to be a littled peeved that all I got from my secret santa was...

[PurpleCrazyHorse]

... a bottle of M&S shower gel? The limit was £5, but surely even M&S shower gel doesn't cost that much. We all opened them over dinner tonight and I was a bit embarrassed just unwrapping that and my first thought was where's the other half?

I nearly cried on the way home (I am post pregnancy though and had a really bad day anyway).

Eek... now I sound really ungrateful.

lol... does seem a little stingy.... maybe the other thing was chocolate and they got peckish on the wya over.

yanbu I would be seriously peeved with such an uninspired secret santa
can you palm it off at the next school bottle tombola?

Bu it ISN'T just ANY showergel..its M+s showergel

Some of their shower gel's do cost close to £5 I think

Which one was it?

Just be happy you got SOMETHING and tonight you are not homeless or wondering where a loved one is...Christmas is about giving and being with loved ones who we totally cherish and are gratful to have...not secret santa xx

LOL at Mavis

Feeling crappy about stuff generally and this has pushed me over the edge. Hoping the giver was equally embarrassed seeing everyone else's gifts.

Can't find it on their website but it was their Coconut Milk one. Is that posh? Looks like random shower gel to me - needn't have bothered buying some when in Sainsburys today had I known I'd be bringing some home with me tonight!

Ladyanonymous I understand where you're coming from and don't doubt people are in far worse predicaments than I (I do have a missing relative who is sorely missed every day and I'd happily receive shower gel from if only he was here). However a group of colleagues all agreed to buy a gift for one another to the value of £5 and I'm a bit peeved mine seems significantly less than everyone elses.

Mmm they were selling some of their stuff for £1 (not that I want to make you feel any worse)

Dont blame you. I get excited about secret santa. Do you know who got it for you?

YANBU. Any work-related/church Secret Santa I've been involved in everyone went over-budget. No one wanted to look cheap.

I hate Secret Santa anyway. I don't think it's fun and I can buy my own worthless crap.

Sometimes when the recipient is not massively bad off, but are nominated simply because they could do with a nice surprise, they are matched with somebody who wants to contribute but does not have massive amounts of money themselves....

And sometimes, you are matched with more than ONE giver....

I really hope this is a wind up.
Because somebody will most likely be really sad, and feel worse than YOU did when opening the surprise gift, when reading your comments.

Maybe the whole secret santa should just be scrapped, when there are so many greedy and ungrateful people around.

I think you could possibly chill out a tiny bit - I'd be grateful it was something I could use and not some awful tat. Remember maybe your santa is a horribly stressed busy mum who forgot about this till the last minute. Or maybe it's someone who really did try to give some thought to what you would like, even though they were wrong.

Quint- whilst I agree with the essence of what you have said, I think this was a work Secret Santa so they are unlikely to read this.

QS I don't think this is MN secret santa.

I really hope it was a work secret santa, and not the mumsnet one...

"We all opened them over dinner tonight"

I would say it's almost certainly not the MN one and I am sure the poster wouldn't have started this thread if it had been.

you are right. I take my post back. seems I was posting in haste without reading properly. sorry

Easily done- especially at this time of night

PurpleCrazyHorse

You still sound really ungrateful and not in the spirit of Christmas, maybe someone got involved and was really really skint this week?

The whole point of secret santa is the imagination factor isn't it? I have given clean water for third world people to my class and presents to the collection for disadvantaged children from my children. So being pissed off that my secret santa couldn't imagine anything beyond a bottle of blossom hill white doesn't make me a bad person. Isn't that is what the OP is getting at? Something homemade would be nicer!

If this happened to one of my kids I'd say something adult and mummy-esque like 'perhaps the other person is a bit hard up this year' or, if that didn't go down well, I'd have a bash with 'some people don't have a lot of imagination so don't take it personally'

A few years back my sort-of mother-in-law gave me a beige hand cream and beige drawer liners. I was f*ing livid as she's minted beyond most people's dreams and has no excuse for being a lacklustre tightwad. Gave the beige goods to an aged relative and kept fingers crossed that the original donor didn't notice during annual 20 min visit.

Maybe they wanted you to pamper yourself because you are post pregnancy so thought a shower cream would allow you to be pampered quickly because you wouldn't have time for a bath with a new baby?

I love coconut smelly stuff send it to me if you dont want it.

OP, I know what you mean. For our work secret santa, we all put a lot of effort in to make the gift something funny or teasing, but definitely personal to the receiver - it sounds like your santa may not know you well and was playing it safe.