Yes, they might
Give people choice and eventually someone will choose something HR would never have put in a corporate gift box. That is not necessarily a problem. It may be the clearest evidence that the employee is choosing for themselves.
The employer's job is to define the value, eligible catalogue and programme rules. It does not need to approve the recipient's taste.
If the item is inside the catalogue the company chose to make eligible, preference can belong to the employee.
A reward is not procurement for the office
Corporate purchasing usually optimises for consistency, policy and utility to the business. A personal reward has a different purpose: create value for the recipient.
That means the employee may choose something playful, indulgent or highly specific to their interests.
Calling that silly often just means it is not what the buyer in HR would personally select.
Boundaries can still exist
Choice does not require an unrestricted marketplace. The employer and programme can define what kinds of rewards are available, subject to the product's catalogue and programme controls.
Inside those boundaries, however, choice should be real. A catalogue of twenty variations of the thing HR already wanted to buy is not much of a choice model.
The strange choice may be the memorable one
Employees remember rewards partly because of what they did with them. A dinner, a gadget, a piece of merch or a retailer card can each be meaningful for completely different reasons.
The company does not need to predict which story each employee will create.
It needs to make the value available in a way that gives them a credible choice.
The principle is the point
If leadership is uncomfortable with employees choosing differently, the programme may still be designed around gifting rather than employee choice.
PeopleCredits takes the opposite position: the company chooses the value and rules; the employee chooses the reward.
Sometimes the purchase you would never have picked is exactly why that model exists.
Planning employee Christmas rewards?
See how PeopleCredits gives your team one branded store while each employee chooses the reward that works for them.
Explore Christmas rewards