In lieu of the chocolate basket
After my search for the perfect holiday card, I went in search of the perfect holiday gift for my clients. For years I helped my former company pick tasteful (and modest) food baskets for our clients. Most of the time we went with Ghirardelli chocolates of some kind. One of the sales reps always said, “They put this kind of gift in the kitchen, and all the other employees come by and say, ‘Oooh, who sent that?’” So we almost always went with the basket of goodies.
I always protested the food gift baskets. I thought they’d sit with the dozen other gift baskets and blend in right away. Our gifts weren’t distinctive enough for a heartfelt “Oooh.” I always wanted to give our clients something more distinctive and meaningful.
In each of my cards to my clients this year, I wrote, “Avenue Z Writing Solutions is donating a Katrina Rebuilding Kit from Mercy Corps on behalf of my clients. Happy Holidays.”
By the way, I ended up choosing the Bloomin’ Flower holiday cards with the removable ornament made out of homemade paper and wildflower seeds.
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Wendy on 20 Dec 2007 at 9:15 am #
The contribution is a good idea. The food baskets, I don’t know about those. Those are iffy. At the newspaper where I used to work we received lots of food baskets at Christmas — and the owners of the newspaper always whisked them out to their cars and took them home. We only knew about the baskets because the receptionist kept a list and ratted them out to us. Otherwise we’d have had no idea.
"C" on 20 Dec 2007 at 2:37 pm #
I love your blog! Have a great Christmas…
Mallory on 23 Dec 2007 at 10:17 am #
I love charitable gifts, and I think the Mercy Corps kit is a great idea for your clients. People respect actions more than words, and I think in the coming year your clients will remember this charitable gift more than they would a food basket.