Page 3 | Secret Santa CF's

BoyzIIMen · 2024-12-11T23:26:20+00:00

If your group of friends do a Secret Santa, is there always one person who spends the bare minimum rather than the budget you've all agreed in advance? Every year there is always one awful present and it's happened again this year. The budget is £10 and someone has bought a large bag of crisps! We always give the option that anyone can withdraw from being part of it if they want, but they never do! None of us are struggling financially! I'd be interested to hear of other CF Secret Santa presents!

Gamingferretmum · 14/12/2024 08:42

I once received a USB stick as a SS gift from the office oddball... everyone else had such lovely gifts and I'd been through a bit of a rough patch (and also have no poker face) and was visibly a bit upset. He rummaged around his wallet and got the receipt out for me to return it which confirmed he'd not even gone up to our 15 limit which he'd actually asked for (an increase in the tenner we all thought) as in his words "can't get feck all for a tenner".

Fleethatbee · 14/12/2024 08:07

Sunday15 · 14/12/2024 06:12

Hi looking to buy a warm stylish winter coat at a good price
Where can I find it

May I suggest you start your own thread on the Style & Beauty board?

Sunday15 · 14/12/2024 06:12

Hi looking to buy a warm stylish winter coat at a good price
Where can I find it

IBlameTheDog · 14/12/2024 06:04

I used to organise the work SS before we started donating to charity instead.

One year I got a Bayliss and Harding shower gel set. It was from TK Maxx and way below budget.

After that I made sure I always got myself to buy for 🤣

DreamTheMoors · 14/12/2024 05:15

Lollipopsicle · 14/12/2024 04:02

@DreamTheMoors Or thrown it at him! Better still, not let him! Why on earth did you just sit there and watch him do it?

@Lollipopsicle

I just stood there in a room full of people with my mouth open.
I was stunned.
He was the boss’s cousin.
🎶It’s looking a lot like nepo🎶 🎄

supersop60 · 14/12/2024 04:14

Many years ago I worked with a man who was always moaning. I'm too good for this place etc
When it came to SS his present was wrapped in the Job Search pages of the local newspaper, with various jobs ringed in red pen.
When dsis and I had young children, we were quite broke. We set a £3 limit, and had to be creative. That was fun!

Lollipopsicle · 14/12/2024 04:02

@DreamTheMoors Or thrown it at him! Better still, not let him! Why on earth did you just sit there and watch him do it?

DreamTheMoors · 14/12/2024 01:45

I once got a Starbucks gift basket and then the gifter came over from across the room and started plucking things out of it: “Oh, I’ll have this and that gift card and the mug and that…”
By the time he was done, I had a four-ounce bag of beans as my gift in an empty basket.
I should’ve just handed him his basket back.

Ohwhatfuckeryitistoride · 14/12/2024 00:11

Can I share my reverse one? I organised th office SS and I was worried that person A (who was feckless) would forget and I knew he’d got B (who wasn’t popular). So I bought a spare. They were nice, cashmere mix blue gloves. Everyone left them in a box in my office and Bs wasn’t there. So I put in the spare without a name on so when we handed them I went “oh this must be yours B. A dashed in after we had shared gave and her gift. B was much affronted because the unmarked one was obviously an emergency one because she’d been forgotten.
She kept both parents though. Shame, I really fancied those gloves.😁

Gymrabbit · 13/12/2024 23:52

*Nightjar33 *

can I clarify here.
Instead of buying a present for someone, you gave the money you would have spent to a food bank and they got a thank you slip?
if so then you are a massive cf.
if you wanted to make a donation you should have asked your secret Santa to make a charity donation for you…..

Fanofbrianbilston · 13/12/2024 23:44

My child at uni a few years ago forgot to give her SS gift to the tutor, having purchased and wrapped it. It still makes me cringe & I keep nagging them to dig it out and post it which is madness as said child graduated from that uni a while ago!

Nightjar33 · 13/12/2024 23:38

OMG

Zocola · 13/12/2024 23:06

ShelleyCarpenter · 12/12/2024 05:31

Cheeky Fucker

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I thought it was "cunt fuck" 🤔 🤣

UndeniablyGenX · 13/12/2024 22:26

Nightjar33 · 13/12/2024 22:14

I gave a tenners worth of shopping to food bank with a thank you for donation.
dont know if it was well received. None of us needed a £10 gift.
I love a charity gift rather than something lying in a cupboard unused

"It's one thing to give your own breakfast to the Hummels, quite another to make free with someone else's" (Antonia Forest) 😄

Nightjar33 · 13/12/2024 22:14

I gave a tenners worth of shopping to food bank with a thank you for donation.
dont know if it was well received. None of us needed a £10 gift.
I love a charity gift rather than something lying in a cupboard unused

Ukrainebaby23 · 13/12/2024 22:06

Jayinthetub · 12/12/2024 18:45

One year I received one of those very cheap boxes of wrapped truffles from home bargains and a travel sized set of Sainsburys shower gel, body cream and hand cream - the box was bashed and the items inside had sticky dust all over them. When I opened the truffles most of them were just wrappers! £20 spend...I think not!!

