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Original poster

My Secret Santa recipient could not have looked more pissed off at her present today

273 replies

Hassled · 14/12/2016 20:13

I thought it was quite nice - some Occitane hand cream. I don't know her very well but she's always highly groomed, dresses well, seems very pleasant - I thought hand cream would be safe. She has no way of knowing it was me, at least. But seriously - a room of 30+ people opening their gifts, everyone going "Yay! Thanks, Secret Santa!" and generally being cheery, and she just sat and stared at the hand cream like it was a glittery turd or something. I feel bad about it. Anyone else got their Secret Santa present so drastically wrong?

OP posts:
AutumnalLeaves38 · 15/12/2016 07:51

NeedsasockAmnesty

Xmas Smile
ExcellentWorkThereMary · 15/12/2016 07:56

I hated secret Santa in my last workplace. It was a mainly female team and the majority were friends outside of work (I was never included, they uninvited me to my own leaving drinks when I left, by all saying they couldn't come so I cancelled it, then went anyway and posted on Facebook about it!) so they all knew each other and bought each other lovely gifts, I would always get something thoughtless and last minute. One year I got a £10 note in an envelope!! That was the best year, at least I got my money back! I worked there for 10 years, I gave up participating in secret Santa or the work Christmas lunch after about 5.
They were a horrible lot.

Hippywannabe · 15/12/2016 08:00

Nothing wrong with hand cream and it was a decent brand. Simple solution for her- practice her game face before taking part!

WhatHaveIFound · 15/12/2016 08:08

She was rude. I have lots of allergies which means i'd probably be unable to use the handcream but i'd still manage to be gracious when receiving a gift.

My poor DS was the only one in his class who's secret santa buyer forgot the gift yesterday. Am hoping they remember before the end of term!

EBearhug · 15/12/2016 08:54

Another year I got a nylon blanket. As soon as I picked it up it crackled with lots of sparks. Yeah, thanks a lot. It was like something you would get free with a fill up of petrol.

I don't think petrol stations giving away things which spark would be a good idea!

I am surprised at how many people seem to think giving things like dildos and blow-up dolls is suitable for people you work with. There are a couple of people I know well enough that I might consider getting them something daft like that, but not for a SS that gets opened in public (which all the ones I have been involved with have been.) It's just inappropriate for the workplace.

Where I work, quite a few of the men have handcrafted at their desks, too. I don't know if our air con/heating is particularly drying, but it isn't something which is just for women or the elderly at all.

Comedyusername · 15/12/2016 09:00

Reading this last night made me wonder whether my husband was doing SS at his work party today. This morning I found him scrabbling round for a box of chocs in the cupboard as he'd forgotten. I found him a Christmas candle which I hope the lady in her 50s will like, but I think she'll know he gave it zero thought Xmas Blush. L'Occitane hand cream would definitely have been better!

StubbleTurnips · 15/12/2016 09:31

I use tonnes of hand cream, and would have been pleased OP. I have a face you can read so even feigning delight is near impossible when you receive something you can't grasp.

I don't take part in SS, as I'm one who has been mortified in the past through a humiliation present in front of a room full of dickheads and taken it through HR to formal disciplinary post Christmas. And that was a fun year.

ElizaSchuyler · 15/12/2016 09:35

Was it a scented or a plainer one op?

I personally use the Shea butter one & it's fine for dd aged 15 with skin allergies. I wouldn't overly like the Rose scented one. But I'd still be grateful.

I've just put some of mine on actually. I've also used hand cream since my early teens.

EBearhug · 15/12/2016 09:39

I meant hand cream, not handcrafted, in my previous post. Thank you, autocorrect.

FurryLittleTwerp · 15/12/2016 09:45

I once received a cheap nasty bright red sparkly-with-a fluffy-muff G-string as a Secret Santa gift. Lovely.

ILostItInTheEarlyNineties · 15/12/2016 09:56

I did wonder what exactly the men in your workplace were handcrafting at their desks, Ebear I had visions of them beavering away at their desks producing wicker hearts and lavender bags to give away. Grin

EBearhug · 15/12/2016 10:15

Goodness, no! Nothing like that useful!

BattleaxeGalactica · 15/12/2016 10:56

I'm under 80 and use hand cream (would love l'occitane) but then again I'm always struck by the amount that's on the shelf in charity shops.

I think we may have discovered an interesting tribal divide here Grin

MrsMattBomer · 15/12/2016 14:00

I'm mystified that there are people who wouldn't find getting a dildo funny. Maybe I'm childish but I'd find it hilarious.

I don't care how unprofessional it is - it's a bloody job - who cares? We're all there because we have to be and seeing as you tend to work together most of the year, why do you have to be professional? It's not like we're with clients.

Blimey, I'm a teacher and in my secret santa this year off another staff member I got Vodka. Last year I got nipple tassels off somebody. When you put a limit on the price, you may as well give a joke gift!

blueskyinmarch · 15/12/2016 14:08

My DD sent me a massive tube each of the L'Occitane shea butter hand cream and lavender foot cream for my birthday. I was utterly delighted. Who doesn't want soft hands and feet?

Onenerfwarfrombreakdown · 15/12/2016 15:46

mrsmattbomer nope I would not find a dildo or related sex gift funny. I would assume either that the giver hated me and wanted to embarrass and humiliate me in public or that they thought I was a stuck-up uptight person who "needed to get laid" and was unlikely to "find a man" so needed a product - this is not me overthinking, this was the explanation I overheard once in a work toilet when someone did exactly this to a (actually very nice, not stuck up at all but just shy) colleague of mine. She was utterly mortified at the "gift", and started looking for a new job almost immediately as she found it excruciating to work with people who she now felt to all be laughing at her and mocking her happy, single status behind her back. Not funny.

AbiBranning · 15/12/2016 16:00

Hand cream should be a safe option, a colleague got Vagisil and Vicks this year. Still don't get if it meant something, but so glad it wasn't me.

VoodooPeople · 15/12/2016 16:02

a colleague got Vagisil and Vicks this year.

Shock Shock Shock Shock Shock Shock Shock

and

Shock just for good luck

harderandharder2breathe · 15/12/2016 16:29

Loads of young women in my office use hand cream, especially in winter.

She was rude! Even if she personally doesn't a) aren't we all raised to smile and say thank you for any gift? B) it's impersonal so easy to regift

Chrisinthemorning · 15/12/2016 17:40

I would love posh hand cream from Secret Santa, and I have bought mine similar, only Joules so not quite as posh!

d270r0 · 15/12/2016 18:28

I also don't understand the comments about old people. I am not old at all and would have liked the hand cream, a lovely brand. Surely everyone gets dry hands, particularly in winter? Unless they never go outdoors or do any kind of washing up/cleaning/work with their hands.

OliviaStabler · 15/12/2016 18:38

Would have loved some hand cream. And I'm not 78 or anywhere near it Wink

StubbleTurnips · 15/12/2016 18:47

A dildo funny?? I hope you'd also find receiving your P45 just as hilarious on the other side of that, because I would if you'd gifted it to me.

MrsMattBomer · 15/12/2016 18:56

Onenerfwarfrombreakdown

It does sound like she's a bit sensitive then. I mean, that's fine if she is, but most people would see it as a joke wouldn't they?

GhettoFabulous · 15/12/2016 19:32

I once gave someone a reusable shopping bag - a nice one - and she looked at it like I'd shat in it beforehand. I was assured later that that was just the way her face fell and she often looked like that.

Last year I had to pretend to be delighted with some notebooks - pretty ones, admittedly - while everyone else opened chocolates, wine and hand cream.