Christmas Gifts for Employees That Scale From Five People to Fifty
By the Giftruly editorsUpdated 21 hand-picked ideas
A team Christmas gift is really a logistics problem wearing a bow. You need one idea that suits the twenty-four-year-old analyst and the warehouse lead with grandkids, a price that multiplies sensibly by the headcount, and a delivery date that beats the first person's vacation. Get those three right and the gift itself can be fairly simple.
This page is organized around those constraints. It opens with gifts that go home and get shared with a family over the holidays, then lays out a December ordering calendar, because bulk orders run on a different clock from personal shopping. After that come gifts for crews who work outside or through the holidays, a build-your-own bag at about $25 a head, a plain-spoken section on budgets, gift cards and taxes, ship-to-home picks for remote staff, and a few nicer ideas for small teams.
The year-round version of this page is our gifts for employees guide. If you're the one being managed, try Christmas gifts for boss, and for colleagues at your own level, Christmas gifts for coworkers.
Know exactly who it's for?
Tell Truly about them in a sentence. You'll get ideas picked for them, each with a reason why.
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Three quick answers
The bulk-order calendar
Buying for a team runs on a longer clock than buying for your sister. Anything with a logo or a name on it, from embroidered pullovers to engraved tumblers, usually needs a proof to approve and production time before it ships, and in November and December that queue gets long. Ask the vendor for their holiday cutoff before you choose, not after. As a rough plan: settle the gift and the budget by early November, collect sizes and home addresses with a short private form that same week, and place custom orders before Thanksgiving.
Plain gifts give you more room, but not much. Aim to have everything shipped by the second week of December, since carriers are at their busiest after that and remote staff shouldn't be opening their gift in January. Order two or three spares for new hires and anyone you forgot, hand gifts out before the first people leave for the holidays, and keep a list of who has received what. On a team of forty, someone always slips through.
For crews on the cold shift or the holiday schedule
Not every team works at desks. Drivers, field techs, warehouse and yard crews, and anyone who spends December going in and out of loading docks will get far more out of warm gear than a desk gadget. The same goes for the people who keep hospitals, plants and stores running on Christmas Day while everyone else is at home.
Buy generous sizes, choose plain dark colors, and if you add a logo, keep it small. Workwear gets worn hard, so function comes first.
- 5
Fleece-Lined Knit Beanie
~$15
The easiest bulk buy for an outdoor crew. A plain knit hat with a fleece lining is warm, fits almost everyone and costs little enough that you can order a box of them in two or three colors. It also gets worn off the clock, on school runs and weekend errands. Choose a close-fitting style without a pom-pom if anyone wears it under a hard hat.
- 6
Thermal Wool-Blend Work Socks Multipack
~$25
Thick, cushioned socks for people in work boots all day. Socks sound like a dull gift until you've stood on a frozen concrete floor for ten hours, at which point they become the most considerate thing anyone gave you. Sizes run in broad ranges, so one shoe-size question on your order form covers it.
- 7
Rechargeable Hand Warmer Power Bank
~$22
A pocket heater that charges by USB and can top up a phone in a pinch. It suits drivers, delivery staff and anyone who works with bare hands between jobs. One thing to check first: some job sites restrict lithium batteries, so make sure it's allowed where your crew works before you order twenty of them.
- 8
Electric Heated Lunch Box
~$30
An electric lunch box heats a packed meal with no microwave involved. It's a real help on night shifts and job sites where the only microwave is either broken or has a line of six people in front of it. Check where they'd plug it in before you buy, since that decides which version makes sense.
- 9
Leakproof Insulated Travel Coffee Tumbler
~$25
A sealed travel mug that fits a cup holder and keeps coffee hot through a long morning on the road. It's a sensible choice for a mixed crew who'd rather not carry an oversized tumbler around a job site. Pick one with a lid that closes fully, because a truck cab is unforgiving of spills.
A $25 bag for everyone, packed in an afternoon
For a team of fifteen or more on a modest budget, a filled gift bag often beats one bigger item. Pick two or three small things from this list, buy them in bulk and pack them with a handwritten card. Assembling the bags together over a team lunch turns a chore into a small party.
- 10~$9
Gourmet Hot Cocoa Mix Tin
Rich drinking chocolate for around $9 a tin, which leaves room in the budget for a second item. Works for every age and most diets; check the label for dairy.
Chocolate Loversconsumable - 11~$18
Scented Hand Cream Trio
Three small tubes of hand cream, welcome when cold air and constant hand-washing dry out everyone's skin. Choose light scents so the set suits the whole team.
Self-Care LoversBeauty Loverspractical - 12~$15
Mulling Spice Gift Set for Apple Cider
Whole spices for simmering with cider, so it works for drinkers and non-drinkers alike. Inexpensive, light to pack and festive without being religious.
Home Cooksconsumable - 13~$15
Coffee Shop Gift Card
A small card for the coffee chain everyone walks past. Lovely, but it counts as cash for payroll purposes; read the next section before adding one to forty bags.
