Festive Ways to Say Thanks

By Tina Wojtkielo Snyder

With the holiday season behind us and a whole year to plan for the next Christmas rush, take a moment how to consider how to best thank your many customers, friends, and mentors in the trade this year. Two examples of clever and impactful holiday gifts landed on my doorstep this year, both serving as inspiring ideas for memorable ways to say thank you.

The first is a dessert—but this isn’t just any dessert. For the past few years, the staff of Todd Reed Inc. in Boulder, Colorado, has come together for a day of team-building and baking to say thank you to the designer’s many clients and colleagues in the trade. The team makes the desserts from scratch, using organic and local ingredients when possible, and ships them to a lucky list of recipients just in time for Thanksgiving. This is Todd Reed’s way of saying thank you to his many supporters, who now look forward annually to the tasty homemade treat. What a great way to differentiate yourself and leave a lasting impression of gratitude.

Another inventive gift idea comes from the heart and hands—literally—of Charlie Herner, CAD/CAM director of Green Lake Jewelry Works in Seattle. Herner’s annual pilgrimage home to his family’s workshop in Monroeville, Ohio, at Thanksgiving includes days spent working on wooden holiday gifts for personal friends and respected contemporaries in the trade. In 2012 he surprised them with exotic hardwood bench pins. This year, he crafted ring-sizing bench pins accompanied by two brass screws to fix onto the top of a bench. A saw guide provides slip-free precision, while freeing up real estate on the central bench pin. “I thought it would be a gift that would be used often, yet be something that jewelers may not currently have,” says Herner, who adds that word has spread about his handmade holiday gifts, making them sought-after surprises each year. “I’ve had requests to sell them after they’ve been handed out, but I find that the magic is in the gifting,” he says. “I’ve made some new friends through this word-of-mouth process and, as a result, these individuals have been added to my holiday list.”

What homemade holiday surprise can you send out his year that would be a unique and special way to say thank you?