The last time I took part in a Secret Santa my recipient was the school secretary. She was a fairly quiet and reserved lady who no one knew particularly well, pleasant enough and good at her job. So, I had absolutely no idea what to get her. I ended up exceeding the spending limit by getting her a Christmas scented candle with a lovely Christmassy holder. Someone else had suggested a scarf, but I’d never seen her wear one so the candle seemed a safer bet.

Pirate Gift Exhange/Yankee Swap much better for workplace.

We once had a Bad Taste Secret Santa. The brief was to bring something old, second-hand, preferably from home, but no trash. We were in tears laughing when we opened the presents. I got a kind of fly whisk/swatter (?) with a brightly colored handle. It then hung on the wall in my office. A great conversation starter 😂

My sister is allergic to dark chocolate-has repeatedly told her co-workers & you guessed it-they always give her dark chocolate! SMH. Listening skills is obviously NOT a strength!🤦🏼‍♀️

So many of us work from home now, I'll take Secret Santa as a chance to go shopping! Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah y'all!!

I organized a secret santa for my office (last time I ever did secret santa). I made mini stockings with everyone’s names and the game was to put a trinket in your person’s every friday, (bout $5), and not from the downstairs hospital giftshop. The no giftshop was a hard rule. Everyone was having an amazing time and folks were giddy all December. I knew the 1st Friday that the lady that hated me was my Santa. My stocking was empty. And the next Friday, and the following. The last Friday 1/

I was once too late to join the secret santa - the organiser told me it was OK - I could just bring a box of chocolates in for everyone to share - errr and what am I getting?

I gifted my secret santa a wok and a cookbook from his favorite chef. He almost cried. And even though I wasn’t the person he picked he came back the next day and gave me a 50 dollar gift card to a restaurant I said I wanted to try and the menu with suggestions of what to order

We used to do secret Santa at my work. We had budgets but people (also part me, because I take budgets as a suggestion for minimum not maximum spent) would spend over budget and make other people feel bad about only being able to spend $20. I know none of the girls felt bad about going over and getting a $20 gift, but looking back it’s understandable about their feelings and how they would feel bad about it. So we ended up getting rid of it all together.

The last time I was in an office environment for the holidays, my supervisor and I organized a gift exchange with the specification that it be an ornament or holiday decoration. This was so we could do it early and limit the spending without putting a definite limit. Everyone was excited about it until the day of the exchange when one of the men told my supervisor he brought shampoo for the exchange. When she told me this, we just looked at each other. Its early December, decorations (1)