How to Create Holiday Gift Baskets for Clients (2024)

One of the biggest struggles during the holiday season is figuring out what to give clients for gifts. Luckily, we’re here to help with some handy tips! Learn how to build holiday gift baskets for your top clients. Plus, explore our ideas for client holiday gift baskets to help you take the guesswork out of your customer Christmas gifts.

What Do You Put in a Client Gift Basket for Christmas?

What you include in a client gift basket largely depends on the customer. We think it’s important to personalize the gift for the customer. This makes it unique to them and ensures that your present contains things that they would enjoy. However, if you are putting together baskets in bulk with a holiday theme, you can use the same elements for each one.

Just be sure that you cater your client holiday gifts for the crowd you’re targeting. This means, that if your clientele consists of foodies, give kitchen themed items. A self-care or spa themed gift basket is perfect for women who enjoy extra pampering. Or gift sports fans baskets with collegiate themed products. What you don’t want to do is give a wine and cheese basket to someone in recovery.

If you are giving baked goods or other food gifts, take care when making your selections. You want to avoid any potential food allergies that clients may have.

Gift Basket Gift Ideas for Real Estate Clients

Here are some popular elements that real estate agents and other industry businesses use for their holiday client gift baskets:

Candy or snacks
Bath and body products
Wine and cheese
Artisan coffee or tea blends
Custom coasters
Homemade baked goods

Succulents or desktop plants
DIY kits
Handwritten note card
Magnetic calendars
Coffee table book
Toiletry bag or kit

Personalized grilling set
Pasta and other pantry staples
Monogrammed mug or drinkware
Magnetic bottle openers

Keepsake boxes
Kitchen scraperswith a set of dish towel, oven mitts and an apron
Emergency car tool
Seasonal sports schedules

How to Build a DIY Christmas Gift Basket

When creating a REALTOR® gift basket to give as holiday gifts, the last thing you want is for it to look sparse or incomplete. Therefore, we’ve pulled together our top tips for building a beautiful gift basket for the holiday season.

1. Plan Ahead

Before you start shopping for items to put in your client gift basket, it’s important to plan ahead. Decide on the theme you’d like to use for all your holiday gift baskets. Or write out a list of your clients with their interests to create a personalized real estate agent gift basket for each customer.

This makes shopping for your gift basket components both faster and easier. It also gives you more time to take advantage of seasonal sales and special offers, especially if you’re on a budget.

2. Determine How Many Items Should Be in the Gift Basket

Ultimately, the number of customer Christmas gifts you include in your gift basket is determined by the both the size of the basket and the size of your gifts.

We recommend you include 4-5 items in a small gift basket. For a medium-sized REALTOR® gift basket, choose 7-8 items. Finally, we suggest you pick 10 or more products for a large basket.

3. Buy the Gifts and Supplies

Once you’ve determined what to include in your gift baskets, then you need to buy the gifts. You can also make homemade gifts if you’re extra crafty.

In addition to the presents you’ll be using, don’t forget to shop for the baskets and filler, cellophane wrap for the baskets, and decorative ribbon.

4. Assemble the Holiday Gift Baskets

The next step after you’ve gathered all the material and supplies you need, is to assemble your gift baskets.

Add Filler

You want to use filler in your holiday real estate gift baskets to form a base for your gifts. Filler also helps to cover any elements you use to give your gifts baskets additional height. As this is a professional basket for clients, we advise you don’t use crumpled or shredded newspaper as filler. It is also helpful to color coordinate your filler with the overall theme of the basket.

Here are some ideas of the types of filler you can use to build holiday gift baskets for customers:

How to Add Height to a DIY Christmas Gift Basket

Elevating the components inside your Christmas gift basket will help to create the perfect presentation. There are several ways to add height to a gift basket. The easiest way to do this, however, is to add elements to the bottom of the basket to boost the products you include inside.

Here are several ways to boost the height of the components in your container:

For shallow baskets, you can make things appear taller by adding basket filler, bubble wrap, or crinkled tissue paper to the bottom. Then stack the gift elements on top.
If you are using a deep basket or container, you can use empty boxes on the bottom to create height. You can stack the gifts on top of the boxes, then hide the base with crinkle paper.
Alternately, if you are using items such as a garden trowel or pencils, you can poke holes in the box to hold these elements upright.
Or use bamboo skewers poked into Styrofoam squares or floral foam. Then tape elements onto the skewers to elevate the smaller gifts.
Arrange the components so that the largest element is in the center or the back of the basket. Then use medium sized items to fill in around the larger piece with the smallest gifts around the outer, inside edge.
To help you design your client gift baskets for Christmas, we recommend this video. It has some great ideas on how to get your items to stand up tall for the perfect presentation.

Secure the Items Inside

With the elements arranged, you now need to secure the items in your gift basket.

To do this, you can stuff the filler around the items for a tighter fit. In addition to employing filler to hide holes, you can also mix it up by using silk flowers, scented pinecones, Christmas themed floral picks, holiday greenery, or other embellishments.

Furthermore, you can also use a low temperature hot glue gun to adhere items together that don’t want to stay in place. If you don’t have a glue gun, glue dots and tape work as well.

Wrap the Gift Basket for Your Client

Finally, wrap your client gift basket with clear cellophane. Then tie off the top with a ribbon. If desired, you can heat the cellophane with a blow dryer on the lowest setting to shrink the plastic around the client holiday gift basket.

Alternately, you can also wrap the basket, depending on the size, with a tea towel or picnic blanket. Or try using a sheer fabric, such as tulle from your local fabric store.

