Christmas Gifts for Employees
What to gift your team this Christmas: six ideas with their pros and cons, and the format that suits everyone. Each employee chooses from over 1,000 options, no surveys or spreadsheets needed.
Getting it right for 50 people is hard. For 5,000, it's impossible.
The Christmas gift is the only message of the year that the entire team receives simultaneously. Every December, the scene repeats: someone in HR choosing a single year-end gift for people with completely different tastes, ages, and situations. No matter how good it is, it always disappoints part of the team.
With Pekata, you give each person the choice: a link, a budget, and over 1,000 products, experiences, and donations. Before deciding on the format, check out the six options we see working, from the most classic to the most current.
Six Christmas Gift Ideas for Employees
- The classic gourmet hamper. Works by tradition and is enjoyed with family. Its weak point is well-known: the same box for everyone excludes those with specific dietary preferences.
- A single quality product. A good item — ham, technology, a design object — is remembered more than ten mediocre things. The risk: if it doesn't match the taste, there's no plan B.
- Experiences. Dinners, tastings, or getaways: they don't take up wardrobe space and create stories to tell. Beware of those that expire unused or aren't available in the employee's area.
- Gift with purpose. Products from social projects or purchases from a Special Employment Centre, which can also count towards the LGD in Spain. Adds internal and external reputation.
- Gift card. Easy to manage and offers total freedom, but it's perceived as just another income: it loses the emotional part of the gift.
- Budget for each to choose. Combines the certainty of the gift card with the excitement of a physical box, and the campaign carries your brand from start to finish. Requires people to log in and choose.
How to Decide Without Overthinking
Ask yourself three questions: is your team homogeneous or diverse? Are they office-based or dispersed? How much time can you dedicate? The more diverse, dispersed, and less time you have, the worse a fixed hamper works.
And an honest check: ask five people from last year what they did with their gift. If more than one doesn't remember, the format is the problem.
What HR Gains
- Guaranteed satisfaction: no one complains about what they've chosen.
- Zero operational burden: no collecting sizes, addresses, or allergies — the portal does it for you, and we assist the employees.
- Fixed budget per person and a single invoice per campaign.
- A gift that also communicates: portal and box with your brand, and invoicing as a Special Employment Centre (LGD-LISMI) in Spain.
How It Works
- Define the budget per employee and dates. We set up the portal with your brand.
- Each employee receives their invitation and chooses their gift at their leisure, from their mobile or computer.
- We prepare each order and deliver it wherever each person chooses: office or home, across Europe.
HR's Frequently Asked Questions
How does Pekata work for my company?
You set up a campaign with your per-employee budget and we handle the rest: each person gets a link to choose their box and we deliver it wherever it needs to go. You have a single point of contact from start to finish.
Can every employee choose their own gift box or hamper?
Yes — that's the whole point. Each employee logs into their personalized portal and builds their box, choosing from over 1,000 products, experiences or even a charity donation, within the budget you set. No surprises, and no gifts that end up in a drawer.
What happens with my employees' data?
We treat it with the utmost care and always in line with the GDPR: encrypted, never sold or shared for commercial purposes, and passed only to the logistics providers who deliver their box.
When do I need to place the order to make it by Christmas?
Ideally, launch your campaign between October and November so your team can choose calmly and deliveries arrive with time to spare. Write to us and we'll propose a timeline tailored to your company's size.
Which Christmas gift is most well-received by employees?
From our experience, the one chosen by the person. When they can decide, the range of choices is vast: some go for the classic gourmet hamper, while others prefer headphones or a getaway.
Is it better to have an expensive gift for a few or a modest one for everyone?
For Christmas, everyone. It's a collective gesture: leaving people out does more harm than the good a big gift does. Differentiated amounts fit better in recognition programmes.
Can the same gift be repeated every year?
The format can; the content shouldn't. With individual choice, it's resolved naturally: the catalogue changes, and each person picks something different each year.