Considering that Christmas is supposed to be a holiday, it can often seem like a lot of work. Not just work, but stress. I’ve always thought the company I work for has the right idea: send Christmas gift baskets to our clients. The people who receive them are happy, we know we sent something that will be appreciated, but no-one loses sleep fretting over what to get everyone, or has to drive to the mall in the middle of the busiest shopping season of the year to pick up individual gifts. I feel the same way about Christmas flowers. What a lovely gift to receive, yet there is no need to spend hours standing in line.
In fact, the more I thought about this whole subject last December, the more determined I became to avoid the seasonal hype. Thinking that way only made me upset (given that Christmas is probably my favorite time of year, outside of the already identified issues), so I resolved to do something about it. I spoke to the guy in our marketing department who’s responsible for ordering the Poinsettias for the office and picking out the Christmas gift baskets for our clients and got the name of the company he deals with for these things. I figure the baskets and the Christmas flowers are always top notch and he doesn’t seem in the least bit stressed by the situation, so the supplier must be good to work with. I logged onto the site he recommended (1800flowers.com) and I was amazed by the selection of gift ideas. They carry virtually anything I could think of when it comes to gifts that are delivered to recipients: plants, food, gift baskets and business gifts. I checked out the Christmas gift basket selection first, and found a huge range of possibilities. I had no idea that you could order baskets that include bottles of vintage wine, chocolate dipped strawberries, fresh fruit and spa products, but there was a virtual catalog that listed all of these. There was even a Martha Stewart section! Ordering couldn’t be easier (or more stress free): Christmas gift baskets are sorted into categories, each has a complete description itemizing every item included and there are detailed, high quality photos showing the finished product. There was also a variety of price points, making it easy to shop within my budget.
Much as I liked the gift baskets, I have to admit that the Christmas flower section ended up being my favorite. Really, when you live in a northern state and there’s snow on the ground, what could possibly beat receiving a brilliant arrangement of Christmas flowers to combat the snowy dreariness? Even the Poinsettias were fabulous; bigger, brighter and with far more blooms than any I’ve seen in stores.
I was convinced. Online is the way to go and last Christmas, my best friends all received a bright bouquet of Christmas flowers as their gift from me.
