What America Sends: Gift Box Statistics From 7,855 Boxes

How we counted

Everything below comes from our own order records, not from a survey. The slice runs from January 1, 2025 to the middle of April 2026 and holds 7,855 order lines. For 1,200 of those lines the buyer later left a review, and we read the reviews alongside the orders.

One line is one box that left the studio, not a dollar. We do not publish revenue here, and a listing price is not a record of what anyone paid, so we count shipments and leave money out.

The printed line on the greeting card comes from a fixed menu in the personalization picker, so its distribution reflects our menu as much as the sender's intent. The personal note is free text typed by the sender, and almost no two are alike. We keep them as two separate columns and never merge them.

Every note quoted here has been stripped of names, companies and places. Reviews appear as buyers left them, also without names.

The most common line on an American gift box is "congratulations"

Almost one card in four in our records says "congratulations". "Merry christmas" comes next, on almost one in five. Milestone greetings together outnumber every calendar holiday combined, roughly two boxes in five against fewer than one in three.

The greeting-card aisle tells a different story. In the Greeting Card Association's long-running ranking of everyday card occasions, birthdays sit first, then sympathy, thank-you and wedding, with "congratulations" last, below "get well" and "new baby". In card retail, birthdays alone account for about half of all transactions in a year. Mintel calls birthdays the leading gift occasion in the United States, with 78% of Americans taking part every year.

A card follows the calendar. A box goes out when a card feels thin: someone got the keys, said yes, finished the degree, landed the job. The event happened to one specific person on a day nobody printed on a calendar, and an envelope does not quite carry the weight of it.

Birthdays are on our list too, but they trail engagements and sit far behind "congratulations". The national number one gift occasion is, in boxes, a supporting act. That gap between what the country celebrates and what it ships runs through everything else in our Journal data.

A card follows the calendar. A box goes out when a card feels thin.

Roughly one box in eight is sent because something went wrong

About one box in eight leaves with a line of comfort rather than a line of celebration. Comfort travels under four printed lines: "sending hugs", "thinking of you", "deepest sympathy" and "get well soon".

A holiday box goes out on the calendar. A comfort box does not: a hard month does not pick its date. That is the whole difference between a card for a date and a box for a person.

The handwritten notes in these orders are the ones we quote least, on purpose. They are the most private text in our records, and the printed lines already say enough about the tone: "thinking of you" is chosen far more often than "deepest sympathy", which tells you senders reach for presence before they reach for condolence.

If you are standing in that moment yourself, wondering what to send someone who has just lost a parent or a partner, we wrote separately about putting together a care package for a grieving friend. Its conclusion matches the data's: showing up matters more than finding the right words.

December is not a month, it's a wall

Across calendar 2025, November and December together took about two fifths of the year's boxes, and December alone took more than a quarter. The quietest month of summer, July, moved roughly one seventh of what December did.

A second, gentler wave builds in spring, climbing through April and cresting in May around Mother's Day, before the summer lull sets in.

Retail as a whole is not this lopsided. According to the National Retail Federation, the November–December season brings in about 19–20% of annual US retail sales, rising toward 30% only in narrow categories like toy and hobby stores. Gift boxes, at roughly 40% for the same two months, are concentrated about twice as hard as the average store. Corporate buyers push in the same direction: Coresight Research finds around 40% of annual corporate gift budgets are spent strictly in the fourth quarter.

What the wall means for you as a sender is mostly arithmetic. A personalized box ships within 1–2 business days, and most orders arrive 5 to 9 business days after checkout. Shipping is a flat $11.99 per destination, and we ship only within the United States, to all 50 states. Those timings hold in December, but the calendar does not stretch, so a box meant to land before the 25th needs its order placed with those 5 to 9 days in hand.

Browsing all gift boxes in October rather than December is the difference between choosing a box and taking whatever is left.

The boxes that move most aren't holiday boxes

The single most-shipped box in sixteen months is a cozy new-home box, the one realtors send at closing and friends send when the moving truck pulls away. It went out roughly one and a half times as often as the most-shipped Christmas box. Right behind it sits the engagement box, built for a couple rather than one person. The top of the list belongs to life events; the calendar boxes start further down.

New home, new ring, new chapter. Each is a milestone with a name attached, which is exactly where a printed lid and a written card do the work a generic gift cannot. Buyers describe the moment more vividly than we could:

"Absolutely beautiful work! The gift box was crafted perfectly for my client's home closing, and it truly elevated the entire experience. The attention to detail, presentation, and quality exceeded my expectations. My client loved it! I will definitely be ordering again for future closings."

That reviewer is a realtor, and the closing box has a business reader as well as a personal one: an agent sending a box at every closing is a steady customer, while a friend sends one once. The personal side sounds like this:

"I got this for a family member when they bought a new home. I had it shipped there. Their reactions were amazing! They were so happy to receive such a gift."