Oh dear that's why my friend was disappointed when I gave her the truffles and then proceeded to share them with DC.
We thought they were lovely, oops CF alert.

Nightjar33 · 13/12/2024 22:06

I got a withered poinsettia plant the day before Xmas. Budget was £10 🤣.
it went in the bin

Barneysmomma · 13/12/2024 22:05

BoyzIIMen · 13/12/2024 21:57

That's so lovely. I'm sure they will love it. They will appreciate that a lot of thought has gone into it!

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Thank you that's really kind of you to reply. I think I probably got the easiest person to buy for out of the team!

Original poster

BoyzIIMen · 13/12/2024 21:57

Barneysmomma · 13/12/2024 20:25

We do SS at work but in previous years everyone knew who got who so this year the organiser has used an app. Budget is £15 & I've got the newlywed lady so bought her a personalised Christmas decoration along the lines of "our first Christmas as Mr & Mrs Newlywed". I'm hoping she likes it!

That's so lovely. I'm sure they will love it. They will appreciate that a lot of thought has gone into it!

OP posts:

suburburban · 13/12/2024 21:53

MaturingCheeseball · 13/12/2024 20:54

Yes, I think sometimes it’s not just the stingy gifts that rankle, but the ones that have involved zero thought or effort. Ok, so everyone’s “busy busy busy” and can’t possibly spare two minutes to buy Lisa in Accounts a good present, but just get a nice box of chocolates or something, not an obvious unwanted tatty thing out of the back of a cupboard.

Yes regifts are bad news

SilverChampagne · 13/12/2024 21:47

The genius who is organising it this year has set a sliding budget of between £5-£35 so buy what you feel you can afford… A brilliant way to make everyone feel crap
You all need to opt out of this, it can’t possibly end well.

25percent · 13/12/2024 20:55

housethatbuiltme · 13/12/2024 09:03

I think its rude to dictate how much someone HAS to spend... the limit is to stop more well off people going over the top.

Some people who do SS have NO ONE else that they get presents from, not everyone has partners, kids, family etc... they could genuinely be exited and want to take part but also not be financially well off (single income, could be one of the lower pay brackets etc...). As long as thought and effort is put in price doesn't matter.

But then someone well off enough to afford £30 on a SS (and insane budget for many by the way, pops up every year as a moan about a budget set by the higher up not considering others aren't as highly paid) is unlikely to understand struggle. I have know people where £30 has been the whole budget for their kid at Christmas. I think many find £8 (and if its in the sale it was WORTH more, so they got a bargain in the budget... good for them) is a perfectly acceptable amount to receive as a gift from a co-worker. Greed is not becoming.

CF is about people who forget, give the laziest most unthought out gift, give deliberately hurtful gifts or inappropriate gift not the poorer members of the team taking part but are living within their means.

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This depends on who sets the budget. In this case the budget was agreed beforehand by everyone taking part. If someone had wanted a lower budget everyone would have agreed to it.

MaturingCheeseball · 13/12/2024 20:54

Yes, I think sometimes it’s not just the stingy gifts that rankle, but the ones that have involved zero thought or effort. Ok, so everyone’s “busy busy busy” and can’t possibly spare two minutes to buy Lisa in Accounts a good present, but just get a nice box of chocolates or something, not an obvious unwanted tatty thing out of the back of a cupboard.

WoollyRosebud · 13/12/2024 20:52

Gummybear23 · 12/12/2024 20:54

MR MEN BOOKS were added our SS gifts

Mr lazy
Mr wrong
Mr greedy

Also lots of little miss.. books all linked to the character traits.
Was really funny.

Noone owned up.
Some were upset with their books.

I gave my female boss Little Miss Bossy one year.

Desperatetomotivate · 13/12/2024 20:41

We did secret Santa last year for the children’s rugby Xmas party. They were all asked to bring a present (under £5) that they thought would be fun to get. My child got a jar of Lidl jam, that’s not something a kid has bought, it’s something a t££t cheapskate parent has grabbed from the cupboard who almost certainly made sure their own child got the obvious Pokémon card deck packets most other kids brought.