Christmas Favors and Corporate Gifts: The Ordering Calendar

December is the only month of the year when a gift arriving two days late is worse than no gift at all. Everything about holiday ordering follows from that. Here is the calendar we work to, and what it means for you.

The short version

• Corporate client gifts — order by the end of October
• Employee gifts and staff rooms — order by mid-November
• School and classroom parties — order by the end of November
• Family stockings and small orders — up to 100 pieces ships in three to five business days, so early December is usually fine

Our December production calendar fills from October. That is not a sales line, it is a scheduling fact: everything is poured by hand by two people, and the number of hours in a week does not change in December.

Working backwards from the date

For anything tied to a fixed day, the useful question is not “how long does it take” but “what is the last day you can accept my order.” We answer that one directly if you tell us the date.

The arithmetic looks like this. A run of 300 pieces takes around ten days to produce. Add shipping, which in the first three weeks of December is slower and less predictable than at any other time of year. Add a buffer, because a corporate gift that arrives on the 24th has missed the office party. That is roughly four weeks from order to safe arrival — which puts the deadline for a mid-December event at the middle of November.

Orders up to 100 pieces are a different case. Three to five business days production, ordinary shipping, and you can leave it much later.

What to order for what

Client gifts

Smaller runs, higher presentation. The gift is opened at a desk, often photographed, and the packaging carries as much weight as the contents. Branded presentation is available on orders from 300 pieces, and colours are matched to your brand at no extra charge. Our Christmas tree reads as the holiday without being childish, which matters when the recipient is a client rather than a colleague.

Employee gifts

Volume over presentation. Something at every desk or in every break room, usually in the company's colours. Price per piece drops as the run grows — $1.30 up to 100 pieces, $1.15 at 300, $1.05 at 500 — so an organisation of 280 people should look at the 300 tier before settling on 280.

Classrooms and school parties

The last week of term, one or two per child. Worth knowing: our lollipops contain no nuts, dairy, egg, soy or sesame — those ingredients are not used anywhere in our kitchen — and they are vegan and gluten free. In a class party that removes the separate-bag problem entirely. We wrote about that in more detail here.

Home and stockings

Small orders, late is fine. Hard candy also survives a stocking better than chocolate, which is not a small consideration in a warm house.

A note on shapes

We make two shapes designed for the season — an assortment of holiday forms including snowflakes, stars, trees, Santa and snowmen, and a standalone tree. But the more useful point is this: any shape we make can be poured in holiday colours. A star in red and gold, a heart in deep green, a flower in cranberry and cream — all read as Christmas without being Christmas-shaped, which is often what a company wants when the gift should feel seasonal but not themed.

Send us a palette and we mix to it. Hex codes are ideal; a logo file works.

Shipping and the weather

Two practical things about December.

Hard candy travels well — it does not melt, and individually wrapped pieces protect each other. The risk is breakage, not heat, and it is low: we pack for it.

The real December variable is the carrier. Transit times stretch in the second and third weeks, and a package that would take three days in October can take six. This is the single reason to order earlier than feels necessary. It is not our production time that catches people out, it is the post.

How many

One per recipient plus about 20% spare for an office; two per child for a classroom. Fuller numbers are in our quantity guide.

If you have left it late

Message us with the date and the quantity before you assume it is impossible. Small runs move fast, and we would rather tell you honestly that we cannot make a date than take an order we cannot deliver on.

Christmas lollipops · Request a corporate quote · Guide to branded corporate gifts