Secret Santa CF

[Saltdoughmuncher]

Our budget for the office SS is £10. Some people have put a wish list up on the office wall (grabby enough I think) but the person I am buying for has put 3 suggestions of quite specific things, all of which are priced at £15-£20!

AIBU to ignore her request list and just guess at something else to buy that is within budget?

Oh, buy her something terrible from a poundshop, the cf.

@Cloudyyy When you make the charity donation, Oxfam send a card to the person you have made the donation on behalf off telling them what the project is. It doesn't say how much you donated on their behalf in the card. The Black Friday thing is obviously just a gimmick (and in some ways a bit distasteful in my opinion) but I guess it "works" in that you get the same card sent to the recipient for a smaller donation so you look like you have been more generous if they look up on the Oxfam website how much you donated

l'd donate it to a charity and give them the receipt.

@runoutofnamechanges Ahh I see! Bizarre!

@runoutofnamechanges Thank you for explaining

It's cheeky and grabby.

Find them something cheap tacky and the opposite.

Why do adults need Santa presents ? Everyone's got more than enough 'stuff ' & meanwhile charities are crying out for donations. Grow up everyone and find other ways of having fun that don't involve wasting money on tat that uses up the world's resources.

What about a nice mug?

www.amazon.co.uk/Thumbs-Up-Surprise-Mug-Twat/dp/B004FN82RG/ref=asc_df_B004FN82RG/?hvlocphy=9045878&linkCode=df0&hvptwo&psc=1&hvnetw=g&hvadid=231890503428&hvpone&hvlocint&hvpos=1o1&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl&hvqmt&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&hvtargid=pla-423121725337&hvrand=6652776223418685662

Ignore the specific listed items that are over the agreed £10 budget but take inspiration from the list. She’s one cheeky mare!

I'm sure SS sounded like a good idea when it was invented. No need to work out how many people in the office you're going to get a gift for, cheaper, easier and less waste. But the best laid plans and all that.

To work everyone has to go into it in the right spirit, be thoughtful, spend the right amount, don't grab the nearest and cheapest piece of tat (or nothing at all). But unfortunately that's what it seems to have become. Time to bin it off, it causes more hassle than it's worth.

But to answer your question OP, I think if you could buy it (relatively) easily in a shop for £11 you should do it. Better something the recipient wants. If you HAVE to pay postage, there's no other way of getting it, then don't.

And come back and tell us what you get!

@TheNestedIf 😬😬😬😬

Last year I got a box of paracetamol (I always have a headache apparently), a christmas stocking for a dog (I don't own a dog), and a voucher for a date with a co-worker who had a crush on me but wasn't the secret santa gifter... kinda wish we had the lists! haha

The ones I have been involved in (which aren't many, as I don't have a conventional workplace as such) there were always sites with wishlists. the idea being that, if you don't know someone well enough to choose a gift, you can look at the list for inspiration. Because the old standbys of 'don't know you very well but here's a gift' - chocolate, bottle of passable wine, bath stuff - are out of favour because of food allergies/people who don't drink alcohol/people who are allergic to cosmetics.

There are some brilliant mugs on Amazon. I've found one for you at £5.99.

Get the mug!!!

Windup santa dropping his drawers - you can get one for a fiver!!

If people are doing wish lists for Secret Santa, you really might just as well all buy your own. You don't get the normal thing of saying thank you to someone who gave you the present, because that's secret. And you just get the thing you wanted, after spending the same money. I genuinely can't see that there is any point to the exercise.

Yes if your budget is £10 buy something within that budget. End of.

Having said that I did say to my colleagues....no more fecking candles please 😂... but I'm a cf sooooo.

I think lists are okay but you stick within budget, not go over it in expectation of 'it's just another fiver/tenner', that's CFer.

Buy them a goat in Africa, a tree or whatever charity gift that you are passionate about. That way the charity benefits, you know you've done something good for the world and the grabby woman gets nothing but has to fake being happy about it because of the charity gesture.

I opted out of our office SS when I was gifted a set of silicon teabag holders in the shape of cats . I dont drink tea and I dont like cats.
The limit was £5 and the thing must have cost about 2 quid if Im being generous. I let my feelings be known when I opened the offending article. I always kept to the amount or went slightly over. I would have felt guilty if I didnt and I always made sure I chose things relevant to the person. No more. Fuck the lot of them .Im keeping my gifts for people who appreciate them.

Secret Santa rarely works out well for everyone concerned.

Definitely wouldn't spend over the agreed-upon budget.

We’re told to do a list because it make it easier for everyone

If you can’t find something similar within budget then just buy a £10 gift card and she can make up the rest herself for the gift she wants.

We always had a theme for SS. so one year you had to find a mug that fitted the personality of the recipient, another year a pair of socks , another time an item of stationery etc etc. Sounds boring as you knew what you were getting, but it was interesting to see how people interpreted the brief, and it meant that people had to think about it a bit.