Christmas gifts for staff that the whole team can actually use

One card, one amount, and everyone chooses for themselves. It's not the most exciting answer, but it's the one that keeps working, because nobody has to guess at sizes, tastes or what someone already has at home.

The All-in-1 Choice Gift Card runs from €10 to €500, and each person picks where to spend it. It comes as an e-gift card by email within minutes, or as a physical card in packaging with a message, which is the version most employers go for when the cards are handed out at the Christmas lunch. If you want the season on the card itself, the Merry Christmas Gift Card does the same job with Christmas on the front.

Christmas vouchers for staff are often the budget line that gets decided last and questioned first. The same amount for everyone keeps that conversation short and keeps it fair.

For a larger order, our page on Christmas gifts for employees is the place to start. You can talk the details through with our business team there, rather than working it all out from a product page.

Most gift plans picture a room with everyone in it and the presents stacked on a table. Few teams look like that anymore. Some people are on shift over Christmas, some work from home three days a week and some haven't shared a building with you all year.

A digital card takes most of that problem away. It goes by email to an address you already have, so the person on nights and the person working from Sligo get the same card as the person at the next desk. At checkout you choose who receives it, so the card can go straight to them. For the people you'll actually see, the physical card in packaging still earns its place, because handing something over in person is half the point.

Colleagues based outside Ireland are the usual sticking point, so read our page on international gift cards before you split the list in two. If you'd like one card that covers a range of shops rather than a single brand, the multi-store gift cards category is the quickest way to compare.

Two different things get mixed up every December. Christmas gifts for coworkers are what people buy each other, usually a small amount, usually organised by the one person who volunteered for Kris Kindle and now regrets it. The gift from the company is a separate decision, with its own budget and the same amount for everyone.

Keeping the two apart saves an awkward moment at the Christmas lunch. If the company gift is a decent amount and the Kris Kindle has a small cap, say so plainly in the email rather than leaving people to work it out from the envelopes.

A gift for a client is a third thing again. A thank you to a client isn't the staff gift with a different label on it. The list is shorter, the amount is often different and the person sending it is rarely the one who ordered for the team. Our corporate Christmas gift page covers that side.

Four decisions, and the rest follows:

• Decide the amount per person. The same for everyone is simplest to explain.
• Choose digital or physical. Email suits remote and shift staff, a card in packaging suits the Christmas lunch.
• Collect the details. A list of email addresses, or the postal address the physical cards go to.
• Place the order in November. Plans tend to fall apart in the first week of December, when half the list is on leave and nobody can confirm who's still on it.

There's one more thing to look at before you settle on the amount. Ireland has rules on small non-cash benefits from an employer, set by Revenue. How they apply depends on your company and your situation, so check what applies to you.

After that it's straightforward. Our gift cards for business page has the practical side, including ordering with your company details at checkout. If you'd like your company logo or your own design on the card instead of one of our themes, start with personalised gifts.

A card sorted in November is one less thing on your desk in December.