Christmas matchboxes: a small, drawn gift for the season

Why matchboxes suit December

December is the month of candles, fires and long tables. A matchbox is used on the night and small enough to keep, which makes it an easy gift to give in numbers: at each place, in a hotel room, in a client parcel or on a restaurant bar.

Ideas for the artwork

Draw the house, the restaurant or the building your guests know. Add one seasonal detail rather than a full winter scene: a wreath on the door, a sprig of holly, snow along the roofline. For a business, a drawing of the premises or a monogram carries the name without reading as advertising.

A drawing by the studio is one fee of £100, whatever the subject. Keep the year small on the back, and the same drawing can be used again next winter with only the date changed.

The dates that matter

Orders for delivery before Christmas close on 1 December. Standard delivery is about three weeks from the order, so for a dinner in mid December, order by the third week of November.

Later than that, Express (about two weeks, £75) or Priority (about one week, £175) can be chosen at payment, until the 1 December cut-off. Couriers are busy in December and delivery dates are estimates, so leave a margin. If time has run out, a gift card is the easy answer.

Choosing the quantity

Count the places where one will be picked up: settings at dinner, rooms in a hotel, parcels to clients. Orders start at 25 boxes, £120 with your own artwork, and go up to 1,000 online; 2,500 and 5,000 are quoted.

A restaurant or hotel handing them out through the season will need more than a dinner party. Start from the covers or rooms over the weeks you plan to give them.

Napkins and coasters can be made in the same drawing and paid for in the same order as the matchboxes.