A secret Santa one (peed off)

[OneGreyBiscuit]

Went out with girls from work and done secret Santa. The spend was £20. I got a tiny box of celebrations, cheap socks with my initial on and mug with my name inserted into a quote. It basically looked like a raffle and nowhere near £20 worth, a tenner at best. I had to sit there and watch others opening some lovely things - an ornament from next, no7 stuff, fuzzy duck, perfume. And the thing is I know full well who it was from. Obviously that person doesn't think as much of me as I hoped. Aibu to feel a little miffed? Id appreciate no hateful comments as I feel crap enough.

It might interest people to know that Baylis and Harding hand wash is the one provided in Harrods in Knightsbridge these days. The days of Chanel No5 being available for a free squirt in the 'Ladies Powder Room' as it was called then have long gone.

Secret Santa is generally shite - I just don’t participate as it’s just generally a waste of money and forced fun. If someone genuinely wanted to buy you a Christmas gift they would anyway. Don’t do it next year OP - buy yourself a treat or suggest to work that instead of secret Santa you all put the money you would have spent towards your Xmas night out (if you pay for it yourself)

Some people aren’t good at selecting gifts. I think it’s horrid to be so judgy. Compair and despair etc. maybe next time have a £5 limit and a “recycled or made” rule. That cuts down on waste which frankly is horrific. My work SS had that rule - I regifted a book I’d read and enjoyed, and received a jar of honey from my colleague’s hive. All happy.

You’ve miscalculated or forgotten about inflation.

that’s easily £20.

A naice one ie china is usually £20+ It sounds like she got one of the ones you don't mind leaving in the work kitchen cupboard. Not everyone's taste is the same mind you.

That said, it was personalised so at least they made some effort.

@PoppysAunt

fair enough! I’m not sure that’s the case for most others though…

Bayliss & Harding is a favourite on MN "crap presents you don't want" threads so your recipient may well be moaning about how rubbish your present was, even though you gave with good intentions. Try to give your gifter the benefit of the doubt.

I agree with the others, I’d be quite touched that someone had taken the time to go on line and order a personalised mug for me (which has got to have been £15 with postage) while candles (unless a very specific brand and scent) and Bayliss & Harding would be going straight in the donation box.

I don’t recall anyone ever being particularly impressed with their secret Santa gift. The amount is either too small to get anything nice with, so you end up with crap, or enough to waste on something that the recipient wouldn’t have chosen. I don’t bother now but I used to treat it as someone making a donation to the charity pile on my behalf. Unless you’ve got an unusual name, someone shopping in a charity shop will be able to make use of your mug.

I don’t think Secret Santa is for you.

Bayliss & Harding is shit. I'd rather a mug and socks

I would think that cost around £20 if not more.

I expect people use Secret Santa as a way to recycle unwanted gifts.

Personalised stuff is a pretty naff… I would rather have a cup that’s good quality, nice design, whatever than one with my name on it. That kind of thing is ok for kids, adults not so much

i don’t take Part any more after the last one I done. My present was forgotten by my secret Santa so he ran over the shop and bought a bottle of Jack Daniels! I was heavily pregnant at the time! Said he didn’t want to do in the first place but quite happily excepted his gifts!!!

@sloth75

why is it so shit? It’s literally just hand soap. What do you normally use to wash your hands?

Some people have different (terrible!) taste. My friend was dumped once when her boyfriend saw how she'd decorated her flat for Christmas. It was all cheap stuff from B and M bargains, gonks that type of thing. She absolutely loved it, she thought it was fabulous. She had also bought him a huge Christmas card with a flowery poem inside. He said it showed how incompatible they were!

I would have hated the Bayliss and Harding because it's so generic. So you see, people have different taste.

Not snobbery.

I don’t like the scents or that it doesn’t lather up very well. I’d much rather have a bottle of 99p Imperial Leather hand soap from Home Bargains than Bayliss and Harding.

Exactly this. Secret Santa is meant to take the pressure off so you don’t feel you need to buy for multiple people and to reduce overall costs. It’s a great idea and everyone understands it’s unlikely to be something spectacular that you receive given the person buying for you may not know you best and the budget is limited. I looked at mugs recently and anything personalised was at least £12 sometimes postage on top. Plus socks and chocolates I think here in the south/London you would have struggled to get all that for under £20 then wrapping paper on top. I’d be very happy with those gifts. It would actually never occur to me to be upset with a gift.

I use Fanny Soap

That sounds fine to me and probably did add up to £20. Things are expensive. I think you are being ungrateful.

I was the same!

Betcha the person who opened the Bayliss and Harding thought it was a cheap, impersonal gift from someone who couldn’t give a fuck. Along with the generic chocolates and candle.

Is this a reverse 😂 Baylis and Harding vs Personalised gift. Even if you like B&H it is very generic.

I'd've been happy with a mug, socks and chocolate. I got candles and I hate them tho to be fair, in ours nobody had a specific person, you just got a gift worth £5. I actually spent more than that on a book related to this hobby group, a Lindt chocolate teddy bear and a gift set relating to our hobby for mine, but you're never going to please everyone. And the rest of the party was brilliant. I carefully left the candles behind.

I think it's because it's trying to be 'posh' that people don't like it. It's a Molton Brown knock off. So it looks like people are trying to emulate a fancier brand without spending the money.

If its just soap then Sainsburys basics or whatever would do.

@eqpi4t2hbsnktd

what like FemFresh? lol, why it’s quite expensive. Save it for your fanny