Businesses have changed. Gone are the days of the staunch, formal office. Even in the most conservative offices it’s acceptable to be a little more relaxed these days. That doesn’t mean you can be lax in your holiday etiquette.
There are a few guidelines even in today’s more casual world. First off, select a holiday card that is on good stock and well printed. This is not the time to grab cards off the discount rack at the dollar store. You are presenting an image of your company and a person’s perception of your business is only as good as your last correspondence.  Spend the extra few dollars and get cards that are elegant.

Can you have your company name printed inside your cards? Sure. Do you have to? No. You can hand write a note. In fact, it is even more personal if you don’t have your company’s name printed on the inside of the card. A short note that says “happy holidays” is fine. Sadly in this day and age it’s not ok to say “Merry Christmas” as someone might get offended if that’s not what they celebrate. For business purposes, don’t include any mention to a specific holiday. You don’t want to risk alienating the one person there who objects to a certain holiday. So keep it generic.

Never use a rubber stamp inside your card. Simply stamping in “The Braxton Corporation” is cold and lifeless. Take the time to sit and sign the company’s name. Even if all you write is, “From everyone at Braxton” it’s much better than a rubber stamp. It’s perfectly fine to rubber stamp your company’s address on the outer envelope, of course.

Who should you send cards to? Everyone you do business with should get a card. From the biggest client to the courier who drops off your mail, send a card to everyone who is a vendor or business client. If you cross paths with a business from the outside, send a card. It’s not necessary to send a business holiday card to every employee internally in a large company. However, if you have fewer than 20 employees, why not go the extra step? Have the company president sign it and write a short message.

What you say in your card is just as important as what the card looks like. Nothing controversial should be mentioned in a holiday card. Never mention business. Saying, “Hope we win your account!” inside a holiday card is tactless. However, writing a heartfelt, “Looking forward to working with you this year” is ok.

Think before you send anything. What you might think is funny might not be appropriate for everyone on the recipient’s end. Stay away from any off-color humor or cartoons even if you think they’re hysterical, and you know the client will too. Often a secretary opens those cards and even hangs them without higher ups seeing them first. Err on the side of caution, and everyone will have a happy holiday!

Great bakers use fresh ingredients. That flour that’s been in your pantry since last May is probably not going to yield the tastiest results. That chocolate that’s been in the freezer over a year? Toss it. You’re going to spend the time and effort to bake for the holidays. You need to invest in good quality ingredients to make memorable treats. Go for the finest chocolate chips you can afford. Get fresh butter, eggs, flour, sugar, yeast, confectioner’s sugar and brown sugar. The better the ingredients, the better the outcome. Throw everything that’s expired out. Canned foods (like condensed milk which many recipes call for) do have expiration dates. Check them before you begin.

Once your pantry is cleaned out, you’ll want to stock it with the basics. In addition to the flour and sugars you’ll need to have on hand, you should also pick up walnuts, pecans, sprinkles, icing for decorating, chocolate chunks, unsweetened chocolate, condensed milk, shortening, non-stick spray and any specialty items like pignoli nuts.

Before you head out to the store, print out all the recipes you want to bake and then create one giant list of all the ingredients. You can find lots of holiday cookie recipes online that are easy to print in index card format for easy keeping.

With ingredients in hand, where do you start? If you’re baking for holiday gift-giving or sharing, now’s the time to clean out your freezer. Several weeks or even up to two months ahead, you can freeze cookies you intend to give out. So, you’ll need room. Start using up your freezer stock and you’ll have enough room to store the goodies.

When you bake, plan to do one type of cookie a night so you don’t get overwhelmed. Make double or triple batches of the same type of cookie and you can decorate in an assembly line fashion. The beauty of working on one type of cookie at a time is that you have everything you need out once and then you can put it away. You’ll have all the decorations you need for the one batch and then you can store them. The next day, move on and make the next batch in bulk.

Invest in a silicone mat for each cookie tray. This will help the cookies cook at an even temperature and prevent them from sticking. Have five baking sheets so you can always have two in the oven, two on the counter being filled and one with the cookies that are cooling.

Do all the washing up as your cookies cool so that your kitchen will be clean by the time you’re ready to decorate. Once your cookies are decorated, you must let them cool or the frosting will smear. Wrap cooled cookies in wax paper, then a layer of plastic wrap then a layer of tin foil. Or you can use locking bags that are made for the freezer. No matter how you choose to store your cookies, ensure that no air can get in. Air will spoil all your hard work as the cookies will not taste fresh when thawed.  You can also store your baked goods in plastic lidded containers. Just make sure they are airtight.

When you’re ready to bring out your cookies for the holidays, allow them to thaw on the counter before assembling them on your presentation basket or tray. You’ll be glad you spent the extra time to make your cookies ahead and freeze them in batches.

