Holiday hub · Planning

The season, on schedule

Holiday gifting has exactly one failure mode: starting too late for the gifts you wanted to give. Here's the plan that fits wherever you're starting from.

When are you starting?

The glide path

Start early, choose everything

Every option stays open: Custom Swag Packs, physical gifts, worldwide gift cards, the works. One planning session now and the season runs itself.

  1. Sept

    Set the budget and the strategy

    Per-person amounts by group: team, leadership, clients. Decide what's digital, what's physical, what's branded. One meeting, decided.

  2. Sept

    Load your recipients

    Right in the campaign setup: sync your HRIS, or add and upload your recipient list.

  3. Sep 15

    Lock Custom Swag Packs

    Branded orders need production time. This is the one deadline that can't flex, so it goes first.

  4. Oct 1

    Pick collections and gifts

    Choose from the holiday collections or build your own set. Recipient choice means these are starting points, not final answers.

  5. Oct 15

    Schedule every send

    Pick delivery dates for the whole season and approve the budget. After today, your part is done.

  6. Dec

    Watch it run

    Gifts land, swaps happen, thank-yous roll in. You check the dashboard, not a spreadsheet.

  7. Jan

    Report and carry it forward

    Pull redemption and engagement numbers while they're fresh. Then let automation handle birthdays and anniversaries all year.

The six-week plan

November start, nothing lost but the logo

Custom Swag Packs closed back in September, but everything else is fully on the table. Compress the decisions, keep the quality.

  1. Week 1

    Budget, picks, and list in one session

    Set amounts, choose collections, load recipients. With curated collections this is genuinely one working session, not a committee.

  2. Nov 14

    Schedule the season

    Everything queued: send dates, notes, budgets. The earlier in November this lands, the more room the physical deadlines leave you.

  3. Dec 1

    International recipients go digital

    Physical gifts ship domestically. For everyone abroad, gift cards land in minutes in 150+ countries — no customs, no cutoff.

  4. Dec 10

    Domestic physical last call

    The final window for shipped gifts to land before the holidays. After this, the digital lane carries the rest.

  5. Dec

    Let choice absorb the rush

    Recipients pick and swap on their own time. Nobody knows you started in November except you.

The two-week sprint

December start, still a great gift

Digital delivery has no cutoff, and the catalog has 4,500+ brands. A December campaign done this way beats a rushed physical one every time.

  1. Today

    Go digital, decide the amount

    Gift cards with recipient choice are the premium late option, not the fallback. Set per-person amounts and you're halfway done.

  2. Day 2

    Load the list, write the note

    Upload recipients and write a genuinely personal message. The note carries the gift; give it ten real minutes.

  3. Day 3

    Send or schedule

    Deliver today or pick the date. Gifts land in minutes, in 150+ countries, no addresses needed.

  4. Dec 24

    The real last call

    Same-day digital delivery works right up to the holiday itself. This is the deadline that saves the season.

  5. Jan

    Start next year in September

    Set up automation now while the scramble is fresh. Next December, you'll be the glide-path team.

The deadline ladder

Every cutoff on one page

Pin this. Each gifting lane has its own last call for pre-holiday delivery.

Sep 15Custom Swag PacksProduction plus shipping. The earliest deadline because it's the only one involving a factory.
Oct 15Season scheduledNot a hard cutoff, but the teams that schedule by mid-October never appear in the December horror stories.
Dec 10Physical giftsLast call for shipped gifts to arrive before the holidays. Shipping is domestic — international recipients go digital.
Dec 24Digital gift cardsSame-day delivery, worldwide. The lane with no cutoff.

Two buffers worth knowing: recipients often take a few days to open and choose their gift, so send a little earlier than the moment you care about. And if you're collecting addresses, add a week for stragglers.

The checklist

Eight boxes between you and done

  • Budget approved, per-person amounts set
  • Recipient list loaded or HR system synced
  • Gifts or collections chosen per group
  • Swag Packs ordered before the September cutoff
  • Personal notes written, not templated
  • Send dates scheduled for the whole season
  • International recipients routed to gift cards
  • January thank-you follow-up on the calendar
Picking the Happy Holidays design in the Gifted platform

Set up automation once and most of these boxes check themselves, this year and every year after.

“We use it for all birthdays and I love using Gifted to go beyond words with an out-of-the-blue recognition of a team member's effort. It's also easy to work with a budget to avoid red tape on gift approvals.”

Kristin Speer · Technology Practice Managing Partner, Westwood & Wilshire

Get December back

Whichever plan is yours, the first step is the same and it's free. Start today and the season stops being a deadline.

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