I’ve personally owned a horse mask since 2011 and it is one of those things that is a massive hit with the chicks AND the bros. It would be a timeless classic if it weren’t for the fact that synthetic latex wasn’t invented until the early 1900’s. Even so, the horse mask is so real that most people thought it was a real horse until 2010, when Amazon.com first started selling the product.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned this yet, as it’s pretty common in my corner of the industry (not really for Christmas but in general) - if you’ve recently read a really good book that you think they’d like, give it to them. Usually it has something to do with the industry or business or leadership. I find that books about the military and military principles that can be applied to the business world are pretty well received. After I read this one, I will probably give it to my bosses:
If the gift is well received, you get a very small plus at work.
If the gift is badly received, even with your stellar performance, to some extent you’ll also become the gift giving weirdo.
I don’t think that’s a good expected return.
I believe the safest idea on this thread was to give candy to everybody in the office, including the boss. This and a big smile may give you a couple points with everybody there - it pleases the boss slightly without singling him out. You don’t even need to make it a gift - you can just wake up one day and feel like sharing a box of chocolates with your colleagues. In my experience this makes for very good office politics. This is a nicer, watered down version of the small gift trick described in Cialdini’s book Influence.
The good book idea could work as well. The risk would be having your boss think you agree with every little thing on the book and judge you on that, but that’s mostly just my paranoia acting up.
Obviously, you want to give something that you’ll like and your boss will also like. I wouldn’t give Boomerang to a Greek or German, nor would I risk give anything from Taleb to asset managers of any kind.