Christmas Gift Boxes Wholesale: Custom Packaging for Holiday Sales

Christmas gift boxes Wholesale are custom boxes that have been purchased in bulk for holiday gift sets, hampers, and retail display. Mailers and folding cartons can be made in the shortest amount of time; rigid boxes offer the most upscale look but take the longest to make, and a neutral box with a seasonal sleeve or band will allow leftover stock to sell in January. Plan back from your ship date: order art in the days leading up to this Christmas and order in late summer for next Christmas.

A gift box is purchased twice. You sell it in October, and your customer purchases it in December without giving it a second thought. Late deliveries are final: a set that’s delivered in a plain box on Dec. 20 won’t be worth as much as a set delivered in a printed box on Dec. 1, and a pallet that doesn’t make the cut-off for the carrier will languish in the warehouse until spring. Empress Packaging produces bespoke boxes for all sorts of brands throughout the USA, and this is for a buyer who requires holiday volume in a time schedule they can count on.

Why the timing of box orders during the holidays is the issue first?

There is generally slack in luxury gift boxes orders. A holiday order has none, because the due date is a calendar date. It’s in front of all your production time, freight charges, and days of packing.

Spread is illustrated on published lead times. One supplier estimates that mailers take approximately 12 to 15 business days for production, while folding cartons and corrugated take 20 to 25 business days, and rigid boxes take 20 to 35 days. A first custom rigid program has a retail sourcing guide of 60 to 80 days from approved dieline to delivered stock. On locked tooling, reorders fly.

Box type

Typical production

Rough latest order window for a Christmas ship date

Mailer

About 2.5 to 3 weeks

End of October to early November

Folding carton or corrugated

About 4 to 5 weeks

Mid October

Rigid gift box

About 4 to 7 weeks, longer for a first order with complex finishes

Early to mid September

These windows are best guesses only. Around the 1st of December, they assume boxes are in your warehouse for your team to pack, and leave a week or two for freight. Typically, the last Christmas ship dates are in mid to late December, depending on the service, so please consult the current schedule. These are the real dates for confirmation of the Empress, according to your size, print, and finish.

Gift box styles compared

Style

Best for

Speed

Notes

Folding carton

Single items, apparel, candles, retail shelves

Fast

Lowest cost per box; ships flat

Corrugated mailer

Online orders, sets that must survive shipping

Fastest

Print inside the lid for the reveal

Sleeve and tray

Sets of two to six items

Medium

Swap the sleeve each season, keep the tray

Two piece lid and base

Luxury gift boxes, hampers

Medium to slow

Fitted insert holds each item

Rigid magnetic

Premium sets, corporate gifts

Slowest

Heaviest feel; higher minimums

Wholesale buying benefits include:

The obvious is branding, but the commercial one is pricing. The printed gift box sells a set for more than the same set sold loose, and it’s the box that will help you maintain that price when it comes to the busy holiday shelf. Retailers purchasing wholesale also like boxes to arrive ready to display without having to be re-wrapped by them.

It is twice as safe if it is safe in your warehouse and safe in transit. Fitted inserts prevent jars, bottles, and tins from rattling around, and an appropriately sized outer carton eliminates shipping costs for space.

Cost is where volume is king. The smaller the quantity per box, the higher the price per box, and the more that one structure can be shared for a number of products, the lower the tools cost. Rigid is an exception, it is more expensive per box and therefore deserves to be put on more expensive products.

Candle gift boxes that are eco-friendly are simple to specify. Uncoated kraft, recycled board, and FSC-certified stock print well and are recycled through the normal channels. If you’re promoting recyclability, then avoid using foil, plastic windows, and foam inserts.

It’s the experience they’re expecting that makes customers purchase gift packaging. A well-opened box is photographed and posted, generating free publicity during the peak shopping seasons.

Wholesale Christmas gift boxes are used in the following places.

Retailers and boutiques purchase set-ups that are ready to go for the weeks leading up to Christmas. Candle makers also sell candle gift boxes with two or three candle scents per set, our custom printed candle boxes page goes into sizing around the candle jar. Beauty and bath packs include skincare and soap sets. Hampers are filled with dividers and are used by food and gourmet brands. Corporate gifting programs place in the same box for hundreds of clients and require that each box be the same as the approved sample. The printed mailer is a way for online sellers to make the shipping box and gift box a single package.

Customization options

It is the same few options affecting the price & lead time on all holiday runs.

Board and structure first: cardboard material made from folding carton stock, kraft, corrugated, or rigid chipboard wrapped in printed paper. Check out our luxury rigid boxes page for luxury rigid box gift boxes. Printing on kraft: one color to full color, the method will affect the minimum order; see our one color to full color printed mailer boxes page. Finishes include matte and gloss coatings, soft touch lamination, foil stamping, and embossing. Every additional finish is an additional time, so drop one if it’s tight.

Inserts are custom cut to fit your items. Include dividers for multi-item sets, a card slot for a gift note, ribbon or band closures. Sizes may be allocated to accommodate your products, or a small variety of nesting sizes may be utilized throughout your product line to reduce tooling.

If you are selling eco friendly gift boxes for your own brand, include your logo on each box and display the holiday message on a removable layer.

Don’t waste Christmas supplies.

The shelf life of custom printed boxes carrying a message on all panels is approximately 6 weeks for ‘Merry Christmas `. All that you don’t sell by December 26 remains in storage for one year, and you have to pay for storage.

The more inexpensive option is a neutral base box that you can add a printed sleeve, a belly band, or a lid sticker or ribbon to for the holiday. The base box is great for all-year-round use for birthdays, anniversaries, and spring sets. It is only the thin seasonal layer that is dated, and printing and writing off this layer is much cheaper. For wholesale buyers, this also means you will be able to reorder the base box in January, the beginning of your next gifting season.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What are wholesale boxes of Christmas gifts? 

A: They are bulk purchase gift boxes, which are either printed with your brand or have a holiday message on them, or both. As the number of items purchased increases, the wholesale price decreases.

Q: When to place orders for Christmas? 

A: Count back from your carrier cut-off. By rule of thumb, mailers require approximately 4 weeks prior to packing, 6 weeks for folding cartons, and 11 or more weeks for rigid boxes. Inquire for a definite date during the quote.

Q: What is the minimum quantity of wholesale gift boxes?

A: Style, size, and print determine this. Folded carton and mailer start below the rigid boxes; typically, this is at 500 units due to tooling.

Q: Are there any eco-friendly gift boxes? 

A: Yes. There are choices of paper-based inserts as well as uncoated kraft, recycled board, and FSC-certified stock.

Q: May I print various designs on various boxes? 

A: Yes. Multiple versions of artworks on one structure could be helpful for multi-scent or multi-product holiday lines.

Q: May I get a sample first? 

A: Yes. Proofs will be made available prior to production.

Get your free quote.

Please request a free quote for Christmas gift boxes wholesale at empresspackaging.com, query@empresspackaging.com,  or call (888) 900-7629.