Coffee LoversTea Loversconsumable
Per-head budgets, gift cards and the tax question
Set a number per person before you browse, and give everyone the same thing or the same value. For a manager paying out of pocket, $15 to $30 a head is generous; when the company is paying, $25 to $75 is common, and some firms go higher after a strong year. If the budget is small, own it with a warm note rather than stretching to something cheap that looks it. People are kinder about modest gifts than managers expect, and much less kind about uneven ones.
Then the part nobody enjoys. In the US, cash and cash equivalents, which include gift cards, are generally treated as taxable wages no matter how small the amount. Occasional holiday gifts that aren't cash and have a low value, think a box of fruit or a tin of cookies, are usually treated as a de minimis benefit that stays out of payroll, but the IRS doesn't publish a dollar cutoff for that. It's one reason food boxes and small physical gifts remain the default for company holiday gifts. Your situation may differ, so check with payroll or an accountant before you hand out cards in bulk.
Ship-to-home picks for remote staff
For people you rarely see in person, the gift has to survive the mail and arrive on time. These ship well, fit through a mail slot or onto a porch, and don't depend on anyone's taste in decor. Time them to arrive before your last team meeting of the year, then open them together on camera if your team enjoys that sort of thing.
14.Gourmet Chocolate Truffle Box ~$30
Small, light and festive. Ship it in the first half of December, and send it to arrive on a weekday when someone is home to bring it inside.
15.Specialty Coffee Sampler Gift Box ~$35
Beans from several roasters for the remote colleague who runs on video calls and coffee. Ask on your form whether they grind at home or need it pre-ground.
16.Assorted Tea Sampler Box ~$25
A wooden box of assorted teas, including caffeine-free options, so it also suits the person who gave up coffee in October.
17.Pure Maple Syrup Gift Tin ~$25
Real maple syrup for a slow holiday breakfast. Sturdy in transit, easy to share with a household and unlikely to sit unused in a cupboard.
Small team, bigger thanks
With four or six people, you can afford to be a little more personal, and nobody expects a bulk order. Choose one gift for everyone if the team is close-knit and compares notes, or pick individually within the same budget if people work apart and each person's year looked different.
Either way, the handwritten card matters more here than anywhere else on the page. One sentence about a specific thing they did this year is what people keep.
- 18
Custom Embroidered Logo Quarter-Zip Pullover
~$45
If your team likes where they work, a well-made quarter-zip with a small logo becomes their winter layer. For Christmas, this is the gift with the longest lead time on the page: allow for a proof, embroidery and shipping, and order before Thanksgiving. Ask for sizes privately and offer at least two colors.
- 19
AeroPress Original Coffee Maker
~$40
A compact press that makes a strong, smooth cup of coffee in about a minute. It suits a team of coffee drinkers who've grumbled about the office machine all year, and it's just as useful at home or on a road trip. Add a bag of beans from a local roaster to make it feel complete.
- 20
Candle Warmer Lamp with Timer
~$35
A lamp that melts a candle from above, so the room gets the fragrance without an open flame. It's a cozy pick for a small team that values quiet evenings at home, and a sensible one for households with kids or pets. Include a candle in a mild scent so it works on the first night.
- 21
Christmas Cactus Plant
~$28
A potted plant that flowers around the holidays and keeps doing so for years with very little attention. For a small team, that makes it a gift that comes back every December along with your thanks. Hand it over in person rather than shipping it, since cold delivery trucks are hard on houseplants.
Shop this guide by price
Under $25
$25–$50
Before you place the order
Gather sizes, home addresses and allergies in one short private form in early November, and buy two or three spares.
Keep it seasonal rather than religious. Winter treats and warm gear suit everyone, whatever they celebrate, and a "happy holidays" card covers the whole team.
Treat gift cards as pay: in the US they're taxable no matter the amount, so loop in payroll before you buy them.
Deliver before the first person leaves for the holidays, and don't forget anyone on parental leave or out sick.
Still weighing a few ideas? Describe your team to our gift finder, including headcount, budget and how many work remotely, and compare the shortlist.
Holiday gift questions from managers
When should I order Christmas gifts for my employees?
Order custom or logo items before Thanksgiving, because proofs and production take time and vendors fill up in December. Plain gifts can wait until early December, but aim to have them shipped by the second week so remote staff receive them before the holidays.
How much should a company spend on employee Christmas gifts?
Common ranges are $25 to $75 per person when the company pays, and $15 to $30 when a manager pays personally. Consistency matters more than the amount: give everyone the same gift or the same value.
Are Christmas gift cards for employees taxable?
In the US, gift cards are treated like cash and are generally taxable wages regardless of value. Small, occasional non-cash gifts, such as a holiday food box, are usually treated as a de minimis benefit instead. Check with payroll or an accountant for your situation.
What should I give employees who don't celebrate Christmas?
The same gift everyone else gets, as long as it's seasonal rather than religious: a food box, warm gear or a winter drink, with a card that says "happy holidays" or wishes them a good new year.
Is time off better than a Christmas gift?
If you can offer it, most people would choose it. Plenty of managers do both: a modest gift plus an early finish on the last working day before the break. Our gifts for employees guide makes the case for time off in more detail.
A last practical thought. The team gift that goes wrong is rarely the wrong product; it's the one that arrived late, skipped the night shift or reached everyone except the new hire. Plan it like a small project, write the cards yourself, and almost anything sensible on this page will be received the way you meant it.