Ultimate List of 30 Corporate Diwali Gifts for Employees [2021 Update]

Celebrated every year in the autumn by millions of people, Diwali is one of the most significant festivals in Indian culture. It is also probably the favorite and most celebrated Indian festival even by non-Indians worldwide. The beautiful festival of light celebrates new beginnings (also known as the Hindu New year) and the triumph of good over evil.

It is not only a good gesture but also customary to exchange gifts on Diwali. As Diwali approaches, people from different facets become increasingly indecisive about what to gift their dear ones.

In the business world, it is crucial to make your employees feel valued and cared for. You must shower them with gifts and goodies from time to time to nurture more robust and better professional relationships. And the auspicious occasion of Diwali is an excellent instance of corporate gifting.

Related: The Ultimate Guide to Corporate Gift ideas in 2021

The reason I'm writing this blog is that I understand that the act of choosing the perfect Diwali gift for employees could be tricky. You want to tick off all the right boxes and avoid any mistakes. You want to make sure that you give them a meaningful and memorable gift but at the same time maintain the formal code of conduct.

Presenting a list of 30 Well-thought-out Corporate Diwali Gift Ideas for Employees

1. The Goodness of Assorted Dry Fruits

Another classic and most favorite Diwali gift is a basket of assorted dry fruits. They are not only traditional and elegant-looking gift options, but they are also full of health benefits. They can be stored easily and are pretty easy to transport and distribute, making them rather suitable as bulk corporate gifts.

2. Holiday Happenings

Diwali is the time for family and friends. Your employees will appreciate it if you give them a little extra time off to celebrate the festival with their dear ones. It is one of the most thoughtful things you can do for them.

3. Cash in Hand or Bonus

People celebrate Diwali along with Laxmi Puja. It is associated with money, prosperity, and wealth. Sending bonus cheques to your employees is a great way to ring in the festival.

4. Classic Feng Shui

Many believe that the Chinese heritage artwork Feng Shui captures auspicious luck and happiness through beautiful and artistic figures. You can find them in Indian households, and they make for great corporate gift ideas. Some of the most common feng shui elements are Tortoise, three-legged frog, lucky bamboo, laughing buddha, and chimes.

5. Surprise Grab Bag

A little thought goes a long way. If you want to make your employees feel a little extra special, here's an excellent idea for you. Make the whole gift-giving fun by curating a few combinations of gift hampers for your employees. It can have movie tickets, gift vouchers, office essentials, phone covers, or water bottles. Your employees can choose a surprise grab bag randomly.

6. Desk Essentials Combo

Your people spend a considerable amount of their time in the workplace. Getting new, unique, and elegant-looking office essentials on Diwali will improve the vibe of the workplace. Desk essentials can include Digital organizers, engraved metal pens, professional notebooks, reporters. You can easily compile these items and gift them as a Diwali gift hamper.

7. Bonsai Tree

Who wouldn't like Bonsai trees? They are beautiful, cute and are a great addition to any indoor garden. Some good trees for bonsai include Juniper, pines, spruces, cedars, magnolia, elms, and oaks. Having a bonsai or any plant on the desk would give your employees a feeling of freshness and help them keep up a good mood at work.

8. Metallic Home Décor Gift Hampers

It is a typical Indian custom to give metallic gift items on Diwali. Metallic decor items, copper idols of deity, silver glasses, brass or silver bowls, silver spoons make excellent Diwali gifts.

Related: The Essential List of Diwali Office Decorations

9. Sweet-tooth Basket

One cannot have too many sweets for Diwali. Diwali is when friends and families come together and have sweets. It is an integral part of the celebration. From Gulab jamun, Motichoor Ke Ladoos, Rasgulla, Kaju Barfi to Soan Papdi to Gujia, the range of gift options is just huge. Giving sweets baskets to employees is a great way to add sweetness and joy to their celebrations.

10. On-the-go Electronics

Electronics such as Smartwatches, Fitness Trackers, Portable Bluetooth speakers, headphones, phone adapters, power banks are favorite gift items among millennials and GenZers. They will highly appreciate a good quality electronics product.

11. Household Essentials

A common corporate Diwali gift in India is kitchen essentials and home electronics. You can upgrade your game and give them a piece of modern kitchen gadgets such as a coffee machine, hand blender, air fryer, or a toaster. These kinds of gifts are considered auspicious during Diwali and usher goodwill at home.

12. Custom-made Goodies

If you want to go for unique Diwali gifts, the best thing to do is to go for personalized gifts. You can run a quick survey to understand your employees' likes, dislikes, and preferences. Once the results are in, you can plan gifts accordingly. Another way to add a personal touch is adding a name tag or engraving your employees' names in gift items. Keychains, engraved metal pens, photo frames, and coffee mugs can make great corporate Diwali gifts for employees.

13. Creative Art Pieces

You can also select beautiful and creative art pieces from a wide range of selections readily available on online gift stores. People love adding new elements to their homes on Diwali. Therefore, it makes a great corporate gift for both employees and clients.

14. The Ethnic Touch

Any Indian festivity feels incomplete without ethnic attire. As a Diwali gift, you can give your employees a beautiful Indian piece of clothing, maybe a kurta for men and a saree for women. It will not only be useful and memorable to them, but they'll also take special pride in flaunting it.

