Please ask the nearest available man what he would like to receive from Secret Santa.

[Bohica]

I've never done Secret Santa before but moral is quite low at our place at the moment due to a few redundancies so I have offered to organise SS.

Staff ratio is 5 females 20 males so i'm hedging my bets I pull a male out of the hat

Under £5 but i am willing to spend more if needed.

No man here to ask but I would suggest:

the meaning of liff

Best of Matt

Either would do nicely.

OR a big tin of roses.

DH says "a pint of beer and some peace and quiet in which to drink it."

Well that'll be a fun office party.

DH says an iTunes voucher.....

Sylviabells - the meaning of liff is one of my favourite books. Wetwang, Ely, Wembley and Mavis enderby are my favourites.

TSC I also thought about a lottery ticket, do they do a christmas day one?

3feet long tube of Jaffa cakes

Him: Gadget.

Me: Like what?

Him: I dunno.

DH says you can't go wrong with an Amazon voucher.

Then said he likes those little kits like the 'build your own mimi Stonehenge' we bought at Stonehenge or a de stress kit (!)

My DH is a little...erm...quirky!

I thought the etiquette on these things was: unless you know the person pretty well and can make an educated guess, buy booze. Bottle of wine or nice beer. That way, even if they don't drink, they can always regift it.

Or am I just an old cynic?

Chocolates work well for the same reason.

Lego mini creator box - one of the ones in a plastic box for a fiver that makes 3 teeny little vehicles.

Dh said, "Golf balls" without a second's hesitation. Not one of us has got him golf balls. Yikes!

You can send smaller iTunes voucher of you're emailing it. It lets you choose the amount.

My dh says beer or a nice red wine.

My classy bloke says 'one of those magnet things where you move the iron filings to make pubes on a drawing'. I'm so lucky.
Then he said 'or the Karl Pilkington book'

I have asked the chaps in the office and this is what they came up with:

chocolate (something small, but good quality, like Hotel Chocolat's tiddly reindeer or the like)

a book (novel)

desk calender for next year

bottle of wine

five scratchcards or five lottery tickets

de-icer for the car (random one, that!)

the Bendicks mints variety pack

a mini cheeseboard

Quite a variety there!

Thank you, lots of great ideas and some very odd ideas

Favourite at the minute is the mini lego kit!

Gloves with conductive fingertips

Oh I'd love a pair of those for the winter crafty, but I don't think you can get them for a fiver DH doesn't know what to get me for Christmas! It can be a Challenge!

(he came in while I was typing, I told him I'd had an idea, he said "where am I going to get that then?" I explained to him how getting a Christmas present for someone normally operates and he said "well if I can get away from the office before Christmas....." but not in an optimistic voice. I think we'll revert to plan B - I go to the North Face shop, buy myself a Metropolis and a very large roll of wrapping paper, and hand them over to him - I love him dearly, but he doesn't come from a present-minded family, and just doesn't get the present thing).

I have a DH like yours who after 10 years I he has given up completly, it gives me a great excuse to buy what I want when I see it throughout the year because if he dares say anything about "mummy buying for herself again" I can throw the "was you planning on buying it/them for me for christmas then"? card at him.

Shuts him up nicely.

DH 'me?'

Yes

DH 'I dunno - screwdriver'

Comes leaping back in souting

'A bottle of beer'

Sorry - pretty useless but telling I think.

WITMA - New Look has them for £2.79 but our local one doesn't stock the mens' stuff.

Gloves
Chocolate
Lottery tickets

With £5 budget there are good things on play.com.
e.g.sound machine