Now you can present your family or friends with wonderful holiday gift baskets that you’ve already made! Not only that, but it saves lots of work on the backend and you can actually enjoy the days leading up to the holidays instead of baking at a frenzied pace.

Design It Yourself Gift Baskets gives you the opportunity to create your own personalized gift baskets, so your chocolate lover friend can benefit just as much as your health food nut brother and your pimento loaf loving grandma. At Design It Yourself Gift Baskets, you can create gift baskets for any occasion and for anybody. Want to give a special couple a unique Christmas gift? Check out their Movie Buff Gift Baskets and give them a chance for a movie date night. Got a friend that only shops organic? Design It Yourself Gift Baskets has Organic Gift Baskets that are sure to please with yummy, healthy snacks. My personal favorite? Diaper Cakes. If you want to give a new mom or a mom to be a gift that she is sure to remember (and she will most likely copy your great gift idea), take a look at the Diaper Cakes under Specialty Themes. There really isn’t a better baby gift.

These are just a few of the amazing gift basket ideas that you can find on DesignItYourselfGiftBaskets.com. With this website and ChristmasGifts.com, you are going to be a gift giving guru this year. Everyone is going to love you!

Wouldn’t it be easy, so many people say, if there was one place I could go that has already done the searching for me, that has found all the best unique gifts out there and made it possible to peruse them by category? Christmas gifts.com has done exactly that! Their providers and retailers are among the world’s finest, and if you’re looking for personalized gifts, then you need look no further than Christmas Gifts.com.

Take Manufacturing Sources.com for instance: if you’re looking for fine jewelry or hand-crafted fashion accessories direct from the provider & direct from source, Manufacturing Sources.com couldn’t be better. There is no middle man, they ship direct, and their prices reflect it! You can find Manufacturing Sources.com at Christmas gifts.com’s home page, along with many other providers.

Like Gourmet Gift Baskets.com, a site devoted to gift baskets of all sorts of shapes and sizes. If you know a general interest of who you’re buying gifts for, all you need do is select that ‘genre’, and Gourmet Gift Baskets.com does the rest – finding the person on your list all the right gifts and all the right items to make their gift basket a perfect one.

Need gift ideas? Need help finding the right gift? Need fast shipping & low prices, you need Christmas Gifts.com! Even when looking for last minute gifts, Christmas gifts.com is the place to go now.

Now look at things from Christmas gift.com’s point of view: if what you’re looking for a is a truly personalized gift for each and every person on your list, then what you’re going to want to do is find the one website that has searched the internet for the retailers and Christmas gift providers who offer the most interesting, unique gifts and put them all in one place. Christmas gifts.com has done just that! And with the ease of the internet, you don’t have to go any further than your own comfy desk chair. With a few easy mouse clicks, you’ll find the most unique, personalized Christmas gifts on the internet!

Christmas gifts.com offers selections in all sorts of gift ideas and possibilities. Shopping for someone who’s a true connoisseur? Try a gift basket! Whether their interests are food, movies, spa pleasures, chocolate or even stuffed animals, Wine Country Gift Baskets is just right for them! All you have to do is select a basket, Wine Country does the rest – filling a gift basket with the finest items your recipient could hope for, making it an entirely unique gift.

It’s time to kick Christmas gift shopping season into full gear! Christmas gifts.com is ready and waiting for you to save time, money and frustration by taking the time to shop with them.

Sit back this year, relax and enjoy your holiday! Let GourmetGiftBaskets.com do all your wrapping for you! “What do I send?” you ask yourself. It’s easy! Think about the person you are sending the gift to – what are their likes? Do they love to eat? Then you are in luck with a mouth watering Italian dinner or maybe a romantic Country Inn Breakfast Basket. Maybe they are more of a health conscious individual – send them a healthy, organic, or fruit gift basket. If they love to golf, they will appreciate the golf bag cooler filled with delicious snacks.

If fishing is their favorite pastime, they will love GourmetGiftBaskets.com’s custom fishing creel – perfect for any fishing trip! If they enjoy homemade pizza or an ice cream smorgasbord, have a sweet tooth, are a coffee and chocolate aficionado, or just desire the savory decadence of chocolate, you’re covered there too! Don’t forget our fuzzy friends and pamper them with a cat or dog lover’s specialty gift basket. Even if you have a wine or beer connoisseur on your gift list, then you’ll find a gift basket they will LOVE!

When you are puzzled what to send for a family gift that you want everyone to enjoy – look no further than the Christmas Gift Basket. Everything in this basket is ready to open and eat! No one has to prepare anything – so these snack baskets are also the perfect corporate gift for the office! So sit back, relax, and enjoy your holidays and let GourmetGiftBaskets.com wrap and deliver your presents this year!

