Secret Santa - does your workplace have one?

[WillsBabe]

We have Secret Santa every year at where I work. Everyone's names are put into an envelope and then there's a secret draw. The gift limit is £5 and the gifts are distributed at our office Christmas meal. We are a small workplace, just 15 staff.

This year I was allocated someone in the office I like but don't know very well. I've selected a bit of a "meh" gift that isn't specific to her, but is a bit of a general purpose female gift.

Do you have Secret Santa at your place of work? Do you take part? Do you enjoy it or not? I know some of the men in particular I work with don't enjoy buying gifts for Secret Santa because they never know what to get. Is Secret Santa an annual imposition you put up with, or is it all in good fun?

 

[Holdfast]

I don't work in a fixed workplace anymore, so my days of Secret Santa are behind me. A few departments I've worked in historically ran them. I usually just bought a modest-but-nice bottle or a big box of chocs or some other foodie treat. I ignored whatever price limit was in place and preferred to go with the sprit of the concept and just kept the price reasonable and the gift tasty. Depending on the workplace, sometimes that meant it fell within the limit, other times it went a few quid over. *shrug*

Part of the reason behind my generic choices of gift was that I changed departments frequently, so it would have been too time-consuming to make too much of an effort in finding the "right" gift. Not sure that's a uniquely male perspective; more a lazy perspective.

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

My family does a Secret Santa thing. It's a lot easier (and cheaper) than buying gifts for every single member of the family, lol.

 

[auntiehill]

I used to love doing Secret Santa when I worked at a certain Department Store. Haven't done it years, as I work at home now.

 

[ancientone51]

We used to do it at the school where I teach. They didn't set it up this year as, "not many have participated last couple of years."

I really think it is just too much other stuff going on with all the stuff that has happened. At least this year there was no fee listed for the Christmas party.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Neither my store nor my family has ever used a Secret Santa. Last time I ever took part in one was grade school.

 

[RoJoHen]

My family has done Secret Santa ever since my sister got old enough to be an "adult" and not require gifts from everyone.

 

[bluedana]

My inlaws do a Secret Santa, but my office does a Yankee Swap.

 

[Captain Shaw]

My inlaws do a Secret Santa, but my office does a Yankee Swap.

What is a Yankee swap?

 

[WillsBabe]

My inlaws do a Secret Santa, but my office does a Yankee Swap.

What is a Yankee swap?

Yes, tell us. It sounds intriguing!

 

[StolenThunder]

Not at work - but friends and I do a Yankee swap too. It's great fun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant_gift_exchange

 

[SmoothieX]

^I tried that with some friends once, but got yelled at when I got spooge all over the curtains. No more swaps for me.

Oh you said Yankee, I thought you said Wankee...nevermind.

No secret santa here. I don't even go to the company party much less have an interest in participating in that.

 

[bluedana]

A Yankee swap is where everyone brings a wrapped gift up to a certain value, say $15. Everyone who brings a gift gets a number, up to the number of persons (let's say there are 20 people). Person number one picks a gift and opens it. Number 2 picks a gift, opens it, and can swap it with Number 1's gift or keep it. Number 3 picks a gift, opens it, has the choice of keep, swap with #1 or #2. And so on, with each person having the choice of all of the gifts that have been opened up til then. The last person (#20) gets to choose to swap (or not) with anyone whose number came before. And then #1 gets the last choice. Good gifts get swapped over and over; sometimes people get stuck with gag gifts. Lots of bargaining goes on over the good gifts. It's very fun and kind of competitive, both in the shopping and in the swapping.

 

[B.J.]

Never heard it called a Yankee swap or a White Elephant gift exchange, I've always heard it called "Dirty Santa". Of course, considering where I am, I'm not surprised I haven't heard the "Yankee Swap" term. But, I've never participated in that or the regular Secret Santa at work - my company is WAY too big for that.

 

[Sean Aaron]

We do it, but it's for fun rather than the past experience of being expected to buy something real for someone you don't know. This year the idea is that you have to get a gift which matches the initials of the person. Having "A.F." I got All-butter Fudge and Alpen Fruit&Nut bars for mine.

 

[C. Cole-Chakotay]

Forced to go to a company party that I hate. Fortunately, we don't have a Secret Santa.

 

[Sean Aaron]

Thankfully my current company does an Xmas luncheon rather than an evening do. It ensures better turnout because people get to skive from work and it's not a hassle to attend, though in my case I have the day off, but a free lunch seems like an okay thing to do when I'm on holiday.

 

[iguana_tonante]

No Secret Santa for me. But I'm not really into the gift-giving side of Christmas at any rate. We do have a "regift your gifts" party around New Years Day with my friends, when everybody collects all the useless gifts he received during Christmas, wraps them again, and put them into a big basket, on the chance that someone else might find them useful (that salted algae body lotion you got from that crazy aunt may make you want to puke, but it might be great to your olfactory-deprived friend).

A Yankee swap is where everyone brings a wrapped gift up to a certain value, say $15. (...) It's very fun and kind of competitive, both in the shopping and in the swapping.

Leave it to the Yankees to make gift-giving competitive.

 

[Avalon]

We have Secret Santa every year at where I work. Everyone's names are put into an envelope and then there's a secret draw. The gift limit is £5 and the gifts are distributed at our office Christmas meal. We are a small workplace, just 15 staff.

This year I was allocated someone in the office I like but don't know very well. I've selected a bit of a "meh" gift that isn't specific to her, but is a bit of a general purpose female gift.

Do you have Secret Santa at your place of work? Do you take part? Do you enjoy it or not? I know some of the men in particular I work with don't enjoy buying gifts for Secret Santa because they never know what to get. Is Secret Santa an annual imposition you put up with, or is it all in good fun?

The last time I did that sort of thing was years ago with a women's group at church -- it lasted for the month and we just got little gifts each week. The thing that really made it work was that we didn't just put names in, we filled out a slip with some of our preferences like "favorite color" and "things we're allergic to or dislike". That made it a whole lot easier to choose gifts (or rule them out).

 

[RoJoHen]

A Yankee swap is where everyone brings a wrapped gift up to a certain value, say $15. (...) It's very fun and kind of competitive, both in the shopping and in the swapping.

Leave it to the Yankees to make gift-giving competitive.

Well, you have to make sure you get the best one!