Already at work they’ve started preparing for Secret Santa. I’m new at this job–barely three months–and I really like it, as well as the people with whom I work (there’s seven of us total). This past week, they handed out the stuff for Secret Santa…here’s how it works:
Secret Santa 2004
Each Secret Santa will draw the name and wish list of a good little girl or boy. Look in your mailbox for your wish list, fill it out ASAP and return to Ginny.
Secret Santa will then look high and low for three gifts for his/her special person, using the following price list as a guide:
1 gift = $5.00 value
1 gift = $5.00 value
1 gift = $15 - $20.00 value
Gifts should be left for person to find so identity of Secret Santa isn’t revealed. Feel free to leave presents in mailbox, on top of copier, in kitchen, etc….be creative! Please put a nametag on gift, if not leaving in person’s office.
The gift exchange will happen as follows:
Monday, Dec. 13th = Give a $5.00 gift
Tuesday, Dec. 14th = Give a $5.00 gift
Wednesday, Dec. 15th = All gifts – with nametags! –
will be collected and handed out at lunchtime when we’ll each try to guess our Secret Santa!
Okay, I have no clue what to list on my “wish” list. I’m not into candles, scented hand lotions, etc. and I absolutely hate cheaply made crap. Honestly, I’m rather picky about what I have and have been told I’m an absolute horror to buy gifts for.
Anything “generic” I can put on my wish list, something that anyone could get (for under $5 or so) without screwing up???
Anyone you know like scented candles or hand lotion, or whatever cheap stuff comes to mind? If so I’d say this has “regifting opportunity” written all over it.
Otherwise I’d put on my wishlist that I plan to donate the gifts I get to a local battered women’s/homeless shelter and ask for toys. Even something as simple and cheap as a brand new box of crayons and new coloring books can be a great pleasure to a kid who never gets anything new.
The problem with telling people you’re giving stuff to a shelter is that you’re basically saying “Eff you, you shallow asshats – you just want to have fun, my mind is on higher matters.”
Not your best statement as a newbie, I don’t think.
If you want to do that, request things that would be welcome gifts at a shelter, give them away, and bask in the glow of your anonymous good-deedery.
LOL, twickster. I was going to suggest the shelter thing too, and that’s exactly what I was thinking.
Jeez, 5 dollar gifts? Who needs more useless crap?
Hmmm. Little early to be in my grinch mode, but what the hell. But 30 bucks on gifts nobody really wants seems like such a waste.
We have a Secret Santa program at work, and my foolproof gift is a Christmas ornament. You’d be pleasantly surprised at the quality of a $5.00 tree ornament. They go over real well with my co-workers and I rarely spend more than 5 minutes perusing the selection.
Duh! Ask for chocolate! List your favorite candy bars. Or other candy you like or chewing gum.
Ideas from my own Christmas stocking, filled by my mother-in-law, which apparently hearkens back to the days when she was raising six children on a small amount of money: Scotch tape, toothbrush, toothpaste, Chapstick, little Kleenex pack, pencils, pens, I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP, this happens every year and I AM 45 YEARS OLD.
In my neck of the woods some employers sell movie passes to be used at the local theaters. They’re $5. and will get you into most movies. That would be my suggestion. Calendars are appropriate and useful.
Easy to regift or share with coworkers.
If you don’t want chocolate, think of some practical items you use all the time and ask for those. You can be very specific. E.g., Crest mint-gel toothpaste or Dawn dishwashing liquid.
I hate getting calendars. Because I have animals, people give me calendars with cute li’l kitties and puppies. Barf.
