by Marc Phillippe Babineau

Created on: December 11, 2011   Last Updated: December 17, 2011

It’s that time of the year again, and for those who work in an office setting, the annual Christmas office party is just around the corner. Some offices go all out in throwing extravagant holiday office parties, reserving entire restaurants and even bars. But the focus has generally been taken away from having alcohol served at Christmas parties due to insurance concerns with drinking and driving liability, so many offices are now having their holiday party right in the office. It makes for a much shorter party, and saves the company enough money so that they can instead give the employees monetary gifts, which most employees would prefer this time of the year anyway.

With a congenial setting in place, appropriate gifts to bring to a holiday office party have to be found. With advanced human rights and sexual harassment laws, the gifts that are allowed have been limited to a more “PG” rating, with bottles of alcohol no longer a present that is appropriate. A bottle of red or white wine used to be a great gift that could be given to any member in the office no matter their sex or age, since most offices don’t have employees who are under the legal drinking age, except of course for recovering alcoholics. With this in mind, some of the more appropriate gifts to bring to a holiday office party would include;

Things for the office or desk. When people spend most of their waking days inside an office, they tend to look for minor distractions, things that are different from other people’s stuff and things that help them to perform their duties. Some gifts can be position specific, like giving the receptionist a new headset for their communications center, or giving the technical writer a new thesaurus. Personalized desk blotters, pen and pencil sets, digital picture frames and small ornaments are ideal and appropriate gifts with the person’s workstation in mind.

Things for the car. When the office is out in the boondocks, or if you know that the person you are buying for has to drive into work and home again, then there are a lot of appropriate gifts for the car that make for great holiday office party gifts. Seat cushions, small GPS units, glove-box organizers, driving gloves and remote car starters make for ideal and appropriate gifts for the holiday office party.
Things for home. No matter who you are buying for, male, female, boss or underling, there are always a lot of great gift ideas for the home, and the only limitation is the budget that you have or have been limited to. Many offices these days have personal Santa gift exchanges where each person draws a name from a bowl, hat or other receptacle, and that is who you buy your gift for. This makes giving the boss a gift that makes them think fondly of you only a necessity if you happen to draw their name. Gifts like gift baskets and gift certificates for restaurants, movies or department stores so that the person can buy their own gift are becoming more popular every year.

Sometimes, knowing what makes an appropriate gift to bring to the office holiday party is a gamble if you don’t know who you are buying for in advance. In holiday parties like these, the best bet is to buy sex-neutral desk organizers, blockers or doo-dads. Holographic clocks and wrist pads for keyboards and mice are great asexual gifts, as are calendars.  Buying things for someone’s home is only appropriate if you know the person well and visit them at their home frequently, and buying clothing items should only be done when buying gifts for friends at the office.

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