Set the budget and the list

Start with a number per person, not a total. It keeps the full-time team, the part-timers and the new hire who started last week on equal footing, and it tells you right away whether everyone gets a gift of their own or a team shares one.

Our boards come in three sizes: the Classic serves 2 to 3 for $139, the Medium serves 4 to 6 for $169, and the Large serves 10 to 14 for $249. That last one is the quiet budget hero. Share a Large across an office of 10 to 14 and it works out to roughly $18 to $25 a person.

One thing worth knowing before you buy gift cards instead: the IRS says cash and cash equivalent gifts are never excludable from income, and it has ruled that an item worth more than $100 couldn't count as a de minimis fringe benefit. Holiday gifts can qualify when they're small and occasional. The details live in IRS Publication 15-B, and your accountant will know how it applies to you.

Decide on one shared gift or one each

This is the decision that shapes everything else. A shared gift is for the people who are in the same room, at the office party or on the last Friday before the break. One gift each is for everyone else: remote teammates, people in other offices, anyone who'd rather enjoy it at home.

Food works for both, and that's why it's such an easy call. A Large board in the break room becomes the thing everyone gathers around. The conversation starter. The reason nobody goes back to their desk. A Classic or Medium sent home gets shared with a partner, the kids, the neighbors.

One team put it best in a review on our corporate gifting page: "We sent Boarderie to all of our employees this holiday season and it was a total home run! They were able to enjoy the boards with their families." That's the goal. A gift that leaves the office with them.

Pick the delivery date that fits

You've got two ways to send. Send a board and choose the date it arrives on each person's doorstep. Or send an e-gift by email and let each person pick their own delivery date, no address required. The e-gift is made for anyone with a travel schedule, a holiday trip or a calendar you can't predict.

Either way, boards are prepared fresh the day before, shipped chilled and overnight, and arrive fully arranged. Nobody has to be home when it shows up, since the insulated packaging keeps it cold in the box all day, and a board lasts 5 to 7 days in the fridge. You can schedule any date in the next 365 days, so book the office party board the moment the party gets a date.

For the party itself, have it arrive the day before or that morning. Pull it out of the fridge about 30 minutes before everyone gathers so the cheese can warm up a little. Cold cheese at an office party is the saddest thing in the building.

Write a note that sounds like you

Every board can carry a personalized gift note, and it's the part people remember. Skip the corporate greeting card voice. Two or three sentences that sound like you talking beat a paragraph about synergy.

Try something like: "Thanks for a huge year, Sam. The Q3 launch doesn't happen without you. Enjoy this with the family and don't answer any emails until January." Specific, warm, done. If you're writing 40 of them, keep the same bones and change one detail for each person.

Order once, then check it off

Here's where the spreadsheet pays off. On our corporate gifting page you can ship to multiple addresses, write an individual note for each board and pick each delivery date, all in one simple checkout. The office party board, the remote team and the new hire in Denver go out in the same order.

Sending 30 boards or more? Our gifting concierge is there to help at corporategifting@boarderie.com. Either way, the boards arrive fully arranged on a reusable acacia wood board. No slicing, no plating, no extra steps for you or anyone on your team.

Last thing: save the spreadsheet. Next December you'll open it, update three names and be done before lunch.