Every January, you don’t know if somebody on your team will quietly get rid of their holiday swag. For example, the mug you gave last year may have chipped after three washes. The fleece jacket isn’t worn because it makes no sense for someone in Chennai. The thing is, you can avoid most of that.
The best Christmas gifts for employees are the things your team keeps using and reaching for long after December. This can be anything from an insulated tumbler to a premium backpack.
That said, below are 10 Christmas gift ideas for employees worth putting your logo on this holiday 2026, plus the other things you need to consider before you order.
What makes a Christmas gift for employees worth keeping?
Start with usefulness. ASI’s 2026 Global Advertising Impressions Study found that 78% of US consumers keep a promotional product because they find it useful. Drinkware, bags, apparel, and tech tend to do well because people already have a place for them in their day.
The gift still has to feel good when it arrives. PPAI’s Product Power 2026 study found that 83% of consumers say receiving a branded product makes them feel appreciated. That gets easier when the swag looks like something they would’ve picked for themselves.
And don’t overlook the note. Gallup found that employees most often remember recognition from their direct manager. A short handwritten message can do more for the send than another layer of packaging.
With all of these questions, remember that before you approve the swag, ask one question: Would my employee want this if our logo wasn’t on it?
What are the best Christmas gift and swag ideas for employees?
Good employee Christmas gift ideas usually come from categories your team already uses: drinkware, outerwear, desk swag, travel gear, charging accessories, and flexible options like gift cards. Here are 10 worth considering.
Insulated drinkware
Tumblers keep showing up on swag lists because people actually use them. The winter holiday gives them an obvious job too! Hot coffee that stays hot through a morning of meetings is useful every day, not just the week it arrives. Look for drinkware that takes laser engraving well. Engraving holds up much better than a printed logo on stainless steel.
Some insulated drinkware options:
TYESO ROAM Tumbler 2.0 | 40 oz ($26.59)
24 oz Owala Freesip ($35.99)
If you want to compare shapes, capacities, and lid styles first, our guide to insulated tumblers for swag campaigns covers more options.
Outerwear apparel
Outerwear can stay in someone’s wardrobe for years, but sizing can make the program harder. What you can do is either one, collect sizes before you place the bulk order, or two, use On Demand swag so each of your employee can order their own size with a one-unit minimum. Embroidery works especially well on fleece and quarter-zips, but leave enough time for proofing and approval.
Some outerwear apparel options:
Mercer+Mettle Soft Spacer 1/4-Zip ($45.98)
Our branded apparel guide covers fabric weights, sizing, and decoration methods in more detail if you want to know which apparel will work best for your holiday swag campaign.
Beanies
Beanies give you winter swag without the sizing headache of jackets or hoodies. They’re easy to decorate and useful in colder markets. One size also works for most of your team. They make more sense as part of a kit than as the entire gift. Pair one with a tumbler, socks, or another winter item and the send feels much more complete.
Some beanie options:
Impact AWARE Polylana Beanie ($9.98)
AS Colour Cuff Beanie ($11.70)
Plushies work especially well when your company already has a mascot or character people recognize. Just to give you an example, Udemy turned its koala into a custom plushie, while Vectra AI built one around its own mascot. They also give you something completely different from the usual apparel-and-drinkware lineup. Custom plushies need more lead time than standard catalog swag, so get these started early. If the idea doesn’t exist in the catalog yet, you can go for custom sourcing so you can have it built from scratch.
Desk upgrades
A lot of your team probably spends eight hours a day at a desk they set up themselves. Desk mats, monitor risers, lamps, and similar upgrades improve a space they already use every day. Desk mats also give you plenty of room for custom artwork. You can do something more interesting than putting a small logo in the corner without making the swag harder to use.
Some desk upgrade options:
XL Desk Mat ($31.17)
Stitched Mouse Pad ($5.99)
Tech accessories
Tech items like power banks work year-round and go wherever your team goes. That makes them useful for your employees who travel, commute, work from cafés, or spend long days outside. Check the destination before you order for a global team, though. Lithium batteries face extra shipping rules in several markets, and some countries have restrictions on tech accessories. That said, local sourcing can save you a lot of customs trouble.
Some tech accessories options:
Rupt Ampx 6000 mAh Powerbank ($30.83)
JBL Portable Bluetooth Speaker Go 4 ($70.82)
Blanket
Blankets are one of those holiday gifts that feel more expensive than they sometimes are. They also last, so a good one can stay on someone’s couch for years. Pay attention to weight and fabric before you commit to a large order. This is a category where a sample helps a lot because the difference between a substantial blanket and a thin one can be hard to judge from a catalog page.
Some blanket options:
Premium Sherpa Blanket ($27.69)
Port Authority Waffle Throw ($25.98)
A backpack or weekender bag
A good bag can carry most of the value in the holiday send by itself. That’s because backpacks and weekenders get used for work, travel, commuting, and personal trips. As such, if your budget allows for one bigger item, this is a strong category to start with. Just make sure to keep your company logo small. Your team will carry a subtle branded bag a lot more often than one with a giant company mark across the front.
Some backpack and bag options:
Samsonite Foldaway Duffel ($39.98)
Eddie Bauer Tour Duffel ($60.03)
Timbuk2 City Compass Recycled Polyester Flap Backpack ($69.98)
Gift cards or swag stores
Some employees would rather choose for themselves. And that’s fine! In instances like this, it’s good to have another option, like gift cards or swag stores. PerkUp offers more than 5,000 localized gift card options, so you can send something usable wherever your employee may be. The platform also has a swag store, so you can simply just send the store link to your employee and have them pick out the Christmas swag they actually want.
