The same £45 hamper can be tax-free for one employer and a taxable benefit for another. The difference can be a single sentence in the card, and item 2 shows you which sentence.

That is why staff Christmas gifts start with one HMRC line before they start with taste. This guide is for two buyers: the owner of a team of about 5 to 50 choosing personally, and the HR or office manager ordering employee Christmas gifts for 50 or more. Every idea ends with a tag saying which it suits and where it sits against the £50 line. Item 10 is the bulk-order playbook.

The £50 rule in four lines. Under HMRC's trivial benefits exemption, a gift carries no tax, no National Insurance and no reporting if all four of these apply:

• It costs you £50 or less to provide, per person, including VAT (EIM21865).

• It is not cash or a cash voucher.

• It is not a reward for work or performance.

• It is not in their contract, and it is not provided through salary sacrifice.

Go over £50 by a penny and the whole gift is taxable, not just the excess. Directors of a close company are also capped at £300 of these gifts a tax year, including gifts to their family (EIM21869).

This guide covers staff only. Gifts for clients are a separate question.

1. A Day of Extra Leave, Given in Writing

Ask employees what they would really like from their employer and the first answers are not objects. They are money and time off.

Cash is the tricky half: it is never a trivial benefit, so a bonus is taxed like pay.

Time is the half you can give. An extra day of paid leave, Christmas Eve off or a day to take in January, works for eight people or eight hundred: one policy line, no parcels.

Put it in the card, so it lands as a present rather than an HR memo, and pair it with something small to open from item 6.

It is the gift staff ask for most, and the only one on this list that never needs wrapping.

Small team (5 to 50) or bulk (50+) · No gift to price, so no £50 test

2. A Handwritten Note, Worded So HMRC Reads It as a Gift

The most valuable line in a staff gift costs nothing. The wrong version of it can make the whole gift taxable.

Staff remember the thank-you long after they have forgotten the gift. A box of chocolates with a personal line from the boss lands very differently from the same box without one, and a Christmas with no word of thanks at all can sting more than no present.

HMRC's guidance on rewards (EIM21868) sets two examples side by side. A £30 Christmas gift to all staff every year, regardless of performance, is "merely a gesture of goodwill" and can be exempt. £25 vouchers for call-centre staff who hit weekly targets are not, despite being under £50. HMRC also says a gift given as thanks for good results in the year will not qualify.

So the wording matters:

• Safer: "Merry Christmas, and thank you for being part of the team."

• Reads like a reward for performance: "Thank you for smashing this year's targets."

It is tempting to tie the gift to a good year or a successful project. Don't.

For 50 or more, a printed note signed by the managing director is fine; for a small team, write each by hand. If you order from us, we will handwrite your gift message for you.

If you write one sentence, make it about the person and the season, not the numbers.

Small team or bulk · Free, and it protects the £50 exemption

3. A Store Gift Card, Not a Prepaid Visa

The gift card that works anywhere is the one HMRC treats as cash.

A single-store card, and most multi-retailer cards, can qualify as long as they cannot be exchanged for cash. A prepaid Mastercard or Visa style card behaves like cash, so it fails at any value, even £10.

HMRC's own Christmas example helps here (EIM21866, Example G). A £25 bottle of wine at Christmas can be exempt, and so can a £25 supermarket voucher for staff who do not drink.

Two habits keep a card inside the rules:

• One card, one purchase. Topping up the same card later in the year pushes its total over £50.

• One log. Record the date, the name, the cost including VAT and delivery, and the reason: "Christmas".

One practical snag: a single-retailer card shuts out anyone who avoids that shop. A supermarket card, or a choice of two, sidesteps it.

Our own gift card comes in values including £10, £25 and £50, and cannot be exchanged for cash.

A store card bought once can sit inside £50. A prepaid Visa never can.

Bulk (50+) especially · Inside £50 if one card, one purchase

4. Food and Drink for Everyone, Priced the Way HMRC Prices It

HMRC's own worked example for bulk gifts is a Christmas turkey. An employer gives 100 staff a turkey each, the bill is £4,500, and HMRC accepts £45 a head as the test figure. Exempt (EIM21865, Example B).

Where a group gift cannot be priced per person, the average cost per head, including VAT, is the figure you test against £50. A gift of several items is totalled, so £10 of wine plus £5 of chocolates counts as £15. Count delivery and packaging too.