If you’re incorporating large items in your gift, that stay in place easily, you can skip this step.

Add Embellishments

You can decorate your client gift baskets to make them unique. Tie a Christmas ornament onto the basket handle nestled in with the bow. Or wrap Christmas garland around the handle in lieu of using ribbon.

What Can I Use Instead of a Gift Basket?

Just because you’re making a holiday gift basket doesn’t mean you have to use an actual basket for the components. There are all sorts of other containers that can be repurposed for this use. We love choosing a functional and useful alternative to traditional baskets.

Here are some of our favorite alternate vessels you can utilize for this purpose:

If your customer recently moved into a new home, you could give a dual-purpose holiday gift basket by also making it a real estate closing gift basket. We love the idea of using a laundry basket, small trashcan, or cleaning bucket (something all new homeowners can use!) as a vessel for your gifts.

Sturdy gift boxes, decorative storage baskets, and wooden craft store crates are another great option.
Canning or mason jars are an excellent solution for small gift baskets, especially if your clients are gardeners or preppers. You can fill these with bags of specialty spices and recipe cards or even small gifts like cookie cutters and holiday sprinkles.
Large mixing bowls or wire storage baskets are perfect for holiday themed baskets for bakers, foodies, and cooks.
A shoulder bag, canvas tote or reusable shopping bag is another viable alternative. While baskets are often shelved in storage, bags are reused regularly.

Use an oven mitt as the basket and fill it with tools for baking.
Using a glass pitcher or tea pot is a creative solution when you want to skip the basket entirely in favor of supplying your client with just gifts that they can use.
A stiff straw hat, such as one you’d wear for gardening, is a fresh approach to a themed customer gift basket.
Small sleighs are also a great option for the Christmas season.

Unique Holiday Gift Basket Ideas from REALTORS®

If you’re looking for unique holiday gift baskets to give your clients this Christmas, consider some of these popular gift basket themes:

A brunch basket filled with Blood Mary mix, smoked salmon, waffle mix, and other tasty snacks.
Give a self-care gift basket with all the ingredients for a relaxing night in. Things like candles, a spa mitt, bath bombs, a sleep mask, body scrubs, and face masks are perfect.
Traditional fruit baskets take the guesswork out of choosing personalized gifts for clients. Include seasonal fruits and nuts as an easy solution.
Create a cheese lovers baskets with a personalized cheese cutting board, gourmet cheese, artisan crackers, and a cheese knife.
Art themed baskets make a wonderful gift basket idea for crafters and artists. Fill yours with a customized art box organizer and tools such as an art journal, paintbrushes, markers, or pencils.

Gourmet food gift basketswith themed food gifts such as infused olive oil, olives, specialty condiments, fruit, cheese, and crackers are a popular option.
If you have real estate clients that love to travel, then consider atraveler’s themed basket. This could include a personalized passport cover, a travel kit, acredit card multi tool, and other useful gadgets for travelers.
Ahousewarming basketis perfect for new homeowners! A welcome mat, dish towels,kitchen gadgets, candles, apersonalized wood cutting board, and even snacks are all nice additions.
Wine gift basketsare another popular choice. These are easy to fill with a selection of wine, cheese, and crackers in addition to chocolate. You can also include a wine tasting journal, wine glasses for two, apersonalized corkscrew, a gift certificate for a tasting at a local winery, or a wine related book, such as The Wine Bible.
You can also create yourChristmas gifts basketswith a holiday specific theme. Include oranges, a shelled nut assortment with a nutcracker, chocolate oranges and Christmas candy, Christmas cookies or other holiday baked goods.
Coffee gift cratesare always appreciated by coffee lovers. Fill it with artisan coffees or whole bean coffee from a favorite local coffee shop. Then add biscotti or other cookies, a personalized mug, a coffee grinder, and other coffee accessories. You can also build a similar holiday gift basket for clients using loose leaf teas and specialty tea gadgets.
I also love the idea of afamily themed dinner basketfor new homeowners and large families.Rather than using a basket for thisreal estate agent gift, try a slow cooker instead! Then fill it with an oil mister or olive oil, a personalized apron, a family favorite crockpot cookbook, spice blends, and other non-perishable foodstuffs commonly used in slow cooker recipes.

Can REALTORS® Give Gifts to Clients?

Yes, you can give your real estate clients a holiday gift basket. This is assuming that you aren’t giving a gift in return for a favor or kickback.

Section 8 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) states that“no person shall give and no person shall accept any fee, kickback, or thing of value pursuant to any agreement or understanding, oral or otherwise, that business incident to or a part of a real estate settlement service involving a federally related mortgage loan shall be referred to any person.”

In short, this means that if you are giving a gift as a thank you without any strings attached, it’s perfectly fine. (You can read a more in-depth explanation of this and similar ruleshere.)

Can You Deduct Gifts to Clients on Your Taxes?

Yes! You can deduct client gifts on your taxes. However, the IRS does have limits on the amount you can use as a deduction. In general, you can only $25 for gifts per recipient each calendar year. The exception to this is entertainment themed gifts, such as tickets. For this type of gift, you may deduct $50 per year for each client.

There are some exceptions to this, however.Branded giftswith your business information can potentially be written off at 100%. This is because they are considered a promotional or advertising expense. However, we recommend that you check with a tax professional in your area or state for clarification before making any purchasing decisions.

We hope that you find these ideas for making holiday client gift baskets useful! For more gift giving tips, also be sure to check out our holiday client gifts! This corporate gift guide is filled with lots of great personalized, client gift ideas for Christmas.

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