Ideas for farewell gifts and going away gift ideas for the leaver

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Farewell Gifts from the Leaver

forget me not

So you need inspiration for farewell gifts to give wonderful people you are leaving behind?

You don't have to, but you want to give going away gifts and favours to thank people for attending the farewell party, or for making your time there a happy one.
Or you want them to remember you.
The following going away gift ideas will help you ...

Goodbye Gifts for Colleagues

One goodbye present for the whole workplace may be economical, however the risk is that as there is turnover at work, your gift eventually may not be remembered as from you.
Also people tend not to care for items in the workplace as they would their own things.

However if you feel that the least you could do is get the place a new coffee-maker then by all means go ahead - you would still look very generous and you will be leaving on a good note!

thank you note

Group of adults:
If you don't want to get one work-place gift (very impersonal) and you don't want to go to the trouble and expense of personal going away gifts for everyone, some of the following small favours would make a nice touch, with or without a card.

fridge magnets with a goodbye message or phrase that you use often
pot-plants: great for a better office environment, and you can have fun thinking of the right plant for each person

home-made printed stickers with message
cupcakes with individual names on them
tiny packets of coffee beans/jelly beans(/breath mints?!?) with individual names on each packet
personal tea bags?
picture frames with a picture of the whole group, and "Team 2009" as a trophy line
stress balls with your own humorous message
personal round tuits for everyone - for people who can never "get a round tuit"[too-it] at work

Messages may just be a 'goodbye and thank you' with contact details such as email address.

leetle gift

Group of children:
Some of the farewell gifts for adults can work for children, but the following are some nice goodbye gifts:

get each child to write something nice about every other child, then put these together and write up the individual list for every child of what the others have written about them.
Add your own inspirational phrase.
Give these out on your last day in personalised envelopes
books, such as Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Suess, or Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
notebooks or laminated bookmarks with your message and their name on them

From a child to teachers:
Children can't go wrong if they write about how they enjoyed classes with their teacher, or to thank the teachers in a farewell letter to each.

Farewell gifts from very young children can be as simple has making their own buttons. Simply draw or paint their teacher's faces on some pin buttons, and parents can write something nice on the back, which would make a sweet keepsake from the child.

The same thing can be done for coffee mugs, folder covers and so on.

bye-bye balloons

Parting Gifts for Loved Ones

Help them move on or lessen the pain of you leaving:

buy your parents some dance lessons
give your friend a membership to the local classic-car-lovers association (or anything with regular meetings)
get them some inspirational biographies to read - the more tragic some life events in them, the more perspective they will have on you leaving
subscribe them to building a website about their passion

the perfect gift

The idea is to get the focus off you and onto another interest they have.
Even better is an interest that involves other people.

Make them either remember you fondly, or be absolutely grief-stricken:

photo gifts (see farewell gifts for friends and family)
a diary/note pad/advent calendar with messages for every day, of how much that person means to you. Pictures, sketches, or tiny favours (e.g. chocolate, painted pebbles etc.) will really make it special

jewellery or pins - engraved with a message, or a locket with photo
anything home-made - if you are a family leaving, get your young children to draw pictures for their grandparents.
If you have skill such as sewing or carving, make something that uniquely comes from you

Don't give discarded items as farewell gifts, that you obviously want to get rid of!!

Need more ideas?

YOUR farewell gifts ideas!

Do you have a great idea to share? Let us know and we'll put your idea here.
You'll be helping so many other people make that special person feel the warmth of their community.

Farewell cakes! from Zoe

I am going to buy 3 or 4 big containers of dessert at Costco, then make an assortment plate of desserts for each of my guests and wrap it in cellophane, with a beautiful ribbon, then make a beautiful label that says, "Tanya's Deserting Us!".
Tanya (the one who's moving) will hand these to her guests as she hugs them goodbye.

From parting gifts to people left behind to the goodbye gift menu page

From Farewell Gifts from the Leaver to Fond Farewell home page