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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask for either your best or worst Secret Santa presents?

130 replies

tearsbeingwashedaway · 13/12/2022 17:59

Not mine but ones I’ve been involved in

Someone gave a box of free chocolates they’d got at a hotel.

Someone bought a baby book and toy for someone who was maybe 4 or 5 months pregnant, she promptly threw it in the bin because she didn’t want to jinx anything by buying so early. I get it but it didn’t need the dramatics and she could have just donated it.

A sex toy. There was an HR meeting.

OP posts:
ilovepixie · 14/12/2022 01:12

We aren't allowed to do secret Santa after a fella spent £300 on a girl he fancied and another fella gave a married woman naked photos of himself and a bottle of his urine!

abblie · 14/12/2022 01:18

I bought this for secret santa last year and she loved it 🤣🤣🤣 cos she knows she is one lol sorry for the bad word 🙈 thinking about it I think it may have been too much

To ask for either your best or worst Secret Santa presents?
pinkpotatoez · 14/12/2022 02:19

This reply has been deleted

This message has been withdrawn at the poster's request

What are you waffling on about? You did completely misunderstood the gift, you come across as the type of person to annoyingly ring a bullshit bell, so I'd say he was pretty spot on.

LydiaBennetsUglyBonnet · 14/12/2022 02:30

I got this for a colleague once - I’m pretty sure I’d get sacked from most places these days! It was all in jest of course. The funny thing was, the tea room mugs were all plain white and now and again this mug got mixed in with them. I’ll never forget when we had a meeting with an important client who we inadvertently have this mug to to drink from. I had to really hold my laughter in every time he took a swig 🤣

To ask for either your best or worst Secret Santa presents?
Dullardmullard · 14/12/2022 02:43

ilovepixie · 14/12/2022 01:12

We aren't allowed to do secret Santa after a fella spent £300 on a girl he fancied and another fella gave a married woman naked photos of himself and a bottle of his urine!

Wtf 😳

jays · 14/12/2022 02:55

My nicest secret Santa was many a moon ago in secondary school when a boy who’d pulled my name out of the hat got me a beautiful bracelet. Looking back I know that his mum would been involved, we were only 11/12 and I was so touched. I ‘paid it forward’ for a girl in my son’s class at school when she picked him to be her highland dancing partner a few years ago. It’s lovely how a little kind gesture can have such a big impact.

ipreferthecat · 14/12/2022 04:28

@NutsaremyNemesis

Wow you sound utterly vile and terrible as a manager

There is nothing to be proud of in your post either

neighboursmustliveon · 14/12/2022 04:45

My favourite was a beautiful woollen scarf I still wear to this day.

My worst was a little wooden hanging sign. It said 'it's got to be... pink!' I am known for loving pink but this sign was crap. Even had a chinzy little scraps of flowered material tied at the top of the wire hanging loop.

I was so disappointed and it spoiled Christmas so much that my DH threw it out as every time I saw it I got annoyed 😂

A close second was a novelty pen which was ok but it had feathers on and I don't like feathers, they creep me out (weird I know).

sashh · 14/12/2022 04:52

jays · 14/12/2022 02:55

My nicest secret Santa was many a moon ago in secondary school when a boy who’d pulled my name out of the hat got me a beautiful bracelet. Looking back I know that his mum would been involved, we were only 11/12 and I was so touched. I ‘paid it forward’ for a girl in my son’s class at school when she picked him to be her highland dancing partner a few years ago. It’s lovely how a little kind gesture can have such a big impact.

That's lovely.

I worked in one place where the lady who sat next to me was very in to her Christianity.

She didn't buy a gift as such, she gave a note saying she had donated the money to some charity that helps fishermen in poor countries.

But as there was no card or anything like you would get from Oxfam it didn't look too good.

Later that day I was in the kitchen making tea with three members of staff one of whom was the Christian lady when another member of staff started slagging off who had given the note and that they didn't believe a donation had been made. I could feel Christian lady getting upset and managed to mouth at the slagger off that it was Christian lady and she managed to back track a bit with me saying I thought it was a thoughtful gift.

I generally have the reputation for getting good presents, one year I was away on the day secret santa took place but about 6 months after there was a conversation about SS and the lady I had bought for said how who ever had bought her present had noticed she wore lots of gold charms on chains and showed me the one she had got.

i didn't tell her it was me. Or that the reason it was a charm not on a chain was because that would take it over budget.

