secret Santa budget

[mommy2ash]

So it was decided we would do secret Santa at work. Personally I would rather not but everyone else thinks it's great. An email was sent stating the budget is 20 euros. Am I really cheap or is that quite high for work? I have family members I'm not spending that much on

The last one I did was £5 but it had to be naff on purpose! We had worms in jelly, dodgy ties and a dolphin candle, it was a great laugh and much more fun to buy for!

Far too high, £5 max I'd say

Ours is £20, but, we're a fairly small, all female team who know each other well.
We agreed on £20 in order to buy a "naice" gift as most of us don't really get any other pressies.
DH secret Santa is £5 with the stipulation that it must be a joke gift.
As long as participation is not forced upon you I think either way is fine.

Usually the idea is a slightly naff or token gift! I'd say 20 € is too much.

It really adds up when you include the price of a work Christmas dinner at a restaurant and the cost of getting there and back if you have to travel by taxi, bus etc.

I think £5 jokey tat is fine though as that's kind of the point of these things. You're paying for the fun of the in-joke rather than the item having any intrinsic value.

Way too high! I was ranting earlier about an article that had suggested stocking fillers for 'under £20' - to me, £20 is a significant present, not a stocking filler!

I thought the whole idea of secret santa was to buy something jokey on a budget. That is too much.

It's £5 at our office which is fine, but I usually put way too much thought into it! Much more than some others I could mention... We are doing one for the kids this year for our Xmas get together with my mum friends and hubbies with a £10 budget. At least £10 is Enough to buy a nice toy!

Secret Santa is more a joke of a present. The best and funniest ones I've seen have been the cheapest (a pair of big knickers. OFSTED survival kit) £5 is about the right mark.

We did £10 last year, not sure if we're doing it this year. I quite enjoyed it, we're a small team and people got nice things like books or scarves.

I stand alone then! I think YABU. Google says 20 Euro is £14.11. Our budget at work is £10 and I think it's too low because what can you get for a tenner?!

Yanbu, about £5 here.

Supposed to be a joke gift here too.

Ours is £20 and not really optional. We get paid less than minimum wage ffs and my family dont get that much spent on them! I have bought a nice gift tho and hopefully I'll recieve one - we did it on elfster and the gifts have to be in the managers office a week before to make sure noone shirks

I got my guy; a photography teacher on his 40s, a camera chopping board, a wallet multi tool, a chalk board mug and some chocs. Should do

Can't bear it! Too embarrassing to opt out, but one year I persuaded the department to do a charity donation instead, and this year nobody pushed for it, thank goodness... It's a minefield if you are on different salary levels, don't know someone very well or just have enough on your plate already! Would rather give twice as much to charity than the £5 I had to spend on S.S.

Ours is £5 with the rule that it must be a jokey gift. I don't mind that but wouldn't want to be spending more than £10 say!

£5 here - it's a token only. I wouldn't do it if it was much more than that.

In the team I manage we do a poundshop lucky dip - it's really fun and means it's as about as inclusive as it gets finance wise. People also tend to get really useful things that might actually get used, things like soap, chocs, deicer etc.

My worst secret santa experience was where we all put 5 ideas down for our £10 budget to be spent on, so that people would get a suprise but something they would like so it wasn't a total waste. Really good idea I thought, but then I got drawn out by someone who didn't believe in the system and went off piste with weird stuff, so I'm sat there at the Christmas meal with a whacky keyring when everyone else has nice things. What's even worse is that person drew me out 2 years running!

Our work ones have always been £5 max. Jokey but nice gifts.

Ds had one at school last year. £2 max! That was a challenge!

Found a nice little craft kit for the girl he had picked. She loved it.

I'm the worst at secret Santa, one year I swapped everyones name for mine people realised almost immediately because they can't keep a bloody secret. One of the first years working for the same company I spent a huge amount of money on my secret Santa and bought something completely ridiculous and pointless.
Secret Santa is my opportunity to fuck with my employees.
I think €20 is reasonable but I also think you should be able to opt out.

Our book group (8 women) do a secret Santa and the budget is £20.
It's enough to get something that isn't poundshop tat. If we all spend a fiver on crap, it would be £40 worth of stuff literally thrown in the bin.
Total waste.
This way, we seem to end up with lovely non novelty presents.
But we all know each other and are good friends now, I wouldn't know how to spend £20 on a random Unknown!

Don't want to sound pedantic but 20 euros is about £14.00. I still think it's too much personally but it's not £20

£20 at my work too which i think is a lot but we're a small team and everyone joins in so it's difficult to opt out.

My office is €20 too. Generally we give / receive thoughtful gifts more so than gag gifts, but if you haven't got a clue what to get someone, vodka, whiskey or wine is well received by all.

£5 is enough.

We don't have a price guide but I've spent £11.