Most Canadian employers working out how much to spend on employee Christmas gifts per person land between $20 and $50 a head, and for a team of twenty the lower end is where real budgets sit. Twenty of my keepsake candles is $20 each — $400 for the whole team, boxed, with a different name on every box. The part people miss is time: a handmade order needs four to six weeks.
There is a moment at every staff Christmas lunch where the gifts come out of the bag by the door. Twenty name tags written in marker the night before. And one person quietly turning theirs over to see whether it is the same as the one beside it.
So the real question is what you can afford twenty times over that will not embarrass you when they open it in front of each other.
How much to spend on employee Christmas gifts per person
Two other Canadian sellers publish ranges worth reading: Soja&Co puts small and mid-sized businesses at $20 to $50 a person, and LAMOSE says plan on $25 to $40 a head.
My own answer, after four years behind a market table while people do this arithmetic out loud: $20 to $25 a head is where small teams actually land.
- Spend less and personalise more. A $20 gift with someone's own name on the box reads better than a $60 one without it.
- One tier for the whole team. If the two managers get the good one, somebody finds out before the lunch is over.
- Keep the logo small, or leave it off. Their name is the gift.
What does a Christmas gift for 20 staff actually cost?
My pressed flower keepsake candle is $25 on its own, $22 each from ten pieces, and $20 each from twenty. A team of twenty is $400; ten is $220. The same numbers are on my bulk orders page.
$20 each is my floor, at any count. Two hundred pieces is still $20. Below that I would be paying for the privilege of working, and I would rather tell you than quietly make something worse to hit a number.
In Kitchener–Waterloo I hand-deliver and there is nothing to pay. Anywhere else I quote the courier at cost on its own line, because fifty candles is around forty kilograms.
Are employee gifts taxable in Canada?
This is the part the gift listicles skip. The Canada Revenue Agency's policy on gifts, awards and long-service awards says non-cash gifts to an arm's-length employee are not taxable where their combined fair market value is $500 or less, including taxes, in the year. Above that, the CRA says the amount over $500 is taxable. Three more details from the same page:
- Cash and near-cash gifts are not covered — the CRA says that benefit is taxable.
- Small items of trivial value sit outside the $500 count — the page names T-shirts, mugs, plaques and trophies.
- It does not apply to a non-arm's-length employee, which in a small business usually means family.
When do I need to order staff Christmas gifts?
Four to six weeks is what a bulk order takes, and it is the only timing promise I make. There is no warehouse behind it — there is me, a pot of wax and a kitchen table, between shifts at the hospital.
Work it against your own date. A lunch on 12 December puts six weeks back at 31 October; 18 December puts it at 6 November. Six weeks from today lands on 28 November.
If your date is tighter, write anyway and I will tell you straight away whether it works. What I will not do is take the order and hope.
What if your budget is under $20 a head?
Then I am not your maker this year, and I would rather say so.
Each candle is nine ounces — eight of soy wax and a full ounce of fragrance — and the box, ribbon and tag cost real money. There is no cheaper tier hiding behind a bigger order.
I am also the wrong choice if your lunch is three weeks away, or if you need five hundred pieces. One pair of hands has a ceiling, and pretending otherwise is how people end up disappointed in December.
From my kitchen table
I pour these myself in Kitchener, between hospital shifts. There are forty keepsake candles on my shelf as I write this and no two have the same flowers, because I press and place them one at a time.
The tiers are simple: $25 each on its own, $22 each from 10 pieces, $20 each from 20 — and $20 is the floor. Your ribbon colour, your label, and a different name on every box so each person finds their own.
It does not have to be that candle. Any candle in my shop can carry a custom label instead — your company name quietly on the front, or just their name.
What I would send a team of twenty
Pressed Flower Keepsake Candle
9 oz, boxed and tied. $20 each from twenty, a name on every box.
$25
Dried Flower Bowl Candle
15 oz, made for a warmer. For the one or two you spend more on.
$39.99
Your label, your team
Ten pieces or more. Send your date and count and I will quote it.
GET A QUOTE
To skip the lead time and pick off the shelf, my Office & Secret Santa collection has twenty-four candles in it today, none over $28.
For a bulk order, four things get you a price quickly: your date, how many people, what goes on the label, and a photo of anything you like. The form is on the custom and bulk orders page.
Everything I make
All hand-poured by me in Kitchener, Ontario.
Free hand delivery in Kitchener–Waterloo · Free shipping across Canada on orders over $125