 Gift baskets by Christmas gifts.com are an excellent place to start if you’re not exactly sure what it is that you want to find the people on your list, but you have a great idea of what it is they like and what sort of things they’re into. To shop for gift baskets, you select a field of interest, and you get a wide range of suppliers who make and fill baskets with all sorts of gift possibilities from that field. You can be as general or as specific as you want, and you’ll know that the person will get a unique gift that they’ll love.

 Gift clubs are another great possibility for finding personalized gifts. Once again, you type in the general field of interest and as you get more specific, you’ll find the gift that’s right for you. You pay for it once, but the recipient will get, in the mail, a gift every month for as long as you designate. Maybe they’ll get a new movie every month, maybe a new set of ingredients & recipes, maybe a new bottle of wine. It’s up to you: there’s no end to the possibilities!

Christmas gifts.com knows what people are looking for in the hunt for Christmas gift ideas: personalized gifts and unique gifts. Now you can get both and easily!

The first year this “equal gifts for everyone” thing started, we each received a Christmas Bear.  I liked mine, but my brother and boy cousins were not as happy.  Another year we all received a Battleship game – this time the boys were pretty pleased but the girls weren’t.  I think all the grandkids would agree that the best gift we received was the year we each got a giant Hershey’s chocolate bar with a $20 bill wrapped around the foil.  It was sweet – in more ways than one!  Although some of us wouldn’t have minded the same gift (especially if it was the cash kind), Grandpa never repeated his gift from one year to the next.

As time went on, Grandma passed away and the grandchildren got older, it became harder for Grandpa to come up with “equal” holiday gifts that would be a good fit for everyone.  He still stuck to his tradition every year, and as we got older we received fruit baskets, gift cards and snow shovels.  When Grandpa passed away three years ago, I vowed to continue his tradition and have had some fun coming up with unique ideas each year.  Since all of his grandchildren are now grown with children of their own, somehow the $20 around the Hershey bar just doesn’t work as well.  My cousins and I are now scattered across the country, with jobs ranging from a pharmacist to a tree-trimmer and kids ranging in age from 8 months to 12 years old.  The best luck I’ve had, especially since 6 of the gifts must be shipped, is searching online for “unique holiday gift ideas”.  In the past three years I’ve sent out personalized photo frames, ornaments for the Christmas tree, and a plaque with a commemorative poem and a photo of our grandparents.  This year I’ve decided on a holiday gift basket filled with gourmet snack items.  It’s my own little way of paying tribute to a man who is greatly missed by all of his grandchildren!

Gourmet food baskets are a good choice for any number of recipients.  You can choose from Italian-inspired baskets to fine chocolates to freshly-roasted nuts.  However, before ordering a holiday gift basket you should ensure that your acquaintance doesn’t have any food allergies.

If you’re not sure about possible food allergies and have no way of discreetly finding out, you may want to choose a green plant or bouquet of fresh flowers.  Many people host holiday parties in their homes, and a decorative Poinsettia plant or an arrangement of colorful flowers will help spruce up their party.

When buying a gift for a co-worker, consider something that they can use at the office like a desktop organizer, personalized pen set or photo frame.  If you know what type of book your co-worker likes, pick out a bestselling novel for them – just be sure to include a gift receipt in case they have already read that book.  With only a little knowledge of your recipient’s tastes and preferences, you should be able to come up with a great holiday gift choice this year.

One of the worst holiday gifts our company received was a gift card to an upscale spa.  If the gift was specifically for me, I would have welcomed it and considered it one of the best gifts ever.  However, with a staff of 15, how does one choose who gets the gift card?  It wasn’t a high enough value to give every employee a spa service, so we ended up giving the card to the owner of our company, who gave it to his wife.

Another questionable corporate holiday gift we received was a box filled with logo t-shirts.  While we appreciated the sentiment, every shirt size was “Large”, so about half of our staff couldn’t fit into them.  I understand the thought behind the gift and I have no problem advertising for one of my vendors, but the vendor should have either taken the time to get all of our sizes or played it safe and sent a gift basket filled with food – where one size fits all!

One of our favorite holiday gifts was an enormous wicker basket filled with fresh fruit, gourmet chocolates and roasted nuts.  The basket was wrapped with a satin ribbon stamped with our vendor’s logo, and the foodstuffs inside were appealing to everyone in the office.  This basket made a great gift for all, whether we were watching our calories or not!  Food gifts were by far the big winners in our office – we received a delicious honey-baked ham one year that was used for our office pot luck, and another year our vendor in Chicago over-nighted some authentic deep dish pizzas to our office.  It was by far the best lunch of the year!