To hate secret santa

[Midge1978]

Every year I think I've got my Christmas shopping out the way and then secret santa is announced. There is a £10 limit but as you can't buy anything for that I end up buying some crappy tat online and paying over the odds for delivery so it gets here in time. It's never secret - we all know who has who and we just end up getting and receiving rubbish! Really - what is the point?!

I didnt bother this year and donated to a food bank instead.

Yeah. If you don't particularly want to give a gift it is just a pointless exercise in trying to pretend you all get on.

Aww, I love a Secret Santa! £10 is just enough to get something funny or nice-ish, which is the aim of the effort anyway!

Yep agree! Generally a humongous waste of money and potentially divisive as people get very disappointed when they get a crappy gift. We run a donation station for a local charity now at work instead.

Yeah I'm on minimum wage so it breaks my heart to part with my hard earned cash on a stupid turkey hat in order to be "amusing".

I hate secret Santa! Just get a £10 gift card, it's not funny or clever but at least it isn't a bloody waste of money

Ours has the 'fun' element where the budget is discussed and 'agreed' at £20 but no one actually sticks to it! So £20 becomes £30!!!!!!
For a present I didn't want to buy in the first place!

Wow, ours is £3 max 😳

I hate it too.

Ours is £5. I hate it too!!!

Ours is £5. I’ve spent it on 5 scratch cards! Not sure if that will go down well.

Really like the ideas of charity donation etc. instead. None of us needs that extra present, but if we can spare (or are happy to part with) 5 or 10 pounds then giving it to someone who really does need it is surely the best option?

Ours is £10. Not everyone takes part so there's no pressure. We draw it early enough for people to have lots of time to get something nice. For some of my colleagues it's their only gift so a real effort is made.

I never buy something, I always regift something from a birthday or last Christmas. They might get something slightly over budget but at least it's not more junk (it's the same junk twice!)

The best secret santa I've been in was a £5 charity shop one. At least the money went to a good cause then (and I got 5 dvds!)

If you hate it...why are you taking part?