Dec 11, 2009

SECRET SANTA GIFTS


How many of you participate in one of those Secret Santa gift exchanges at work? How do you decide what to give to someone you hardly know or don't even like?
What is the worst gift you have ever received at one of these things? Have you given something to someone and then later regretted your choice. 
Did anyone ever give you or someone else something completely inappropriate, mean or stupid? 
Did you get the boss' name and then suck up with a gift over the price limit set. Casually let it slip that it was you who got their name? 

Do tell.

13 comments:

  1. I've NEVER liked office gift exchanges. I invariably got the one person who, under normal circumstances, I'd see rot in Hell before I'd spend my hard-earned money on the miserable so & so.

    I'm happy to give Christmas and birthday cards to co-workers I like and enjoy working with. I think cards take the pressure off as participation is entirely optional.

    Unfortunately, too many ppl already feel Christmas is one massive expense and bother for one day. Why add to it by expecting one to buy another round of gifts for people who's taste you may or may not know, with a "set limit" that doesn't allow for much in the way of a really nice present, given the cost of everything now. And let's face it, if you're going to give, it should be something you're not apprehensive about giving (if indeed you care at all. you may not).

    And no, I'm no Scrooge. I love Christmas, from Advent to Twelfth Night, but unless you're a really chummy workplace, restrict it to cards.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ugh. I hate secret santa gift exchanges too. I always get stuck exchanging gifts with the psycho employee.

    Years ago I worked at an office & we did a gift exchange. It's a well known fact that I hate chocolate. My fellow employee's at the time (all 5 of us) all knew how much I dislike the stuff - so I was surprised to receive as a Secret Santa gift...chocolate.

    What was worst....it was a box of chocolate that our whole office received from an associate doctor's office - that went missing! My gift exchanger literally stole the chocolate from our office & re-gifted it to me. Geez Louise!

    Needless to say, everyone else was totally shocked & completely dumbfounded. The girl that gave me the gift - a total nut job played up the Little Miss Innocent role until she finally fessed up to another coworker the truth a few days later. The bosses finally fired her about a month later....when she got nabbed "borrowing" some equipment.

    Crazy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ali: I know what you mean. It seems like one more thing to do for someone you don't even like.
    Jane: That is hilarious. Krazy lady with a capital K.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm a fan actually. Luckily there's no-one in my workplace that I don't like and almost always people come up with something funny and imaginative within the $5 allowable budget. I'm in two this year; I'm doing one with my team at our Christmas lunch on Thursday and another with my managment team the following week. We generally get quite a laugh out of it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. We've changed ours up. At our company Christmas party, we all bring a gift - anything at all, usually we set the price limit at $10.00. Then after dinner we draw numbers. The first person picks a gift and opens it. Number 2 can either steal that gift or pick something new from the tree. Limit 3 steals, then the next person has to go back to the tree. The person who drew #1 has the final option of stealing anything that's been opened or keeping what they have. It sounds confusing, but it is alot of fun and takes alot of the pressure of the Secret Santa thing away. It helps if you work with a bunch of fun people, which I do. Kathy

    ReplyDelete
  6. I used to do gift exchanges until this one year my husband had to do a "used but nice" gift exchange and work. The jackwad that got him gave him a freakin' used tube of toothpaste. Ass.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lucy this is true. One year Hub's employees gave him a live pot-bellied pig for Christmas. We lived in the country, so he built her a nice little pen/house. We called her Margaret and she was very smart. She would follow us around the property and occasionally be allowed into the kitchen for treats. We were not happy about it to begin with, but it turned out great. When we built a house in the city, we just roasted her on a spit. No..we gave her back to the farm where she was born. It was sad. Not tasty. Just sad.

    ReplyDelete
  8. OK you guys, I would have expected a little more on the hideous gifts front by comment number 7 - trust me I can beat this!
    I got given A Rubber Duckie for the bath! - no that's not the best of it..... It was a vibrator!
    Needless to say, I was very embarrassed, it's still in the box, and I'm not game enough to give it away to someone else, even someone I dislike....

    TOP THAT! LOL

    ReplyDelete
  9. I know most people do not enjoy the office gift exchanges but I love them! I find it such a challenge and get the neatest stuff and usually stay well within the $$$ limit.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Joanne: I think we could organize a blogger gift exchange next year and you could send that one out to someone. Of course we would have to remove your comment so no one would know where it came from.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I think a duckie vib is a very considerate gift for a woman. Provided of course it wasn't "pre-owned"...LOL!

    Prize to Joanne for best/worst SS gift!

    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  12. mbkatc230 ..described our "Dirty Santa" gift exchange at church...we haven't done it in years (new priest).

    Usually the limit was $10.00

    one year a woman brought two wire coat hangers from the local cleaners. Just plain wire hangers.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hahaha... I'm still laughing at the Duckie thingy -- oh my. It's been ages since I've done a workplace gift exchange, but we do a wacky grab bag at our Christmas party -- some of our guests will call me in July to say, "I just found the BEST grab bag thing -- when's the party?"

    Among our stellar attractions: a light-up painting of a deer jumping thru a hedge, a spinning neon picture of Jesus (can you believe someone manufactured that???), some sort of Caribbean carved wood statue that might have been (ahem) a fertility god, an antique porcelain bedpan, an enamel fish with a hole in its stomach (we still don't know what its original purpose was), a wind-up plastic sushi, and a wall hanging of a ... squid.
    This party repeats on this coming Sunday. I have my stash all ready.
    (We do a competitive grab bag --you can force people to trade with you under the rules; it can get pretty fierce.)

    Yes, that's my family. The tree definitely contains NUTS. This tradition began 45 years ago with my mother's Christmas party.

    Cass

    ReplyDelete

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