Gift-Giving Tips for the Holiday Season by Rose Colonna & Jennifer Colonna, Tasteful Treats & Treasures

The holiday season can be a whirlwind of a time as we search for the perfect presents for friends, family, clients and business partners. It can be especially difficult to figure out what the right fit is for each, all while sticking to a budget. Tasteful Treats & Treasures, a premiere gifting company located in Westchester County, spends the whole year creating custom gifts that work for every occasion and budget. Here, Rose Colonna, President, and Jennifer Colonna, Director of Sales & Marketing, take some time to share some of their best gift-giving tips to make sure businesses and consumers are able to maximize their dollar during the holiday season and beyond.

How do you pick the right gift for a friend or family member?

When selecting a gift for someone with whom you have a personal relationship, the best thing to do is make a list of the person’s likes and ask yourself what would make them smile. For someone who likes to cook, you can buy all the ingredients for a recipe and wrap it up beautifully. For a college student, you could put together a survival kit with snacks and school supplies. Another idea is to make a donation to the person’s favorite charity in their name; if they like animals, maybe a donation to the local humane society. A good gift doesn’t necessarily have to be store bought; you can print out a picture, put it in a frame and wrap it beautifully. You can also do your homework – many people have wish lists on Amazon.com. Any particular thought and consideration of special details about your recipient will always help in choosing the right gift.

How do you pick the right gift for a client or business associate?

Gourmet gifts usually work well in an office setting, because who doesn’t like to eat? Your best bet is to go for an assortment of sweets and savories to appeal to everyone’s palate. The gift should be easily sharable, like a giant box of assorted candy, nuts or cookies. A basket of fruit is another good corporate gift that can accommodate people who have allergies or are on special diets. However, you have to be careful with perishable items and should always make sure the recipient will be in the office to accept the gift. If you send a box of fancy cheeses to someone’s office and they happened to be away for the week, there will be a foul odor coming from that person’s desk by the time they return. You should also consider location when gift-giving, as it may be cold in December in New York but a box of chocolates sent to a warm climate state like Arizona could melt by the time the recipient opens the package.

How do you create a budget for gift-giving?

There is no need to go into debt to give gifts. It’s all about establishing an amount that you feel comfortable with while considering how many people you would like to buy gifts for. We service a large corporate base, and a lot of our clients will use a tiered gifting structure with different price points. There’s nothing wrong with giving the same token gift to a lot of people – most of the time they will appreciate the thought that you’re actually giving them something.

Should a business give out gifts to clients? What about a party? How do they choose?

A lot of businesses look at the holidays as an opportunity to thank employees and clients. Some companies choose to make a donation to a charity, some have parties and some give gifts. In the case of a holiday party, it’s not a gift per se but food, drinks and entertainment are a part of celebration and you are thanking them. A person that is throwing a party can order smaller gifts or unique promotional items and then a table can be decorated at the function to display them.

Why is great gift wrapping so important?

When giving a great gift it’s all about the presentation. Attention to details like what wrapping to use, which colors to include in a bow, is the perfect way to add that ‘wow factor’ and personalize. If your gift vendor has a ribbon-printing machine it enables you to include a logo, company or baby name for example, even a special message. It is all part of gift wrapping which can truly make a gift event that much more special.

You can get an inexpensive box of chocolates for $5 or $10 dollars and take that box and wrap it beautifully to make it look like a hundred-dollar gift. When I worked in advertising, there was a printer who every year sent me a giant Hershey’s bar wrapped in a big red bow. And I loved it!

How important is customization vs. just giving out the same thing to everyone?

Customization is really important and comes in different forms for both corporate and personal. Many corporations are very much into their branding and corporate logo and sometimes they just want it on everything. It’s a beautiful presentation that reinforces their brand. Last year, several of our clients received rave reviews for logo chocolate truffles. Customization also shows more thought went into the gift and people appreciate that.

Sometimes you can customize the gift to the industry. One year for a financial company client, we ordered chocolate-covered gold bars with the company’s logo on them. Customized gifts like that have an impact when the client receives it because it relates to what they do. We have also done buckets of snack mixes that look like paint cans for a painting company, little doctor bags full of treats for a medical practice and wooden toy trucks filled with nuts for a trucking company. We have several customers who want something different every year.

If you’re sending out a promotional item, your name remains on the person’s desk all year long and that’s a lot to be said for customization, whereas food gifts make a big impact but after a few hours the food is gone. A wicker basket is not always the best option. A keepsake base enables the gift basket to be remembered long after the treats are gone.

How does a consumer or businessperson pick the right gifting company? What should they look for?

Will they customize a gift for you? Everybody shops in the big warehouse stores, but your clients do too and will know not much thought process went into a gift basket straight from the shelves of a big warehouse. If you’re going to go that route, package the item yourself nicely instead of just giving it to someone as is off the shelf. There is also something to be said for shopping locally where there is usually more personal oversight over your order and supporting the local community at the same time. A client of ours once used a big box company to send a sympathy gift. When the gift arrived at its destination, the ribbon on the basket said thank you. Somewhere along the line somebody should pick up on what’s going to make that gift special and occasion-appropriate, and sometimes you won’t get that with bigger companies. Shipping is also a big thing – what shipping method do they use, and how much will it cost?

FedEx and UPS have raised rates. How will that affect the average consumer or business when they are sending gifts by mail?

This year it’s going to have a major impact. Both companies now charge dimensional rates, which means shipping rates aren’t based on physical weight, but dimensional weight of the package. When shipping to a residence, the shipping will cost more as UPS and Fed Ex apply a surcharge when it’s a residential delivery. The most economical way to ship to a residence is through the Post Office. You can even send gifts online through the Post Office by printing out the label and drop it off at the nearest location. The only problem with shipping via the Post Office is that we have found it isn’t as reliable as UPS or Fed Ex, so 90 percent of what we ship out is from UPS because shipping is on time and items are intact.

Rose Colonna, President and Jennifer Colonna, Director Sales & Marketing can be reached at:
Tasteful Treats & Treasures
16 Banksville Avenue, Bedford, NY 10506
Phone: 800-425-9226 ~ www.tastefultreats.com ~ Info@TastefulTreats.com

Photo:
Left to right: Rose Colonna, President and Jennifer Colonna, Director Sales & Marketing of Tasteful Treats and Treasures.