Another buyer put two milestones in one sentence: "Great gift for a friend who just got married & moved in with her now husband." Milestones travel; holidays mostly stay home.

A quiet share of gift boxes is sent by offices

Most personal notes in our records appear once. The ones that repeat word for word are mostly workplace thank-yous, the same sentence going out to an entire team.

These orders mark occasions that do not exist on a consumer calendar. Administrative Professionals Day. The end of a long project. A client who has just signed. A greeting to the team the week before Thanksgiving. With every name and company removed, the notes read like this:

"Happy Administrative Professionals Day! Thank you for all that you do!"

"A big heartfelt thank you for all your hard work on the project. We truly appreciate the work and feel so blessed to get to work with you. Hope you plan to take a well deserved break."

"Happy Thanksgiving from the leadership team!"

The wider market agrees this is not a niche habit. Coresight Research reports that 48% of corporate buyers in the United States choose gift boxes or baskets, second only to gift cards. Snappy's employee surveys show why the boxes keep going out: 72% of employees say they are more likely to stay at a company that marks work anniversaries with a gift, yet only 47% have ever received one.

Almost every box carries a line someone wrote themselves

About six boxes in seven leave with a personal note the sender typed, and the notes almost never repeat.

The range is the story. At one end is a single word: "MOM". A card that says nothing else, on a box that says the rest. At the other end is a full paragraph: "Warmest Christmas wishes! We're grateful for all you do. Enjoy a wonderful holiday with those you love." In between sits a single line and a sign-off, "Merry Christmas! Love, —", with the name we removed doing most of the work.

And some senders write "blank". Not nothing, the word itself, typed into the note field so we know the silence is intentional. The box arrives with a printed name and a printed line, and the rest is left for a phone call.

The share matches what buyers say before they buy. Industry surveys of gift-box shoppers find 52% are influenced by personalization options when choosing, and 25% call those options the main reason for their choice. OnePoll's polling of recipients finds 70% believe a personalized gift reflects a closer connection with the giver than a mass-produced one. Our records suggest the recipients are reading the senders correctly.

What this means if you're the one sending

Send for the moment, not the date. The records say people reach for a box when something happened to one person, and that box lands harder on the Tuesday after the closing than on a holiday shared with everyone else.

Write the note yourself. Six senders in seven do, and it is the one thing on the box that cannot be bought. One word is enough if it is the right word.

Beat the wall. A box ships within 1–2 business days and most orders arrive 5 to 9 business days after checkout, with flat $11.99 shipping per destination across all 50 states. In December those timings hold, but the days do not, so count backward from the date you need and leave margin. If you are sending to several addresses, plan earlier still; each destination is its own shipment.

Sending for a team? Bulk pricing starts at 5 boxes, a single order can run up to 2,000, and net-30 terms exist for approved corporate accounts.

Limits of this data

This is one brand, not the country. We ship only within the United States, to all 50 states, and the slice describes our buyers, not every American giver.

The unit is an order line, not a household. One person may have sent several boxes, and a realtor who sends one at every closing counts many times.

The last month is unfinished. The export stops in the middle of April 2026, so that April cannot be compared with any full month, and every seasonal ratio above uses calendar 2025 only.

The printed card line comes from a fixed menu of phrases in our picker. Its distribution reflects what we offered as well as what senders wanted; a phrase we did not list could not be chosen.

We count boxes shipped, not money. Revenue stays out of it, and a listing price is not a record of what anyone paid.

This page is updated once a year with the next full period, at the same address. The year is not in the URL and will not be.

Questions people ask

What is the most common occasion for sending a gift box?

In our own records, a milestone. "Congratulations" is printed on almost one box in four, with "merry christmas" next on almost one in five. That is one brand's shipments between January 2025 and April 2026, not a national survey; card-industry rankings put birthdays first and "congratulations" near the bottom.

When do most gift boxes get sent?

November and December, by a wide margin: about two fifths of a year's boxes ship in those two months, and December alone takes more than a quarter. A smaller spring wave builds around Mother's Day. Whatever the month, a box ships within 1–2 business days and most orders arrive 5 to 9 business days after checkout.

Do people send gift boxes for bad news too?

Yes. Roughly one box in eight leaves with a line of comfort rather than celebration: "sending hugs", "thinking of you", "deepest sympathy" or "get well soon". Of those four, "thinking of you" is chosen far more often than "deepest sympathy": senders reach for presence before they reach for condolence, and a hard month does not wait for a holiday to arrive.

Do people actually personalize gift boxes?

About six boxes in seven leave with a note the sender wrote, and the notes almost never repeat. They run from one word to a full paragraph. A few senders type "blank" so the card goes out empty on purpose, leaving the printed name on the lid to say it all.

Where does this gift box data come from?

From our own order records: 7,855 order lines shipped between January 2025 and mid-April 2026, 1,200 of them with a linked buyer review. Notes are quoted without names, companies or places. We count boxes shipped, not revenue. This page is updated once a year at this same address, with the next full period added.