Mostly here there's an event organised, like the dinner I went to last night, the cost is often commensurate to the profitability of the workplace/business/company; some are very large although a lot are broken up by teams: Accounting and Finance, Sales, Warehouse, etc. There's not always an event or even gifts, some get bugger all. I'm lucky that my organisation are extremely profitable and are keen to keep the workforce happy so things were rather good all things considered.
I agree with the anonymous gifting thing for exactly the same reasons; giving should be done genuinely and for the right reasons, not because someone was told to do so.
I assume it works here too as you mentioned. The packages or parties are determined by the profits made. I guess they all just go with what is obtainable.