Merchandise Monday: Gear Up for the Holidays!

Hanukkah started this weekend, Christmas is a mere 15 days away, Festivus, Kwanzaa and Boxing Day are on the horizon – no matter what celebrations this month brings you, stock up on all the holiday essentials available through Hinda’s assortment.

If you’re anything like us, you probably still have plenty of shopping, decorating, baking and card-sending to do. Are we really ever done? Let us help you cross a few things off your to-do list with this great new merchandise that’s just been added to Hinda’s ever-growing assortment!

Alex® Very Merry Ornaments™

Make six Christmas ornaments with sparkling tiles and gems, then add the paper strips to the stem and snap together. It's so easy! The kit includes 108 paper strips, 475 sticky mosaic tiles and gems, plastic stems and knobs and easy instructions. Make room on your tree for these unique decorations!

Bright Endeavors, Inc. Holiday Sugar and Spice Spa Basket

Spiced up for the holidays, this basket includes an 8-ounce Orange Clove soy spa candle, 8-ounce Sweet Mint dead sea salts and two Rosemary and Mint bath tea pods. Makes a great hostess gift or a holiday de-stressor for yourself! Proceeds support training, mentoring and permanent job placement for the young women of Bright Endeavors.

Entrees to Excellence 12 Teas of Christmas

Each gift contains 48 teabags, four each of 12 varieties: Afternoon, Apricot, Christmas Spice, Cinnamon Plum, Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Decaf English Breakfast, Ginger Peach, Japanese Green, Raspberry, Cinnamon Orange Spice and White Pomegranate. Give yourself a break this holiday season.

Godiva Holiday Beaded Ornament

Open up this bejeweled ornament to discover individually wrapped Godiva milk chocolate caramels. Use these as stocking stuffers, hostess gifts or hang a few on your own tree for whenever you’re craving a little something sweet!

Made by Hands, Inc.™ Make-Your-Own™ Holiday Cards

Celebrate all the holidays of the season!  This kit contains everything needed to send 10 awesome greeting cards that you design and create yourself. The kit contains over 250 brightly colored die-cut shapes in card stock (Pop-Outs!™), glue stick, 10 note cards, 10 envelopes and an idea card, all in a fabulous, sturdy briefcase-type box with Velcro® closure that kids can easily access.

The kit has been created from recycled material and is more than 90 percent recyclable. The cards are printed from earth-friendly, soy-based ink and the paper is taken from trees using responsible forestry methods. Feel even better about the holiday cards you’re sending this year!

The Book Company “12 Days of Christmas”

Set in Africa, this beautiful rendition of the classic Christmas carol has a unique twist: colorful icons illustrate the various gifts repeated in each verse of this cumulative song, creating a rebus-style text that gives young children a fun way to follow along and chime in with the lyrics. The gorgeous, wonderfully detailed collage illustrations comprised of colorful kente cloth and cut paper feature tribal drummers and dancers, traditional clothing and native wildlife, making every scene as visually striking as the last.

No matter what you celebrate, Hinda has everything you need to make your holiday season bright. From our expansive assortment of gift options, party and decorating must-haves and everything you need for prep, consider us your one-stop shop this holiday season and any time of year!

Frames and Candles Help Make Rewards More Socially Responsible

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So how can a picture frame or candles make a rewards collection more socially responsible? It all comes down to where these to products come from.

The picture frame is a really unique way to dip your toe in the CSR water. Even though it's a rustic brown color, it's certainly a great example of a "green" product. The 4x6 inch frame is made from recycled bicycle chain. What's more remarkable about it is how it's made. The Bicycle Chain Frame is created by a social enterprise group out of India called Noah's Ark. Artisans working for Noah's Ark receive benefits such as training, education and medical treatment for artisans and for their families. Money made from frame sales goes back towards making the artisan communities more self-sufficient.

In the same way, Dreambean Candles also help those less fortunate more self sufficient. The Deeper Dreambean collection offers candles made from a high quality soy wax and fragrant oils. Poured into round, three-inch tins, the candles can be easily packed for a weekend getaway and has a burn time of around 45 hours. Made by Bright Endeavors, each candle sale goes to help support training, mentoring and eventual job placement for homeless or other at-risk women in the Chicago area.

 Sometimes the smallest things - like candles and picture frames - are the ones that make the biggest difference.

**Both Noah's Ark and Bright Endeavors are partners of Helping Hand Rewards. Learn more about Helping Hand Rewards' parteners by visiting www.helpinghandrewards.org

Socially Responsible Noncash Rewards: Merch Monday

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Merchandise Monday is typically posted on things you find around the home. We've talked iPods, TVs, vacuums, and even air cleaners. Some of your more typical merchandise incentives that could be used to motivate your workplace. However, what if your employees knew their rewards also contributed to making someone else's life better?

That's where Helping Hand Rewards comes in.

Washer BowlYou've probably heard about HHR through their blog, an Incentive Magazine or even from stopping by one of their booths at a trade show. If you aren't aware of what they do here it is in a nutshell: Helping Hand Rewards partners with several different social enterprise groups and uses their products in recognition and reward product assortments. For many of these social enterprises, the revenues generated from products sold help them re-invest more money into creating more opportunities and aid for those in need.

The products aren't just unique because of the causes they support. They're actually great products! Take a washer bowl from an HHR Artisans group. This bowl is created from finding recycled washers on workroom floors in India. The washers are individually welded together to create a beautiful bowl. Other products have similar fascinating Bright Endeavors Candlesattributes. For instance, a line Bright Endeavors candles are made from a water soluable soy-wax cased in recycled wine and beer bottles. Not only do the profits of those candles help their organization, the product is earth-friendly (like many of the other HHR products too).

There are far more stories behind all of the HHR partners and their products. All of them worth time checking out. If you're at the Motivation Show this year, stop by and learn more about the organizations at Booth #4503.

Continuing on this week, our blog posts will continue to focus on corporate social responsibility and how it can relate to our industry of employee recognition, rewards and loyalty. Stay tuned this week!