I can't be the only person struggling to buy secret Santa gifts. So lets form a drop in help desk

[Arisbottle]

My secret Santa gift receiver is a man which immediately makes it hard for me.

We are supposed to spend about £10 and buy four small gifts any ideas

He is in his 50s and spends all his time doing sport

4 small gifts?

Sod that

I'd get a nice bottle of merlot

Have you tried in M&S? I too have a secret Santa, £10, bloke, early 30s, hockey/cricket player, & have seen that they do lots of 'stocking filler' type gifts & thought I might find something appropriate... Not guaranteed though, as I haven't actually been yet!!

why 4 small gifts?

Bloody Hell - why would you make an already difficult and onerous task even worse by dividing it into four!

I agree with above poster, just buy one thing!

I agree about making it more difficult, it is a gift a day which seems to be the norm in schools as it has been like that every at all the schools I have worked in.

Usually if I get a man I do different bottles of ale. I was trying to be a little more imaginative.

I was going to suggest 4 miniture spirits/bottles of beer - the ones with the festive names!

Socks with the manes of the week on? - mon-thur only, with a note saying it is free choice on friday!

I'm not very imaginative

Day one- a bottle of lucozade, next some paracetamol, next an eye mask, lastly a bottle of prosecco/wine?

Not helpful for OP but Paperchase has a bendy straw kit to make a really long straw for a tenner which I thought would make a good Secret Santa present.

The stocking fillers in M&S would be suitable for OP so worth checking out.

Thanks, I am shopping online as you suggest ideas.

Some paracetamol the day after our Christmas do may be an idea!

Mine is £10 and a woman, 50ish. Dont really know her but she is married, has a dog, and wears tons of make up but is not feminine at all
Am really stuck
Do I get her make-up
For a sporty man you can get a nice base-layer top in sports direct for £9.99
Or running gloves, drinks bottle

I need a present for £4 please. For people who have far more taste than me but are all on diets.

Aladdin, what about a floaty scarf, or hand warmers for when she's walking the dog. Maybe a pair of mittens? Or a hip flask.

If anyone you're buying for has a dog this is great - just got it for my colleague after a tip off on another thread

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1472200705/ref=ox_ya_os_product

I also saw a great "generic bloke gift" last night at the school christmas fair - get a pint glass, buy plain black socks, stuff into main part of glass. Buy plain white flannel and stuff into top of glass - pint of beer and socks!

There's also the old MN classic self-stirring mug! Robert Dyas have a glass one for a fiver, the steel one is (or was, anyway) in WHS for £10.

Lol at the description of your secret Santa as " wears tonnes of makeup but not feminine "

I have found some golf themed gifts, he does run as well. I tend to send about £4 a day so go over budget. Life is too short though to hunt for £1 or £2 gifts.

We have a £5 limit on the present but in the week before we have to drop special 'things' into the secret santas post tray, which apparently should be non monetary value tokens . Got really stuck with that one, I've bought some choc buttons and I have a mini Molton Brown free sample bottle I'm going to use, but any other ideas would be good.

I have a female secret santa and I've got her a pair of socks and I've hand sewn a felt christmas decoration for her. I know it's boring but there's a limit what you can do with £5.

OP I would get one big present worth £10 and since you have to give one present a day for 4 days, the first 3 days I'd wrap an empty box up or a few layers of wrapping paper and just put a note inside saying something about it'll be worth the wait

I am hoping that my buyer gets me the texts from a dog book, I love it.

Looks like it is still on offer - they have some quite funny things in their "gadget shop" which seems to be new this year? Well done and not too overpriced, which is unusual for them.

www.whsmith.co.uk/GiftsGamesAndToys/Offers/uptohalfpricexmasgifts

Day One - crackers
Day 2 - chutney
Day 3 - small bottle wine
Day 4 - stilton

Sainsburys have money off their xmas stuff and I picked up some reduced gifts today...

No good for you but I bought a £2.99 santa cookie jar from the range and filled it with packs of mini cookies/oreos/animals/iced gems etc. Went down very well at our party as we were waiting ages for our meal and getting quickly sloshed on the free wine!!!

I bought http://www.johnlewis.com/231801111/Product.aspx?SearchTerm=Champagne+stopper this for my £5 secret Santa today. We have one, and it is a very useful gadget!

So glad we don't do secret santa. This year my dgs nursery are doing it, I have never heard of this.
Every child asked to take in one present each year group told what gift must be e.g. chocs, smellies etc. Children can then choose up to 5 gifts for family members at a cost of £2 each gift. Parents have to send pre-written gift tags with the money, the children will then be allowed to choose the gifts which will be wrapped for them and given to the children to hide at home and give out on Christmas day. WTF the children are 3 and 4 years - difficult for them to choose gifts. Also asking a child of 3 to hide a present until Christmas day is asking a lot and what about Santa wont the children wonder why they have to hide them and hand them out and not Santa. Find it all very strange.

Gah! try again!

4 things?
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