🎄 How To Turn Jira Into a Christmas Gift Engine (yes, really)

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And how you can do the same with a little help from Custom Fields

Every December, offices around the world reenact the same familiar ritual: a predictable pile of gifts, a predictable exchange of polite smiles, and at least a few of us pretending to be surprised at the socks, mugs, and chocolate bars that we definitely didn’t see coming.

This year, our team wanted to break the tradition, not by buying wilder gifts, but by delivering them in a completely unexpected way.

So we asked ourselves a simple question:

What if holiday gifts were delivered through Jira?

This is the story of how one simple idea turned into a surprisingly delightful internal tradition, powered by our newly launched Custom Fields app and its first field type, Item Inventory .

🎁 The Twist: Jira Becomes a Game (just for a moment)

We all know the feeling: a new Jira ticket lands on your board. You sigh. You roll your eyes. You mentally prepare for whatever workflow adventure awaits.

But this time… the ticket wasn’t a bug, task, or story. It was a gift.

Instead of frustration, our team experienced the pure joy of opening something fun and unexpected. For a few minutes, Jira stopped being the "serious work platform" and turned into a playful treasure hunt.

Your colleague opens the issue.
They expect another responsibility.
But they find holiday instructions and a personalized gift description instead.

Those reactions alone were worth the entire setup.Instead of handing out presents directly, we created a special Jira project called "Holiday Ops"

Every teammate received a mysterious ticket assigned to them. Inside the ticket was:

• A short description on how and where to receive their gift

• A brand-new field called Item Inventory with a description (item) of what awaited them

Suddenly, Jira wasn’t just a workflow tool, it was a treasure map.

What This Means for Your Team

You don’t need a holiday campaign or a custom workflow. You only need:

• A Jira project

• A list of gifts or perks

• A sense of humor

• And a custom field to tie it all together

If you're feeling adventurous this season, you can try the same approach.
Our new Custom Fields app includes the Inventory Item field as the first in its collection and since it comes with a free 30-day trial, experimenting costs nothing. You'll have enough time before Christmas.

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✨ A New Holiday Tradition

What started as an experiment became a new team ritual, one we’ll probably repeat next year (and maybe improve with even more field types).

Whether you're celebrating Christmas, the end of the year, or simply the joy of surviving Q4, adding a bit of Jira-powered surprise can make it memorable.

If you want to explore the Item Inventory field or see what other fields are coming next, you can find the app on the Atlassian Marketplace waiting for you like a gift under the tree.

Happy holidays, and may your workflows be merry and bright! 🌟