Good team gifts have one thing in common: they mean everyone equally. Whether a coach is giving something to her team, a club to its volunteers, a teacher to his class or a boss to her office, a team gift should show that every single person belongs. That doesn't take a big budget. Here you'll find concrete ideas by amount per person, by group and by occasion, plus ideas for a group gift, where everyone gives one person something together.
Team gift or group gift?
Every person in the team gets a team gift, for example from the coach at the end of the season or from the company at Christmas. A group gift is something everyone gives together to one person, such as the coach when she leaves or a colleague when he retires. Both are on this page, the group gift further down.
What makes a good team gift?
A good team gift is fair, personal and a reminder of something you went through together. Check your idea against these points:
- Everyone gets the same, including those who were rarely there.
- Their own name or shirt number is on it.
- It's a reminder of something you experienced together.
- It gets used or kept, not thrown away.
Small team gifts by budget per person
The amounts are rough guides per person. What you actually pay depends on the supplier, the quantity and where you are.
Almost free: up to about €2 per person
- A season video from phone clips. Everyone sends two or three short clips and one person cuts them into three minutes. It is shown at the end-of-year evening, and afterwards everyone gets the link.
- A “Who is it?” quiz. Beforehand, one person collects a surprising fact from everyone, and at the end-of-year evening everyone guesses.
- A photo of the big moment. Not the team photo, but the moment everyone still talks about: the celebration after the winning goal, the party after the project. One print with the date for each person.
Small budget: about €2 to €10 per person
- A pin with the year on it. A pin or patch with the team logo and the season. Another one is added every year, and after a few years the collection tells the story of the team.
- A gift for the place you share. One thing for everyone instead of lots of small ones: a speaker for the changing room, a good coffee grinder for the office kitchen, new games for wet break times in the classroom. Shared out, it stays cheap.
- A round of bowling or crazy golf. For teams who otherwise only see each other at training or in meetings. Whoever is giving pays for entry and drinks; pick a date when everyone can come.
Medium budget
- A team card game. A deck of trump cards where every person is a card with a photo and their own stats, such as “coffees a day” or “goals this season”. Everyone gets a whole deck.
A book where every person has a double-page spread
The Flashbook is a team gift with everyone in it: each person gets their own double-page spread with two photos and their answers, plus a team photo, awards and pages for signatures and messages. One book costs €24.90 including design, printing and shipping, €22.90 per book from 3 teams or groups in one order and €19.90 with 5 or more teams. A book holds 8 to 42 people, and the minimum order is 10 books.
Team gifts for sports teams, clubs, classes and offices
Sports team. A shirt number makes almost anything personal. What goes down well is something only this team has: the season video, the card game, a photo of the most important match for the changing-room wall. Many sports have their own team yearbook (what Germans call a Freundebuch); you'll find every sport in our sports team yearbook overview.
Club. A club usually thanks lots of people at once: volunteers, coaches, helpers at the summer party. A nice idea is a helpers' evening where the committee invites everyone and does the barbecue itself, plus a board in the clubhouse with the names of everyone who helped this season. For all your teams at once, there is the sports club yearbook.
School class. Teachers give small things that are the same for everyone: a quiz about the school year in the last lesson, a class photo for every folder, a new game that stays in the classroom. More under End-of-school-year gifts.
Office. With team gifts for work, time together often counts for more than an object: lunch on the company, breakfast after a project is finished, something for the office kitchen that everyone uses. A book with a page for every colleague is available as a company yearbook.
Team gifts by occasion
Christmas. For many teams the moment for a gift, usually at the Christmas party. Ideas for sports teams are under Christmas gifts for sports teams, and for the office under Christmas gifts for colleagues.
End of the season and end of the school year. A look back fits best here: the video, the photos, a word about each person. What children enjoy at the end of the season is under End-of-season gifts for kids.
A shared success. After promotion, a league title or a project that's done: a photo of the moment with the date and result for each person, plus an evening for celebrating, not planning. More under Gifts for a winning team.
Group gift: ideas when everyone gives to one person
With a group gift, everyone gives a little and one person gets something nobody would give on their own. These ideas work for a coach, a teammate, a colleague or a teacher:
- An experience instead of an object. Concert tickets, a cookery course, a day at a treetop adventure park. Ask someone who knows the person well first.
- A framed photo with everyone's signature. The team photo in a frame, with every person signing the wide mount.
- An album with a page from every person. Everyone designs a page with a photo and a few sentences, and one person binds it all together.
- Greetings on video. Everyone records ten seconds; cut together, it's a gift that costs nothing.
How collecting works: one person organises, suggests a small guide amount per person and collects anonymously, so nobody has to justify themselves. Only buy once you know the total. There is more detail under Gifts for coaches, Leaving gifts for colleagues, Teacher leaving gift and Farewell gift for a teammate.
Who pays for the team gift?
Whoever gives the team gift pays for it: the coach out of their own pocket, the team kitty, the club or the company. Say beforehand which pot the money comes from, so nobody pays twice. If the Flashbook is the gift, one person pays for everyone by invoice within 14 days.
It's different when a team buys a book together and each person pays for their own copy. Then it isn't a gift but a shared purchase: everyone pays via a payment link, and nobody has to pay upfront.