, away from your bank account.

The simple steps to start a collection:

• Download the app or visit collctiv.com/signup
• Set up a pot in seconds
• Share the unique payment link or QR code with your group in any communication channel
• Watch the money roll in

You want more, you say? Well how about this:

• people paying in just tap to pay; no need to download an app, create and account or do any banking
• they can leave a message to go in a card for the recipient when they pay in - a one stop shop!
• any contributions to Collctiv are optional when paying in or withdrawing
• you can get vouchers straight from your pot
• you can send the money to someone (either the recipient or someone buying the gifts)
• you can withdraw the money to your own bank account

Why Collctiv, rather than other options?

Sure, there are other ways to collect money from groups, though none of them are as easy as Collctiv. Here are some others and how they work:

• Bank transfer; sharing your account details across the office is just risky! Plus, it’s such a faff for people paying in, they just won’t. You’ll end up having to stump up the cash and then spend all of your time chasing people for it back. And no, a pint at the Christmas do isn’t ok - you want the money!
• Brown envelope; no-one carries cash, very few businesses are fully office-based anymore so trying to catch anyone in is nigh-on impossible and what are you going to do with any cash you do get? Spend your lunch finding a branch to pay it into?
• Other Collection apps - they’re slower, fiddlier and they’re not free. Collctiv is dedicated to staying simple, making it as easy as possible for both the organiser and the person paying in.

Download Collctiv and start collecting today!

Organisers bring people together.

Since 2019 Collctiv has helped over 2.4 million people from 175 countries come together by making it simple for Organisers to collect money from groups. Whether it's gifts for colleagues, group holidays or grassroots sports teams - **Sign up today** and start bringing people together!