Secret Santa, can you get anything good for £5 ?!

[HelloMama]

Secret Santa at work, £5. I normally really enjoy choosing and for most of my colleagues, you can't really go wrong. But this year I have a really tricky recipient and have just no idea what to get!

What would you buy for a lady in her 60's, VERY refined (although not a snob), doesn't really enjoy food/drink, is always beautifully dressed, probably uses high end cosmetics...? Do I just get any old thing and not worry if she chucks it, or do I try and get something she may a really like?

Suddenly £5 doesn't feel like it would go very far... Help!!

A china mug!

Small box of very decent chocolates/fudge... Got a delicatessen or similar nearby?

Fancy tea?

Beautiful smelling shower steamer?

Artisan soap. There are lovely, small scale soap makers

Hand cream?

A scratch card
Copy of Vogue
Tiny box of chocolates
Seeds

I'd get her a sheet mask.

£5 is difficult because it means you're buying a gift just for the sake of it. It's unnecessary gift giving, a waste of money and probably environmentally unfriendly. That said, for £5 I'd probably get bulbs/seeds so she can grow something.
In my workplace we skipped secret santa, pooled the money and sponsored an animal instead.

M&S tin of shortbread is a fiver and it's lovely.
Posh soap ( TKMaxx)
Macarons

Cheating slightly but it's for charity so you're allowed: www.goodgifts.org/50-bowls-of-rice-1.html

My local florist does tiny flower arrangements in a jam jar for £6, with a pound off if you take your own jar.
Would a plant work?

Although this is better for comedy purposes: www.goodgifts.org/prize-bull-semen.html

My first secret Santa was 1992 and the budget was £10. 28 years later and budgets are £5!

@Nordman

£5 is difficult because it means you're buying a gift just for the sake of it. It's unnecessary gift giving, a waste of money and probably environmentally unfriendly. That said, for £5 I'd probably get bulbs/seeds so she can grow something. In my workplace we skipped secret santa, pooled the money and sponsored an animal instead.

True, but there are lots of reasonably eco-friendly small businesses that could really do with customers at the moment.

Something like soap or sweets from a local small business could work. Or, as Nordman suggests, bulbs or seeds.

I like the flowers idea.

I just imagine the sheer joy I’d feel if somebody bought me 5 chocolate oranges in a £5 secret Santa. Ours are always comedy ones unfortunately.

She sounds limiting. Hand cream or shortbread sound like safe options.

croftschocolates.com/

I agree that seeds are a good idea if she has a garden. TKMaxx Italian natural soaps with lemon or orange fragrance are lovely and wouldn't go to waste. TKMaxx bamboo socks. A small, unusual photo frame.

She sounds a bit like my mum, so with that in mind things my mum would like for around £5

A pot with hyacinths in which bloom at Christmas
A handmade soap bar
Nice hand cream
Pretty note book
Herbal tea bags

Wow thanks all, some great ideas here. @nordman I completely agree, and that's why I really don't want to get something throwaway.

@MargotMoon this is my favourite suggestion, although perhaps not for her, but I may use it for someone else I need to gift for!

I think something like a small plant for her desk, or seeds for her garden would be nice. Or hand-cream... Can you get novelty Christmas hand sanitiser?! I'm sure you can....

A small, locally produced soap is also now on the list too. Even if she puts it in her sock drawer, that's still nice....

Soap a good idea.
Locally produced food item e.g. Honey/cheese/tiny box of chocs
Coffee from local hipster coffee grinders
Tree decoration
Plant or flowers a good idea

Our local Tesco has a hyacinth bulb in a hyacinth vase that you nurture grow.
A choice of colour too.
I love them

Could you buy a really nice silver/crystal xmas tree bauble?