FormerlySpeckledyHen · 14/12/2022 05:07

Best - mini bottle of port and a little pot of Stilton cheese from Waitrose

Worst - Earl Grey tea bags and a bar of chocolate. Chocolate was nice but I don’t drink tea.

RJnomore1 · 14/12/2022 05:18

ilovepixie · 14/12/2022 01:12

We aren't allowed to do secret Santa after a fella spent £300 on a girl he fancied and another fella gave a married woman naked photos of himself and a bottle of his urine!

You what the what now????

urine????????????

AnaBananas · 14/12/2022 05:50

A terrys chocolate orange - no thought whatsoever. Budget was £5 or £10 - can't remember.

SomethingOriginal2 · 14/12/2022 05:55

iminvestednow · 13/12/2022 23:48

I know this comment really doesn’t apply to this thread but I saw this and I just got curious. I know ASD is a massive spectrum but my son’s only diagnosis is autism, he is utterly unable to live an independent life and it is very hard, he is 15 and I still have to dress him. There is no real understanding of ‘the real world’. I read your well put together post with a clear and considered understanding of what is socially acceptable. Is your autism self diagnosed or should I just be more conscious of the spectrum?

Have you not noticed that this poster is currently being ripped to bits for misunderstanding the meaning of the bell and for way she's written about the guy getting sacked?

Yes there is a spectrum and some of us are able to live independently but that doesn't mean our autism isn't fucking with us.

I really don't like when parents of autistic children minimise the experiences of autistic adults.

NancyJoan · 14/12/2022 06:41

Doing ours today. What will it be?!!

ThatshallotBaby · 14/12/2022 06:46

The posters making comments about @NutsaremyNemesis need to receive some Christmas spirit for their Secret Santa.
Just check yourselves.

RampantIvy · 14/12/2022 06:53

We had a £5 limit for Secret Santa at the time. One year I received £5 worth of lottery scratch cards and won £1.

Ylvamoon · 14/12/2022 06:55

Some cheap smelling handcrem and a pack of greeting cards... budget was £10.-

BoxOfCats · 14/12/2022 06:56

Not me, but a female, openly gay colleague of mine received a mug one year that had "I Heart Cock" written in big letters on it. Luckily she thought it was hilarious.

ArtichokeAardvark · 14/12/2022 07:03

I got a Baylis and Harding hand soap gift set 3 years running, from different people. I work in HR so understand that no one wants to risk a rude or funny gift with me, but to get the same 'oh crap, let's buy any generic rubbish from Boots' present three times is depressing. I always try really hard to find something that they'll actually like!

cliffdiver · 14/12/2022 07:03

Worst: a pink plastic necklace

Best: F&M tea bags

cliffdiver · 14/12/2022 07:04

Or

Best: when I picked my own name out, didn't let on, and bought myself a bottle of wine

icanwearwhatiwant · 14/12/2022 07:08

RampantIvy · 14/12/2022 06:53

We had a £5 limit for Secret Santa at the time. One year I received £5 worth of lottery scratch cards and won £1.

Was that your best or worst gift? I'd be quite pleased with this. At least it's not terrible for the environment like a lot of secret Santa tat Grin

ColinRobinsonsfamiliar · 14/12/2022 07:13

A curtain.
A single solitary curtain.
Yep. Just the one.

icanwearwhatiwant · 14/12/2022 07:16

*My worst was a little wooden hanging sign. It said 'it's got to be... pink!' I am known for loving pink but this sign was crap. Even had a chinzy little scraps of flowered material tied at the top of the wire hanging loop.

I was so disappointed and it spoiled Christmas so much that my DH threw it out as every time I saw it I got annoyed* 😂

So in a Secret Santa somebody had noticed you liked pink and bought accordingly but the sign was poor quality and you think that the sign spoiled Christmas?

Confused
HoHoHowMuch · 14/12/2022 07:38

Worst year was when my team just wanted to do secret santa together and the big boss wanted us to do the department one. The department was huge and we didn't all know each other. She went on and on about how selfish everyone was being, even though it was our money. Eventually we gave in and I got someone I didn't know, so they got a mug. I got cheap chocolate that I didn't like. What a waste.

As a teenager I worked at a place where one guy got a porn mag and loo roll for secret santa. He didn't say if he liked it or not!