or instead of this 'pick a name out of a hat' thing [which is really more what it is than a "retail grab bag" idea], you simply create a list of available freebies from which a customer can select the item[s] that interest them.  there would be absolutely no reason to disable the "puchased/add to cart" feature, and the "fun" remains intact as well.

seems rather simple to me... MUCH easier coding than apparently fixing the search features proves to be [sigh]