🎲 Sponsor: Thank you to GameFancy for authoring this post.
When should you order a Christmas gift for someone who plays D&D or another tabletop game, so it is there in time for Christmas? If it is a personalized or made-to-order handmade dice bag or tray, by December 1-5, depending on the country you live in. If you are in the US and it is a ready-made bag from a US warehouse, by December 17. After December 17 only the things a seller already has on a shelf in your country will make it. These dates are not from my head; they come from my shop GameFancy, and below I show how.
Why handmade at all and not something from mass market? Your game partners are usually close friends or family, and you want to give a thing nobody else at the table has. A dice bag or a dice tray is exactly the thing a person will take out at every session.
I have been sewing dice bags and trays since 2020, more than 7,200 orders went through my shop. The numbers below are from my shop, not industry statistics. But the Christmas season works about the same for every maker.
The Christmas season is shorter than it looks
When I looked at last Christmas season, I saw a simple thing. 36% of all orders of the year come in 9 weeks. The peak is even narrower, from November 29 to December 13.
| Period | What happens |
|---|---|
| Until mid-November | Free choice, any personalization, calm timelines |
| November 29 to December 13 | Peak. Personalization does not make it anymore (deadline is December 1-5, depending on country), made-to-order without a name still kind of works, the queue grows |
| After December 17 | Only what is already made and sitting in a US warehouse, and only for US buyers |
The December 21 message
In the rush of life we often leave the gift choice to the last moment. And so on December 21 I get a wave of messages: I need it urgently, it has to be here by Christmas, and with my friend’s name on the back of the goblin.
And I get a bit sad in these moments. Sewing is not the problem. The problem is that the person already pictured this gift with the name on it, and by the calendar it just does not make it.
Dice bags and trays from GameFancy take 3-5 days to make, and shipping from Ukraine takes another 7-12 days. Together that is two weeks minimum.
But we keep bestsellers in a warehouse in Miami, so even in the week before Christmas you can get your order in 1-3 business days. Yes, it will not be a personalized bag. But it is a handmade bag or tray, from fabric with a unique print or in an unusual shape (goblin, mothman), sewn from our own patterns. Last pre-Christmas season the two bestsellers in my shop were exactly these: the mothman tray and the bag shaped like a goblin head.
Made to order or ready to ship: which one to pick
When people write “I want a handmade bag”, they are in fact choosing between two different things. Better to understand this before looking at the range.
| Made to order | Bestsellers from the Miami warehouse | |
|---|---|---|
| Time | 3-5 days sewing plus 7-12 days shipping | 1-3 business days, DHL |
| Name or your own print | Yes | No |
| Choice | Any fabric and shape | What is already sewn |
| Last day to order | December 1-5, depending on your country | December 17, US buyers only |
If there is still time before your country’s deadline, go for personalization. After that, for US buyers there is one option left, and it is a fine option.
One clarification about countries. 1-3 days from the warehouse is for US buyers only, a parcel from the US to the UK will not make it in a week. If you are in the UK, count by the first column, the bag travels from Ukraine. Right now parcels arrive in about 10 days, but before Christmas I would keep a buffer, so December 1. Delivery times to the US, the UK and Australia are all different, so the last day to order is different for each country too, from December 1 to 5.
What to give, depending on who it is for
For the game master (the DM). A DM’s dice live differently than a player’s. From what players write on forums, DMs more often sort by dice type, and players by set. So a DM does well with a bag with pockets plus a tray, two things that sit next to each other on the table.
For a player with a collection. The six-pocket bag holds about 300 dice, each pocket takes 6-7 full sets. Plus the central compartment, so 7 sections in fact. If a person has been playing for five years or so, they for sure have a box or a sack where you can never find anything.
For the one who already has everything. Here the shape matters, not the capacity. A goblin or a mothman, this kind of bag gets taken out to show friends, not only to carry dice.
If you do not play yourself. This is the most common question I get. You do not need to understand the game. It is enough to know two things: does the person carry dice around, and are there many of them? If they carry dice around and have many, a bag with pockets. If they play at home and have few, a tray.
Who orders gifts most often? Going by my orders, gifts are most often for D&D partners, people who sit at the same table. And the most typical case is a girlfriend giving to her boyfriend who plays.
What is inside, in short
Gabardine on the outside. It is a soft synthetic, it does not fade and does not stretch, it keeps its shape. The lining is 100% cotton. The bottom is square, so the bag stands open on the table.
Trays are about 5.5 by 5.5 inches, corners on snaps, the bottom is stiff and covered with gabardine. The corners unsnap and the tray travels flat in the bag.
I do not make eight and ten pocket bags. Too many layers of fabric in the seam, it comes out messy. That is also why there are almost none of those on the market.
About packaging. Every item goes in kraft paper or a kraft box, with a sticker and twine. So usually there is no need to wrap the gift separately, you can give it as it is. Parcels from Ukraine also go with a postcard. If you need a note for the recipient, write the text in the order comment.
Prices for reference: tray $21.70, bag without pockets $32, six-pocket bag $41, velvet for 120+ dice $41, rainbow $47.
Deadlines for this Christmas
| What you order | Last day |
|---|---|
| Personalized or made to order, UK | December 1 |
| Personalized or made to order, other countries | December 1-5, depending on delivery times to your country |
| Bestsellers from the Miami warehouse, US buyers only | December 17 |
If you are reading this on December 20
- Forget personalization, it is too late this year
- Look only at what is marked as ready to ship
- Check where the parcel physically ships from, not only whether the seller “ships worldwide”
- If you are not in the US, ready-to-ship from a Miami warehouse will not help you either, look at what is in stock in your country
- The packaging is already gift-ready, kraft and twine, no wrapping needed
- Need a note? Write the text in the order comment
In 6 years I have 2,300+ reviews with a 4.9 average. The word that repeats most often is “well made”, I counted, 207 times. That is maybe the best explanation of why people give handmade.
