How much to spend on an employee Christmas gift
119 days until Christmas·85 shipping days left (weekdays)
As an employer, a sensible Christmas gift budget per staff member in Australia sits around $40 to $100, scaling down a little per person for larger teams. The calculator below is set to a team of five. Enter your own team size and budget comfort for a number and a total that actually fits your business.
Recommended range
$30 to $80 per head
$150 to $400 total
This is a per-employee budget for you as the employer, not a peer-to-peer Secret Santa amount. Gift cards are consistently the most requested format over physical gifts. If a gift for any one employee is approaching $300, it is worth checking the ATO note below before committing to that figure.
Ranges are a social norm, not a rule. The right amount is the one that does not strain you. Based on Australian etiquette convention and the policy anchors named above, not a Christmas-specific spending survey.
Now you know how much. Want to know what?
Add them to Birthday Backup and get three gift ideas within their budget, sent 14 days before their birthday, or instantly whenever you ask.
Back up your first birthdayEmployer-to-staff Christmas gifts are a genuinely common practice in Australia, distinct from a Secret Santa exchange between colleagues, which is a separate, usually smaller, peer-to-peer tradition. This page is about what you, as the employer or manager, might reasonably budget per person across your whole team.
Smaller businesses tend to sit closer to $50 per employee, while larger or more established companies with more room in the budget often go to $100 or more. Team size matters more than most people expect: a genuine per-head gift for a five-person team looks different from a genuine per-head gift for a fifty-person team, simply because the total adds up fast. The calculator above accounts for this and shows a total alongside the per-head figure once you enter your team size.
Worth knowing before you land on a number: the ATO's minor benefits exemption means a gift to an employee under $300, including GST, given occasionally rather than as a reward for performance, is exempt from fringe benefits tax. This is not a recommendation to spend close to $300 per person, most Australian businesses spend well under that, but it is a real ceiling worth knowing if you are considering something more generous for a smaller team or a few key staff. Go over it and the gift itself is still completely fine to give, it may just attract FBT, which is a cost worth factoring in rather than a reason to avoid the gift altogether.
On format: gift cards are consistently the most requested option among Australian employees, ahead of an extra day off, a team lunch, and considerably ahead of physical items like hampers or company merchandise. If you are unsure what will actually land well, defaulting to something with genuine flexibility, a gift card, or a voucher for a local business your team would actually use, is a safer bet than a themed hamper picked to suit an average person who does not really exist on most teams.
Questions
How much should I budget per employee for Christmas?
$40 to $100 per person is a sensible starting range for most small and medium Australian businesses, with larger, more established companies often sitting toward the higher end.
Is there a tax-free limit for staff Christmas gifts?
Yes. The ATO's minor benefits exemption means a gift under $300, including GST, given infrequently and not as a reward for performance, is exempt from fringe benefits tax. Above that, the gift is still fine to give, it may just attract FBT.
What do Australian employees actually want?
Gift cards, by a wide margin, ahead of an extra day off, a team lunch, and physical items like hampers or branded merchandise.
Related calculators