Gift cards can work on their own, but they’re especially useful next to physical swag. This way, you can still give your team something tangible while leaving room for personal choice. Our guide to pairing swag and gift cards for holiday sends covers that setup, if that’s what you want to go for this holiday season.
A curated holiday swag kit
If you want your holiday swag to feel more put-together, build a swag kit around one main item. That could be a tumbler with socks and a beanie, or a backpack with a few smaller travel items. Keep the number of items under control and spend more of the budget on the swag your team will use most.
Our guide to building a holiday gift box covers more ways to put the kit together.
Which Christmas gifts work best for global teams?
Your team that lives in different countries shouldn’t get the exact same holiday swag for a couple of reasons. For one, if the climate isn’t cold where your recipient is, it doesn’t make sense to send them a fleece jacket for the holidays.
So, start with where your employees are, then narrow the swag from there.
Cold markets, including the US, Canada, the UK, and much of Europe - Outerwear, beanies, blankets, and insulated drinkware all make sense.
Warmer markets, including India, Southeast Asia, Australia, and Brazil - Cold-drink tumblers, bags, tech accessories, and desk swag tend to fit better than fleece.
Markets with tighter import rules - Check drinkware, tech, apparel, and other restricted swag categories before you place the order. Local production or regional fulfillment can make the send much easier.
A swag store can handle this without forcing you to build separate programs from scratch. You can show your Mexico team one collection and your UK team another, so each group sees swag that can actually reach them. Our holiday swag by region guide goes deeper into what works in different markets.
When should you order Christmas gifts for employees?
For a December delivery, get your bulk order moving by early October.
Bulk swag takes about five weeks before shipping. That includes roughly three weeks for production, one week for kitting, and another for approvals. On the other hand, On Demand swag takes about three weeks because each swag item gets made after the order comes in.
Your timeline also needs room for shipping. If you’re sending from the US to India, Australia, or parts of Asia, treat early November as your cutoff for most cross-border orders. December gets more expensive, too, because carriers add peak surcharges, and shipping deadlines get tighter right when everyone starts placing last-minute orders.
Our 2026 holiday swag planning guide breaks the full timeline down month by month, so you know when you need to start.
Run Your Christmas Gift and Swag Program Through PerkUp
Holiday gifting gets messy fast when your swag, shipping, employee list, and budget all live in different places. Lucky for you, PerkUp keeps the whole program together in one platform.
For one, you can order bulk swag for the items you know you’ll need, then use On Demand swag for late hires, smaller sends, or apparel where sizing gets harder to predict. If you want employees to choose for themselves, a swag store gives them that option. Gift cards cover anyone who would rather pick something else. All of these are offered by PerkUp!
For a full holiday kit, you can produce the swag in bulk, store it with PerkUp, and send kits as you need them. If your December plans also include a holiday party, client dinner, or end-of-year event, event swag is also available on the platform.
When it comes to shipping, PerkUp also has suppliers and warehouses in the US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Europe, India, China, and Australia, and ships to 65+ countries. That means more orders can ship locally instead of crossing a border. When something does need to go through customs, PerkUp prepays duties wherever possible, so your employee doesn’t get stuck with a customs bill.
You can also connect the program to the systems your HR team already uses for other or recurring swag campaigns. That’s because PerkUp supports 200+ integrations, including BambooHR, Rippling, Workday, Paylocity, ADP, HiBob, Slack, and SSO. Once your HRIS is connected, you can keep employee data in sync and let automated milestone gifting send out swag and/or gift cards on your employees’ birthdays and work anniversaries.
On the creative side, PerkUp’s in-house designers can handle logo placement, proofs, and custom packaging. And if you want swag that isn’t in the catalog, the platform’s custom sourcing feature can help you craft specialty items and fully custom ideas.
And once you’ve set all of this up, you can keep using it after December! The PerkUp same account can handle new hire kits, event swag, employee milestones, and the rest of your gifting calendar.
Wrapping Up
The best holiday swag doesn’t need to be complicated. All you need to do is to choose something your employees would use anyway. Adjust the swag for where your team is based. Then, give yourself enough time to order it properly. Also, make sure to add a note from the person they actually work with.
If you’re ready to get your holiday swag campaign started, then be sure to schedule a call with PerkUp and see what you can build for your team this holiday season!
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you ship Christmas gifts to employees in other countries?
Yes! PerkUp ships to more than 65 countries through warehouses in the US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Europe, India, China, and Australia. Whenever possible, your swag ships from a warehouse closer to your team instead of crossing a border. PerkUp also prepays duties wherever possible on international shipments. Some countries need more lead time than others, so flag your harder destinations early.
What’s the minimum order for Christmas swag?
It depends on the type of swag you choose. On Demand swag has a one-unit minimum, so you can send one swag item to one person without buying inventory upfront. Bulk minimums typically start around 50 units per swag item per warehouse location. That’s where bulk Christmas gifts for employees start getting more economical per unit. A lot of teams use both, especially when headcount keeps changing through October and November.
Can employees pick their own Christmas gift?
Yes! There are two options that you can go for here if you’re working with PerkUp: you can either give them a gift card or a swag store link where they can browse different swag collections that you pre-picked yourself.
Inside a swag store, you can set a budget and let employees choose their own swag, color, and size. You can keep prices hidden and let people simply pick what they want, or give everyone a dollar amount they can spend across the collection. You can also control what each country or department sees, so your team only browses swag that makes sense for them.
Can you add custom packaging or a second logo to holiday swag?
Of course! Depending on the swag item, you can add second logo placements, side labels, nape labels, inner tags, and other custom decorations. You can also add custom packaging and printed inserts. Those need more proofing time, so make those decisions early. PerkUp can handle these things easily, too.
