Good Friday gifts to keep

Easter starts before the office closes

Most Good Friday gifting is built around the familiar symbols: pastel packaging, eggs, rabbits on the label. Timing matters more, because the office is empty by Friday morning and a gift delivered during the holiday has missed the moment it was for.

Good Friday is a public holiday in Sweden, Finland, Germany and much of the rest of Europe. It opens several days away from work, so a gift handed over in advance becomes part of those days instead of sitting in the office.

A gift that goes home

Good Friday is one of the days when a corporate gift becomes a personal one, because it is opened at home rather than at a desk, and that changes how it is received. A cloth bag or a backpack with a small selection inside works: sweets, a mug, something from the home collection. A paper bag with Easter treats does the same job on a smaller budget.

We have talked clients out of branded confectionery as the whole gift more than once, because it gets eaten on the drive home and the logo is in the bin the same evening. Sweets belong in the bag, but they are not the bag.

Choosing for the days ahead

Choose for the days ahead rather than for the date itself: a thermos for Easter walks, a hoodie for spring evenings that are still cold, a gift card for people who would rather choose themselves.

The gift card is nobody's favourite item to sign off, since there is no print, no design work and nothing to photograph. It is also the one that gets used.

Lead time decides what you can give

Every year someone comes to us in the last week before the holiday, and sometimes we still make it. Often what we can make is not what was asked for: a different colour, one print position instead of two, stock we already hold rather than the item they had in mind. Decoration takes time and Easter week is short, so six weeks gets you the gift you planned and two weeks gets you the gift that was available.

Merchandise that fills the bag

The collections above cover where to look. These four are what the bag is actually made of, chosen for someone who opens it at home rather than at a desk.

• Chan Stainless Steel Lunchbox 750ml: the least festive item in the bag and the one still in use in June, because it goes back to work with the person after the break.
• Urbanwear 6-Panel Cap: for the walks the days off are actually spent on. A cap is either worn constantly or never, so keep the front print small and the colour close to something people already own.
• Cool T: for the first warm afternoons, when the heavier top stays in the wardrobe. Order a spread of sizes rather than a guess per person, since a bag that goes home is opened with nobody to swap with.
• Low Impact Gift Card: the one to reach for when nobody knows the size or the taste, which covers most names on a list. It is the only item here that the recipient finishes choosing themselves.

The week before Easter is the week every department remembers at once, and by then the decoration slots are taken. Holding stock means the bags go out on the Thursday, while people are still in the building, rather than the week after when they change nothing.

Bags, sweets, a thermos that survives the spring. Print that holds. A delivery date before the office empties. That is our corner of the business. And the question underneath it: whether the thing you hand someone on the way out the door is still in use when they come back.