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.

I would have liked to receive coconut milk shower gel rather than some of the crap funny/teasing/personal stuff I've had in work Secret Santas. I like the smell of coconut.

Thanks for all the replies. Definitely NOT a MN secret santa - wouldn't be so harsh to post on here if I thought anyone involved would read it. Appreciate that I am hormonal, have a cold-ridden baby (getting all PFB stressed that she's not breathing right!) and therefore less in the Christmas spirit yesterday than usual. Feeling okay to be a bit peeved and at least it's useful.

Shower gel smells quite nice and about to give it a try.

SantaIsMyLoveSlave tee hee... I have seen worse gifts so with a smile on my face I'm going to smell of coconut today

Hmmmm, that range sells year round in my M&S for £1 per item....

I've given a lot of people Body Shop shower gel this year which does sell for £5 per bottle...but I'm now a bit worried that people don;t realise its "nice" shower gel...

I love the idea that you can pamper yourself with m&s shower gel .....

I mean....why not just buy some toothpaste?

And it is always on 3 for to becuase I like the Passion Flower one
Sorry that is only going to make you feel worse.
I think Body Shop is a bit different people know there isn't much for £1 in there these days.

Aww bless you, I have cried over less upseting things when pregnant

Last year I was on the other side of this though- was matched with a woman I work with who I don't know very well and bought her a Lush giftset for £5 that had I think soap and a shower gel in it. Well, got into work the next day and there she is in the staff room ranting about how someone had given her a box with a load of popcorn in (they use ot to pad the box out like polystyrene I guess) and how the whole thing had gone into the bin!

I'm on mat leave now but one of my friends has informeed me that she isn't playing secret santa this year as she was so disapointed last time

I would have been a bit miffed too.

A group of friends agreed to so Secret Santa this year, everyone brought something that cost 20chf (about £10). I was the last one to chose so there was only one gift left and it was obvious that it was a bottle of wine that one friend had picked up at the last minute.

I was a bit disappointed but then I like wine and don't like scrapbooking - which was one of the other gifts - a starter scrapbooking kit.

If you are buying a Secret Santa gift then I think that you have to make it pretty general or at least something that can be used up. I bought l'occitane smellies.

i spent £15 on mine as i ened to get her a gift anyway

when i was pg i cried i missed a beauty appointment

At least you didn't get a roll of bin bags like my dh secret santa recipient!

What were you hoping for? Just curious... Or what would have been something that would have made you smile and feel good?

I really don't like Secreat Santa anyway. I'm involved with different groups besides work and when you start adding up the £5 it really does get expensive. I always end up with shower gel/bath salts and it does get a bit depressing (maybe I should make myself a bit more interesting so people have a better idea of what to get me!).

Mme Lindt, I always know who I'm giving the gift to, we pick names out of hats rather than a lucky-dip style draw.

LOL you

i think that's quite tight and totally unimaginative

at Kreecher - that's not a bad present as long as they live in Lucerne!

at work we are doing a secret santa of up to £10 but not for other people, we literally buy a present and put it in a box then pick out! so difficult especially as im 31 and most of the other staff are between 18-21! staffroom chat has involved
"wonder who will buy cheap smellys!"
"who will end up with dodgy jewellery from asda"
such pressure!

i have decided to do a 'girls night in' bag with ready mixed coctails and coctail glasses, umbrellas and cherrys and some nuts and tortilla with dip!

i have never done one before till thisyear
it is good to stop colleagues all buying little gifts...

is it " thedone thing" to announce who it was at the end?

I'm not too sure what I would have wanted but I guess opening a small thing of shower gel was a disappointment (but pleased it wasn't bin bags!!). Others got a book, chocs, beer, coffee, jewelery. If it was a gift pack of smellies that would have been fine.

Pleased to know I'm not being totally unreasonable and have cheered up today as DH has bought me my Christmas gift (and he's fab at choosing).

We have a work one but we don't get to choose who we buy for, it's more like a lucky dip. The limit was £3. I spent £3.50 on a pair of character mens socks and a tinker bell thong, wrote his and hers on it as most are coupled up. God I'm not going to be able to admit to it am I?

Awww. I would have felt a bit put out with that. That's like a "oh , shit , I forgot to get something. What do I have in the house..."
Maybe they genuinely thought that you would like it.

pmsl you. If she's that dozey...

At least it was M&S and not Asda Smart Price. They probably thought they were giving you a treat - ie better quality than supermarket stuff so imo YABU.

Could be worse, at one secret santa a few years ago everyone else got each other lovely thoughtful presents, tailored to the person, except for one girl who received a pack of nicorete gum. She was gutted.