Is this gift odd? (Light-hearted)

[Mummypie21]

I recently had a birthday. My colleagues were lovely and I received many gifts. One of my younger co-workers (he's in his 20s so around 10 years my junior) gave me a very cute medium-sized cuddly toy. I thought it was sweet. However, some of my friends have commented that it's an odd gift for a colleague of the opposite sex. My DH wasn't bothered and found it amusing. It is now being cuddled by my DS at night.

I am just wondering if it is a strange gift? For context, my colleague is a lovely guy and we're friendly i.e we have a laugh but there's absolutely nothing untoward.

I don't think it's odd, I have a number of plushies myself, these are mostly from my childhood/early 20s but I like having them around. I know adults that buy plushies just because they want to!
Besides, he probably thought of something that would be cute and also wouldn't require much thought (perfectly reasonable for collegues, if you ask me, my workplace gets us smartshow 3d birthday videos and calls it a day, but at least no useless garbage is given), so he went with it.

I suspect he asked female friends of his age. Cuddly toys are quite common for 20 somethings I think. In a way it's a compliment if you are a lot older, he sees you are his peer. I actually think this is really sweet

Sweet gift. He’s probably got an older sister or mum with a cuddly toy collection and thought you’d like it. Or heard you had jellycats and didn't want to get one you may have already got so chose a different plushy.

Just be grateful it’s not one of those porcelain Victorian dolls with the creepy eyes…… 🤣