Today is our holiday lunch at work. One of the thing my team has done for the past couple of years is a Secret Santa.
I didn’t participate the first year, in 2009, simply because I forgot. Oops. But the gifts looked pretty cool so I decided to participate last year.
Big oops.
Why was it a big oops?
Because the gift absolutely sucked.
The procedure is fairly typical for such arrangements, where you draw numbers, which determines the order that people pick gifts. The first person picks their gift, followed by the second person, who can either take an already opened gift or an unwrapped gift. If your gift is taken, you go get another one.
I got a pretty low number which meant that I picked pretty early. I was happy enough with my selection, an iTunes gift card. Even though I don’t have an Apple device, I figured you could probably use it to buy music anyways, or if nothing else, it would make a good re-gift opportunity.
But, of course it didn’t last. Someone swooped in and nabbed it which meant I had to go again.
I picked another gift at random and it was two bottles of dipping sauce for bread. Not anything that I was too enthused about, but whatever. I figured nobody would probably be stealing that and I was right. But, I also thought it would at least be worth a try.
Until I got home and looked more closely at the bottles to see that they had already expired.
At which point I got pissed. I didn’t say anything to people at work because it’s never good to stir the pot, especially when you don’t know who might have done it. I also reasoned that it could have been an honest mistake, but enough of me held onto the suspicion that somebody simply grabbed a gift from years past and brought it in, that it led me to quickly decide that I was one and done in participating in this event.
If you’re doing Secret Santa this year, please put some thought into it. If you consider taking something that you got in the past and re-gifting it, chances are the person receiving it will be equally as unimpressed. At least put some thought into it.
And if nothing else, at least check the expiration date.
Have you had any particularly awful Secret Santa experiences?
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I have never had a Secret Santa at work, but I have done them in my family before. It never fails that I get a crappy gift. I’m not a huge fan….
That’s pretty bad. I got a knitted toilet paper holder the one and only year I participated.
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Our friends deliberately do a crappy gift one and it is so hysterical and memorable. The best part is trying to hide the crappy gifts at his house without him noticing before we leave.
I think setting expectations low is an important part of the process.
I don’t participate in the Secret Santa at work, mainly because I don’t like shopping for people I’m not close to. I also don’t like seeing the look of disappointment on people’s faces when they realize that they received a less than desirable gift. That said, I can’t imagine that I’d bring in something that’s expired. That’s disgusting.
@MoneyCollegePro – The gifts in 2009 looked pretty good so I thought I’d give it a shot last year but it was a pretty big disappointment.
@Diane – A knitted toilet paper roll holder, wow, that takes the cake! LOL!
@FirstGen – The ‘deliberately bad’ idea isn’t too bad, but if it’s when it’s not supposed to be, that’s a definite problem.
@Jana – The expired part is what made me the most angry. At that point it went straight into the garbage. Had it at least been in the OK to eat range I would have at least tried it!
FYI, this year there were about 20 people at the lunch and only 7 participated, so I think the disappointment wasn’t just on my end!
That sounds more like a “White Elephant” gift exchange than a Secret Santa. I’m the coordinator of our Secret Santa exchange here, and this is what we do. All of our names go in to a basket/hat/whatever. We each pick a name – we are Secret Santa to that person. We all decide on a dollar amount to spend, typically a maximum of $10. To be helpful, we usually “reply to all” on the group email to let our Secret Santa know things we like and the Secret Santa has something to work with.
The Secret Santa also has the option, but no obligation, to do little things throughout the week for their giftee, like candy, notes, whatever as long as it’s anonymous.
We then pick a date to gather and open gifts. The gifts are wrapped and labeled with whom they go to, with NO from name on them – it’s a secret! When we do the gift exchange, there is no changing gifts or stealing someone else’s. It’s meant to be fun, not a punishment for being chosen first or last. We also try to guess who our Secret Santas are – that’s fun too. Secret Santa is not obligated to tell, but we usually can guess by process of elimination.
That is exactly what we do. It is actually an enjoyable time. We love giving to our co-workers and surprising each other with gifts throughout the weeks. We actually start after Thanksgiving and get small gifts like suggested throughout the following weeks. As a single with very little family, it has actually become a fun part of my Christmas.
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