I hate these things, I really do. I feel that gift giving should be restricted to family and that’s it. Sure it’s optional… but not really considering if you don’t do it, you’ll be singled out.
But that’s just me, and I definately don’t want to be odd-man out. So I appeal to you dopers, what would be some good gift ideas for office grab bag ($20 limit), and as a bonus, how do you feel about this tradition?
I would actually consider $20 to be a bit high and think $10 is a great number. And I like Secret Santa better, where you only have to buy for one person!
As for what’s in it, gift cards, candy, and chocolates, miniatures.
I suppose alcohol isn’t an option? 
Well, there’s always the gift card option, for CDs or movies or what have you. Some other things that could work:
… that’s all I got for now.
Hmmm, actually I think alcohol would be fine. It would have to be unisex, so that’s kind of hard when it comes to clothing, specially since I don’t have a fashionable bone in my body.
Keep 'em coming!
And yes I though $20 was much, not only that but for some stupid reasons there are TWO grab bags, so it’s actually $40. I should of planned out my check a little better 
Toys are good, lots of us still like playing with toys but it’s usually not the kind of thing you buy yourself, right?
Something like this 20 questions toy, or these mini remote control race cars.
Lotto tickets (scratch-off kind) are popular in our office.
Specialty coffees
Godiva or Lindt chocolates
Local specialty candies - the Peppermint Pig is common here.
Alcohol is definitely a winner
Anything unusual or funny: someone did penis pasta one year, and this year someone put something totally non-sexy in a Victoria’s Secret bag. Both got big laughs.
At our office Xmas party we do the Yankee Swap thing instead of a grab bag. You can tell which types of gifts are popular by which get “stolen” the most.
Liquor is at the top of the list. There’s always at least one bottle of Jack Daniels; one of some vodka, sometimes in a fancy gift pack with glasses; this year there was a Sam Adams six-pack.
Gift cards to Target or Starbucks are likely to get stolen, too. I thought the HomeDepot gift card that someone got was a nice idea.
Leatherman micra is about in that price range. Also, the Swiss Tech tools are pretty nice, and in the 9.99 - 14.95 range.
Oooh! Oooh! Oooh! My dad made a BLT kit just recently. It was 6 slices of bread, bacon, some lettuce, a tomato, a mini-jar of mayo, and a pepsi! I was so amused!
Ugh, I hate these things too. Yes, you have to play well with others and opting out isn’t a real option.
Stick with gift cards. Maybe a restaurant is nearby that people go to? Othewise, movie/Blockbuster/Starbucks type gift cards.
I always play it very safe on these. I, personally, would never go with alcohol or a gag gift. Never can tell what will backfire.
This isn’t a good gift idea, but more of a useful trick for such things.
If you ever find yourself in need of an office party gift at last minute, you can go online to amazon.com and order a gift certificate. You can print it out at work on one of the color printers, and it looks pretty good. Someone not in the know might even think that you went through some actual effort on getting it!
I suppose, but a gift card is a very dull gift. Especially when there are enough fairly cool things in the <$20.00 price range. LED flashlights. Hand warmers. Fleece glove liners. Bags of Lindt truffles. Jeepers, it’s just not that hard to think of something.