Holiday Gift Ideas

Holiday Gift Ideas

With the days growing shorter and the weather getting colder, it’s time to start preparing your business for the upcoming holiday rush. This year will look different from years past for obvious reasons, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t an opportunity for you to take advantage of your equipment to give your customers some great, customized gift options.

When you’re thinking about items you can personalize for your customers, one of the considerations for this year will be how easy the item is to ship. Many of your customers won’t be making in-person visits to their family and friends this holiday, so offering customizable gifts that don’t require special boxing or packaging will be more important than ever.

Personalized home decor items make for great gift items. They’re typically easy to engrave or mark with a laser, heat transfer printer, or UV-LED printer and have a low physical profile, making them ideal for easy packaging and shipping. Items such as wood signs and engravable photo frames add a customized touch to any space. There are thousands of different products available, meaning there’s something to match the design aesthetic for any customer.

Another hot gift trend are personalized items for the kitchen, particularly wood and bamboo cutting boards. Items like this are typically laser and rotary engraving friendly and can also be decorated with heat transfer, vinyl, or UV-LED printing. They offer the advantage of being easy to ship and very durable, making them an ideal choice to offer customers who have to send gifts to family and friends out-of-state. Depending on what your customer is looking for, cutting boards can be personalized for both functional use or a strictly decorative item. Always check with your supplier to determine if the surface is FDA approved for food use.

STBC12: Slate & Bamboo Circle Charcuterie BoardSTBC12: Slate & Bamboo Circle Charcuterie Board
STBC12: Slate & Bamboo Circle Charcuterie Board

Natural stone items might not seem to be an obvious choice when you’re thinking about lightweight items to send via the mail, but there are options available that work nicely as gift items that can be safely shipped. There are a wide range of natural slate items designed specifically for laser engraving that make for unique, trendy gift options. From photo frames to coasters and serving trays, slate is easy to personalize and fits in a variety of decor styles. Slate tends to be a little lighter than other natural stone products and still maintains a level of durability to survive shipping when packaged correctly.

If your customers are looking for something to use outside the home, there are a wide range of drinkware options that can be personalized with laser or UV-LED printer and make for easy to ship gift items. Items made from stainless steel can be laser marked with a marking spray such as CerMark Ultra, and there are many powder-coated options in a wide range of colors suitable for lasering as well. Most suppliers will send you blank tumblers and mugs in their own box, which makes it convenient to mark the item and then ship it directly to your customer without needing to find additional packaging.

Finally, for those last-minute items that are not only easy to ship but small enough that your customers can add them to another package they're sending out, consider having some engravable ornaments on hand. There are pre-cut options available made from a variety of materials, including wood, slate and faux leather. And with thousands of colorful laser engravable sheet product options, you can always create your own shapes and ornaments to personalize and offer your customers.

Johnson Plastics Plus offers an extensive line of home decor items, cutting boards, slate products, drinkware and ornaments for all fabrication methods. For more information, visit jpplus.com.

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