The average cannot hide a pricier version for a few people. In HMRC's Example C, £15 bottles of wine for staff qualify, while £140 bottles for the directors do not. Give everyone the same hamper, or price the senior version on its own.

Plan for the people a hamper can miss. An alcohol-free swap is fine, as the supermarket voucher in item 3 shows. Some people would rather have no food at all, often because of allergies. Collect dietary needs up front (item 10 covers how).

And keep the standard steady. Staff notice when this year's hamper comes from a cheaper shop than last year's.

For offices of 50 or more, it is the simplest single order there is, provided you collect dietary needs in time.

Bulk (50+) · Inside £50 at the average cost per head

5. An Experience or a Charity Donation in Their Name

One booking covers the whole team, and nobody has to find a shelf for it.

For a small team that has everything, an experience says more than another object: a team lunch somewhere better than usual, a cookery class, theatre tickets, or a voucher for something local. Pick a day that suits the people with childcare.

The other route is a donation per head to a charity the team picks together. Let them vote, then announce it in the card.

One tax pointer: a team outing falls under a separate exemption, not the £50 gift rule. The FAQ explains it.

For a close team, a shared afternoon is remembered long after the socks have worn through.

Small team (5 to 50) mainly · Events follow different rules, see the FAQ

6. Under £50 From Us: British Alpaca Socks, a Hand-Poured Candle or a Wool Hot Water Bottle

Candidly, most of what we make costs more than £50. Here are the pieces that do not.

Socks. Our luxury lounge socks in British alpaca are £25.75: 70% British alpaca, knitted in Britain, in sizes S and M. The alpaca walking socks are also £25.75, made in England in S, M and L, and the knee-high version is £32.50. Eye Candy dress socks are £18.95. Socks are not personalised.

Candles. The Les Voyages and Dreams candles are £36. Les Voyages candles are hand-poured in the UK, burn for about 40 hours and come with a fine art card. The Epicurean range, also hand-poured in the UK, is £42.50 in a gift box. The Lost in Love gift set is £49.50, with a candle, a cotton gift bag and a card.

Warmth. The Swinging London pure new wool hot water bag is £38.50, and The Little Explorer tweed blanket is £44.50.

Our small gifts collection also holds a few pieces above £50, so check each price, and remember delivery counts (item 4).

A good fit for small teams buying personally, unless the office already has a running joke about candles.

Small team or bulk · Inside £50 at retail, before delivery

7. Their Initials, Not Your Logo: Personalising for a Small Team

A logo turns a throw into merch; initials turn it into a present. Very few people want to unwrap their employer's logo on Christmas morning.

So personalise to the person. Every option below works on a single piece, so there is no minimum order:

• Initial embroidery, £19.50, on any home throw or picnic blanket. Up to 8 characters, black or white thread, 3 to 5 working days.

• Leather strap embossing, £27.50, hand-embossed on the long leather strap of a classic picnic blanket. Up to 6 capitals or 9 characters, about 10 working days. The same service works on the strap of a "Keep Your Cool" champagne bucket.

• A gold-foil gift box label, £12.50, with a name or a short message, in 5 to 7 working days.

HMRC totals a multi-part gift (EIM21865), so the add-on counts. A £42.50 boxed gift plus a £12.50 foil label is £55, and the whole £55 is taxable, not £5 of it. An embossed picnic blanket starts at about £182.50 (£155 with the long strap, plus £27.50), and an embossed bucket at £122.50: over-£50 gifts by design (item 8).

Two exceptions. Umbrellas can only be personalised as part of a larger corporate order (item 9), never one at a time, and socks are not personalised at all. For year-round ideas, see our guide to personalised employee gifts.

If you are buying for eight people, initials on a throw beat a logo on a hoodie.

Small team (5 to 50) · Usually over £50 once personalised

8. Over £50 on Purpose: A Considered Gift You Settle the Tax On

Your budget is £75 a head, and the gift you want costs £89. Nothing stops you, as long as you know what happens next.

Over £50, the whole cost is a taxable benefit, not only the amount above the line (EIM21865). You then have two broad routes:

• Report it on a P11D. The employee pays tax on the gift's value.

• Pay the tax yourself through a PAYE Settlement Agreement, so staff are not taxed personally.

