A few fun seasonal facts

After 24 years of holiday gift basket sales, there are certain things that are noteworthy year after year (mostly just to me, but I am happy to share) such as the most popular basket, which country outside of Canada orders the most, etc...

This was my favourite original handcrafted card from this last season. It was a unique design because our client wanted to add a few gift cards to the large gourmet gift basket for her family which included her 2 young grandsons here on the WestCoast so instead of a regular ordinary greeting card or simply sticking the gift cards in the basket on their own, I created this adorable gift card holder to draw some attention and delight from the youngsters. I was so happy to hear that it was an absolute hit. Annually my client's say the darnedest things on their message cards. Sometimes they make us laugh and sometimes they make us tear up. Here are 2 of our most memorable greeting card messages added to gift baskets for 2015: Funniest Card Message - Merry Xmas from your fav cousin... it's from Todd asshole (name changed to protect the innocent hilarious sender) Most brilliant Card Message - We wish you a happy EVERYTHING this holiday season and BEYOND!! (she brilliantly covered all her bases) Favourite Pastime Holiday Habit - I love keeping track of countries that our gift baskets are ordered from incl Japan, Abu Dhabi, Moscow, all over the UK, Italy, France and Australia. Every year I get excited when there is an int'l order from a town or city I haven't heard of before. (Should be an app for that...it would be very fun if there was a map app to keep track of all the countries that have ordered from us... hint hint... Fun idea for our IT friends) :) Now for the numbers, we were up 8% over last year in $$$$ and 5% in actual gift baskets created. This was exciting to see since there is a lot of doom n gloom in the media regarding retail numbers. Happy to buck the trend. Sadly we had to close the order desk this year on Dec 17th, I really hate doing that but to ensure all our gifts ordered prior to that day get to the intended recipients without delay, the closure needed to happen. #1 Selling Gift Basket last holiday season was.... Drum roll please... The 100 Mile lrg) gift basket and the race wasn't even close. It's bizarre because last year it was A Trip around the World by a landslide and this year only 35 of them sold between Nov 15-Dec 25th. It still surprises me how different one year to the next can be... yes, I still get surprised after 24 years. Then there are a few seasonal favourites that never disappoint: -Deb's silliness, never gets old and is such a breath of fresh air -hearing from clients we work with year after year -24/7 Christmas music on QmFm... so grateful for it These are just a few fun facts from our season and hope you enjoyed this little peak behind the scenes. Thank you for checking in, Carole