I know there unreasonable but £30 is insane!

[FranksBank]

To spend on someone you don't really like. For Sectet Santa

I am very PT and have been asked to arrange this, with them saying 'we knew you wouldn't want to join in because you don't celebrate it' I do actually celebrate it but I'll gladly let them think I don't now!

Anyway, the budget the person asking me to arrange it has set is £30. They want me to send out the email asking people to opt in, and mention it's a £30 budget.

AIBU to actually ask what madness has embedded within her to think this is a fair amount?

I said 'Is that not very high?' And she said 'Sent it out after Halloween! They'll have time to save, won't they?' And she seemed very smug to announce this obvious information

It's a school. Nobody is rich.

Totally agree. Sometimes they're used rather spitefully (think of someone a bit chunky being given a book on healthy living for instance) and they can cause a lot of upset and ill-feeling. The idea of going out for a nice meal is much more sensible.

Sorry but tell them to arrange it themselves. £30 is too much for a Secret Santa and I would be embarrassed sending an email to people saying they had to spend £30…it makes you look silly IMO.

A few years ago a few of us suggested doing a charity collection instead of a secret Santa everyone was very happy with this

Knock a 0 off it when you send the email out, £3… and everyone else will thank you for it

YES! the book idea is brilliant. get everyone to write a bit about what they enjoy reading, be that mysteries, or cookery books, or craft books, or history, and see what happens. I love that idea!

That’s ridiculous, that budget ought to be halved .
It is easy to get a nice small gift for up to £15 just for example a quality hand cream , a nice candle, a scarf from a gift shop , posh chocolate,posh sweets , notebook , really good socks .
I know those sort of gifts are generic but I’m just putting that to illustrate what can be got with the £15

If you absolutely have to send out that email I’d copy in the original person whose idea it was and say “ on behalf of XX I’m informing all “

I’d always take the cost of a paperback book as a guide. £12 at most.

@GrannyRose15 where are you buying your paperbacks from?
They're usually about £5 - 7 in the supermarket.

Waterstones. And I said £12 max

@GrannyRose15 that's true..... Waterstones can be a bit more.
(for a Secret Santa I'd buy a £2.50 one from The Works 🙂)

Brilliant advice. And yes £30 is way too much.

That is very true and a good point.

£5 for a work Secret Santa is the norm in most workplaces. Most people don’t want to waste money on colleagues. £30 is my budget for some family members!! We do a £5 Secret Santa and it’s often novelty gifts like stress balls or bath bombs or chocolates. People will be really pissed off if it’s £30

Absolutely outrageous. £10 tops - £5 better. They seem to have forgotten what Secret Santa is all about...

Good grief cannot believe this post, £30 for secret Santa is ludicrous. Also £30 is a lot of money for some people. I would do away with secret Santa all together. It is just nonsense, there is a cost of living crisis and people are seriously in debt, I don't feel it is in any way fair to put people in this position.

I have worked in an office where someone was in tears over the expectation to bring cakes in on their Birthday because they didn't have the money to pay for them. Some people do literally live hand to mouth, it is unkind to put pressure on people to participate in a £30 secret Santa arrangement.

Just send them out, ask if they want to participate. People who don't reply obviously don't isn't to pay that. People can speak for themselves.

PERFECT

I don't know if this helps, but we do a £10 budget and call it a charity shop secret santa. The idea is you can spend up to £10 but it has to be something from a charity shop. This way you are gifting someone something and raising money for charity too. Especially at christmas time. This sounds way more reasonable to me than £30!

I've just realised this has already been mentioned- apologies :)

That was OP correcting herself.

You have a few options.

1. You confide in someone else to send out a different unofficial secret Santa email set at £5-10. At this point you should have your £30 email in draft, sent to the other person "just to check everything's as it should be". You still send it but of course it say it's optional
2. The £3 I love although tbh I'd find that just as annoying as £30! £3 is hard!!
3. You have a chat with a few other people and find out whether £30 is too high. If so you just send the email out and include the line "after asking many of you we've set the limit at £10"

I’m also going against the grain here.

if it is up to 30 pounds then people can spend as much as they can afford and no one should spend 30 if they will be pissed if they don’t get the same back, gifting should never be about what you get in return. And you can chose to not participate.

if it’s a mandatory 30 I think this is too much, but again if people can chose to not participate then it’s fine,

my workplace doesn’t do it, likely as it’s predominantly male. Let’s face it, this is a female thing, but previous workplaces have and it was always an opt in/out thing,

Ive twice ended up giftless due to someone off sick or forgot! Which is fine at a fiver but not if youve coughed up £30. Its too much for a secret santa gift

If you are a reader it's brillant. If not it isn't...

Great fun (or not) to be told to donate the book because of other people joy of books.

Tell them both to start flaunting their wealth to their staff. £10 would be an absolute limit. We were asked to do Secret Santa, and we all refused it. The very best which comes from it, is someone buys you a present you like and you buy a present for someone else who also likes the present they got. The likelyhood of that happening between 20 people is rediculously low. It leads to hostilitity because people don't get presents they like and not everyone spends the same amount.
You give presents to your personal friends. Christmas has no place in the workplace UNLESS the business buy the same presents for everyone. (We had this one year when we did exceptionally well and we were all given bottles of bubbly) - Which we then had to point out that they shouldn't be giving alcohol with no alternative... as we not only had people who don't drink for religious reasons, but alcoholics (who hadn't drunk for many years).