15. Aromatic Candle Set

Decorative, scented, and colorful sets of candles make great gifts for office staff. They are therapeutic and also can help them relieve stress. It will also add a touch of elegance and finesse to their interior.

16. Go Eco-Friendly

This Diwali spread the message of sustainability and recycling by gifting eco-friendly gifts to your employees. Some excellent choices are tote bags, stainless steel water bottles, reusable straws, thermal coffee mugs, post-consumer waste notebooks, desk plants, and customized earthen diyas. Your environment-conscious employees are going to love it!

17. Chocolate Delight

Chocolate makes everything better. A chocolate box with a combination of various types of chocolates is an evergreen gifting option. You can have dark chocolates, imported candies, milk chocolates, exotic handmade chocolates. You can never go wrong with it!

18. UV Light Sanitizers

Now that we are battling a global pandemic, the safety of the workforce matters even more. So what better option than to send Diwali gifts that ensure their protection.

Ultraviolet light, also known as nature's hand sanitizer, is an incredible disinfection tool for cleaning surfaces and objects. UV hand sanitizers can kill or inactive microorganisms such as the coronavirus. Giving such gifts to office staff will ensure that your employees can remain safe and protected even inside their homes.

19. Work from Home Furniture

With work from home being the norm, gifting employees comfortable work from home furniture is a thoughtful way of ensuring that your employees don't face any hassles and remain productive. A good set of work from home furniture can help your employees stay organized, focused and helps in mitigating posture problems.

20. Gadget Organizer

Humans tend to keep losing and misplacing their stuff—for instance, small gadgets like flash drives, adapters, data cables, and more. Therefore, to help your employees keep their necessary electronic amenities in order, you can also consider gifting them with a gadget organizer this Diwali.

21. Digital Photo Frames

Pictures carry a thousand emotions. Everyone wants to preserve their memories and cherish them with their loved ones. As such, digital photo frames would make up a great Diwali gift for your employees.

23. Accessories Combo

Next on this list is the accessories gift hamper. It can include office accessories, notebooks, cable wires, pen drives, mousepad. You can make a combo of formal wear accessories such as Ties, Pocket squares, cufflinks, wallets, watches or clutches, and handbags for women.

24. Subsidized Home Maintenance Services

It would probably be one of the best things that anyone would want during a festive season. When Diwali approaches, many individuals get busy renovating or fixing their abode. But since most employees are now working from home and trying to balance their work-life, they might hesitate to do any pre-festive chores. So, to let your employees show your gratitude for working hard in these testing times, you can consider offering them home maintenance services as their Diwali gift.

[BONUS] A Few Virtual Corporate Diwali Gift Ideas for Remote Employees

Going by the current pandemic situation, you might not have your employees around you to celebrate Diwali this year. However, this shouldn't bar you from gifting them, and here are a few virtual Diwali gift suggestions that you can offer your remote employees.

25. Point-based Rewarding

Point-based rewarding is one of the easiest and flexible ways of gifting your employees no matter where they are. In a point-based rewarding system, each employee is part of an employee rewards platform where employer/management can allocate points to their employees as gifts or rewards. The employees can redeem these points and use them to buy goods/services from various e-commerce and in-store brands across different categories like merchandise, travel, lifestyle, etc.

26. Gift Cards

Gift cards are a great corporate gift for all seasons. They offer the flexibility of choice to your employees, and they can use it to buy something they would use. Moreover, you can effectively plan and execute your corporate Diwali gift with a suitable vendor by directly delivering gift cards to your employees' inbox.

27. Super Subscription

A unique yet handy gift is a free subscription. It can be a magazine, streaming services, courses, and special skills, etc. There are subscriptions for pretty much any hobby or interest you can think of. Getting a free Netflix subscription for six months or a Spotify premium account will cheer your employees up!

28. Online Courses

Employees now desire to learn and grow professionally while at work. Most job seekers prefer working for organizations that support their employees with learning and development initiatives. Also, the present situation with everyone confined within their homes has given the employees a perfect opportunity to upskill themselves. Hence, this Diwali, you can gift them their preferred online courses, which are available on various e-learning platforms like Skillshare, Udemy, Unacademy, and more.

29. Access to Online Wellness Platform

The sedentary lifestyle followed by a majority in today's workforce is adversely affecting their health and wellbeing. It is then complemented by an irregular diet and sleep schedule, making employees prone to many chronic illnesses.

Moreover, in times like these, ensuring employee wellbeing has become a top priority for employers worldwide. Therefore, this year you can introduce them to the world of fitness by providing them access to an online wellness platform as their Diwali gift.

30. E-Books

A good book holds power to open up your mind and even inspire you to do something great. It helps you improve your vocabulary and learn about things that may come in handy in the real world. So, this Diwali, you can also consider giving out some e-books to your employees who love reading as their gift.

If you want to share some more Diwali gift ideas that employers can consider for their employees, we would love to hear from you in the comments below.

This article is written by Darshana Dutta. She works as a Content Creator and Digital Marketer at Vantage Circle. She writes extensively on trends around employee engagement and transforming company culture. For any related queries, contact editor@vantagecircle.com