Christmas Order Deadlines: Why Handmade Gifts Run Out First

Retail Christmas deadlines are courier deadlines: the last day a box can be picked off a shelf and posted. Handmade Christmas deadlines are workshop deadlines, and they fall weeks earlier, because the thing you ordered does not exist yet.

Work backwards, not forwards

1. Start at the day it needs to be in their hands.
2. Subtract delivery: 1-2 working days in the UK, 3-6 to the US, Canada and the EU, 5-10 elsewhere. In December, add two days to all of those.
3. Subtract crafting: 3-5 working days for an engraved piece, 5-7 for photo work and multi-item boxes.
4. Subtract two days for the layout preview and your approval - the clock does not start until you confirm the spelling.

For a US delivery of a photo gift, that arithmetic lands in the last week of November, not mid-December.

Why studios stop taking orders

A workshop can only engrave so many pieces a day, and the bottleneck is finishing time, not machine time - oiled wood has to dry, and it dries at its own pace whatever the date is. That is why we publish a cut-off and then stop taking dated orders, rather than accepting everything and apologising in January.

Family Gifts

Personalized Christmas Ornament Set

A set of four engraved wooden ornaments, one name each.

£42Personalize

Gift Boxes

First Christmas Keepsake Box

An engraved box for the first Christmas - as a couple, in the house, or as three.

£89Personalize

Family Gifts

Engraved Oak Cutting Board

A solid oak board engraved with the family name - used daily, not shelved.

£79Personalize

If you have missed the cut-off

• Order it anyway and print a card saying it is being made. Nobody minds a gift that arrives in the first week of January when it was clearly planned in November.
• Choose a smaller engraved piece - fewer components means fewer drying stages.
• Ask. We will tell you honestly whether your date is possible, and we would rather lose the order than miss it.

What to order early

Anything with a photograph, anything with several engraved items in one box, and anything with more than one recipient's name. Those are the three that consistently run out of runway first.