What are your top Secret Santa suggestions?

Former_MSE_Joanne

We want to tap MoneySavers' collective knowledge on the best Secret Santa gifts out there. How do you go about getting something good for a colleague or family member when you're given a tight budget? Which shops often hidden gems for buying on a budget? What are the best and worst things to buy for people you don't know very well?

If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply!

[threadbanner]box[/threadbanner]

bassitt74

I usually just give last years prezzies that I had no use for/ didn't want. Hasn't cost me anything and maybe they would find a better use for it. I've also made 'patchwork' gift wrap out of leftover scraps of christmas paper. I tape them all together then draw over the join with a thick black marker and add lots of 'stitched' marks. Gets a chuckle at the group hand over but as its a secret santa no-one knows who its from anyway.

luxor4t

Toiletries, boxes of chocolate and bottles of wine were the most popular gifts in the office Secret Santa - but, inevitably, the recipient was either allergic or teetotal so a lot of 'Secret Swapping' went on afterwards.

cityworkerindebt

For years and years I have gotten small boxes of lego sets. Cute, fun, usual and easily regifted without offence

tain

A great Secret Santa gift is to get something from a Social Enterprise.

By the very nature of their business, anything from a social enterprise will have a backstory & greater purpose than just the gift.

How awesome would it be to say that the beer holder you've bought someone was once a welly at a festival, that the bamboo used in their socks started life in Northern China, or that the chutney they're going to love was made from surplus fruit and veg!

DigForVictory

I visited an office where the secret santa gift was a Christmas Sweater. Matters of size, taste, washability etc were all moot & the team wore their surprise sweater for the day & for the Team Christmas Photo.
Their petite operations manager *engulfed* in a Norwegian snowflake sweater was very charming, but the photo brought out almost a decade later was that of the MD ruthlessly confined in a petite teenagers "kitten in santa hat" wooly. Apparently he threatens to wear it again from time to time, when morale has sagged.

Me, I try to give bulbs - hyacinth, or daff or crocus or whatever I can source that should grow. (And for one colleague who refused to believe it "worked", cress seeds. Which *will* grow on damp copier paper in an office...)

ben_foord

Items bought from charity shops make the best gifts. Secret Santa is just a bit of fun so why not help worthwhile causes whilst doing it. It really doesn't matter what you buy colleagues. It should be about the joy of giving, sharing and helping people that are less fortunate than ourselves.

bluecanoe

Returning to the workplace after some years absence, my 'safe' secret santa gift of a bottle of wine was somewhat unappreciated by my younger colleagues who universally chose more risque and humorous items. Changing jobs two years later, I was horrified to find the secret santa awash with wine, candles and tins of biscuits. I never did 'fess up to the bottle stopper with a 'humorous' shaped stopper. The recipient swapped it for .........a tin of biscuits.

suki1964

bluecanoe wrote: »

Returning to the workplace after some years absence, my 'safe' secret santa gift of a bottle of wine was somewhat unappreciated by my younger colleagues who universally chose more risque and humorous items. Changing jobs two years later, I was horrified to find the secret santa awash with wine, candles and tins of biscuits. I never did 'fess up to the bottle stopper with a 'humorous' shaped stopper. The recipient swapped it for .........a tin of biscuits.

Indeed. I work with a very young crowd and I think most shopping is done in Anne summers However they usually are courteous enough to think a bit more when it comes to us oldies and if they pick one of us they tend to buy with a bit more constraint

However I still have not cooked the penis shaped pasta I received two years back :rotfl:

chog24

Worst thing to buy for someone you don't know? Please, please don't buy perfumes, bubble bath etc for women you don't know. It's seen as a safe bet, after all "Who doesn't like smellies?". Well, actually lots of people don't! Moreover, scent is such a personal thing that what you think smells lovely someone else might absolutely hate. Unless you've recognised a scent they ACTUALLY wear or use just don't go there. And let's face it, if you have recognised a scent they actually wear or use, you probably know them well enough to buy them something more fitting.

misspie

I bought a kit car(with battery) for a male colleague.
the entire male cohort spent the afternoon putting it together and racing it!
Cost less than a fiver!