Using a PAYE Settlement Agreement for Christmas gifts is accountants' guidance, not a gov.uk worked example, so agree the route with your accountant or HMRC first.

For directors of a close company, a gift over £50 sits outside the exemption however much of the £300 cap is left.

If you go over, make it worth the paperwork:

• The Evening Tales pure new wool blanket, £89, made in Britain.

• The Quiet Night In gift set, £95: a reversible pure new wool throw, a faux-fur eye mask and a gift box.

• A British umbrella: the folding one is £110, made and assembled in England, and the walking one is £145, made in London.

A £45 gift stays clean and suits a large team. An £89 gift you settle suits a small one.

Small team mainly · Over £50: report or settle it

9. Company Branding That Isn't Naff: Your Name on the Strap, Not Their Chest

Move the logo from the front of a fleece to a small embossed line on a leather strap, and the same budget buys a gift people keep.

Through our corporate service we can:

1. emboss your brand name or a tagline on the leather strap of our picnic blankets, champagne buckets or denim bags;

2. embroider initials, your brand name or a tagline on throws, walkers' blankets, picnic blankets and umbrellas (a larger order is the only way to personalise an umbrella);

3. go well beyond a single line: much longer text, your own font, or a full graphic such as your logo, embossed or embroidered;

4. replace our labels with your own, and customise strap and champagne bucket colours.

It is priced by quote. As our corporate page puts it, "Each customisation has a different minimum order quantity." Longer text, a custom font or a full logo is quoted separately, and embossed designs also need their own plate. Most larger orders include a specific font and a logo, so mention yours when you ask for a quote.

Branding is part of the gift's cost, so it counts toward the £50, as in item 7.

Start with our corporate gifting page, or browse more corporate gift ideas.

This suits HR teams that want one consistent, branded gift, as long as the budget can go above £50 a head.

Bulk (50+) · Usually over £50; get a quote first

10. Ordering for 50 or More: One Gift, One Form and a Working-Day Countdown

Picture being asked to choose 50 different gifts for 50 different people. It is a small nightmare, and the comparisons start by lunchtime.

Bulk gifting rarely fails on taste. It fails on logistics:

One gift, or a short menu. Choose one spec for everyone, or two or three options staff pick from. One spec also keeps item 4's average-cost method clean.

One form. Collect delivery address (home, for remote and hybrid staff), sock size, dietary needs and whether they drink, in one go. Ask only for what you need.

Name the people who get missed. Staff on maternity or sick leave, and anyone starting in December. Put them on the list by name.

Count back in working days. Our standard lead times are 3 to 5 working days for initial embroidery, 5 to 7 for a gift box foil label and about 10 for strap embossing; logo plates and corporate work are quoted separately. Add those to your carrier's last posting date and work backwards.

Royal Mail had not published its 2026 Christmas posting dates when we checked on 27 September 2026, so check royalmail.com first. For reference only, last year's (2025) dates were Wednesday 17 December for 2nd Class and Tuesday 23 December for Special Delivery.

If you are ordering personalised pieces for 50 or more, ask for the quote in October.

Bulk (50+) · Works inside or over £50

FAQ

What are the HMRC rules for gifts to employees?

A gift is tax-free if it costs £50 or less per person including VAT, is not cash or a cash voucher, is not a reward for work or performance, and is not in the employee's contract. Go over £50 and the whole cost is taxable. Directors of close companies are capped at £300 a tax year. The full conditions are on gov.uk's trivial benefits page.

What is the 5 gift rule (and the 7 gift rule)?

The 5 gift rule is a family Christmas tradition, not a workplace or HMRC rule. Parents give one thing the child wants, one they need, one to wear and one to read, sometimes plus one more. No accountancy or HR source applies it to staff. For employee gifts, the rule that matters is the £50 one.

Is the Christmas party covered by the same £50 rule?

No. A staff party falls under a separate exemption. According to gov.uk, an annual party or similar event is exempt if it is open to all employees, happens every year and costs £150 or less per person. It covers online parties too, and several annual events are exempt if their combined cost stays within £150 a head.

What is a nice gift for staff?

One that feels personal and stays simple: a day of extra leave (item 1), a store gift card rather than a prepaid Visa (item 3), or one good-quality object under £50 (item 6). Whichever you choose, add a handwritten line that thanks the person, not their results (item 2).

If you are ordering for a larger team, our corporate gifting page is the place to start a quote.