Secret Santa

[BackAwayFatty]

Suggestion on alternatives to secret Santa?

Split opinions on SS. 2 out of 6 not happy with the suggestion.

What do others do in terms of gift giving to minimise cost but keep it feeling special/fun?

I hate secret Santa. I wish it would go away.

Family or work?

@GoodnightGrandma

I hate secret Santa. I wish it would go away.

yip .. its a woeful excuse to pass garbage off as a gift 🌸

I hate secret Santa too. From past experience it was usually some un funny thoughtless gift . I opted out as soon as I could.

It's family.

The suggestion was elfster where you could create a gift list. Budget to be agreed together.

Currently we don't buy for adults & do an activity with kids instead of gifts. Still buy for parents.

One sibling isn't happy about the no gifts for adults/kids but also doesn't want to do secret Santa. No alternatives offered.

If we bought for everyone (which is what sibling wants to do), it would be 10 adults & 12 kids to buy for

Sorry I thought you meant an Office Secret Santa 🤣

Instead of a secret Santa here we did a similar but different thing amongst a couple of us last year. In November we picked names out of a hat and each gifted/lent the recipient a copy of our favourite book/film. Then after they read/watched it, the recipient bought the GIVER of the item a gift related to the book/film. It worked quite well actually!

Or you could always just buy for sibling and then do secret Santa amongst those 4 that agree?

I agree office secret Santa's are awful! I've had quite a few over the years & only one where I was bought something I liked.

Good idea, doing the SS with the remainder. Just need to see if the others can get on board.

If it’s an add on rather than replacing proper gifts Bad Santa is epic.

I hate secret santa too, does anyone actually like it? (except the stingy people who only suggest it to 'save money' how festive)

Secret Santa usually just means everyone gets screwed, single people get only 1 gift which is usually crap and everyone gets to joylessly buy 1 gift which usually isnt for the person they really wanted to buy for.

It so ridged and stupid.

If I want to buy my mam a gift of these great wine glasses I know she'd love and my niece that doll she likes I spotted for a great price in the sale and my dad that gadget I overheard him talking about I will regardless of if one sibling thinks we should all just pick a name out of a hat and be done with it. Mainly because I garantee my luck is I would pick that one miserable sibling and they would be the ungrateful one thats impossible to buy for.

In the previous secret santas I have been in I bought really thoughtful gifts only to recieve a £10 voucher for a shop I dont use once (there was one across the road, it was clearly bought last minute on the way in) and nothing the other times.

It seems Im always forgotton which is irratating because the people I bought for I wouldnt have bought gifts for if not for having been guilted into the stupid secret santa to begin with.

I don’t mind work ones as they have a small budget and most people know each other well enough to buy something the person will like.

I dislike family ones as like to pick gifts for people that I put a lot of thought into when I see them and you can’t do that with secret Santa.

@mam0918 you could be my sibling! Haha

Would your opinion change if the idea of SS came from your mum (because dad is about to be made redundant & money will be tight)?

This was at work, but we once did list Secret Santa - you just list three gift ideas within the budget and they're drawn in the usual way. You can be as specific or vague as you like, and it balances out the surprise element with the risk-of-getting-utterly-useless-edible-thong element.

This year we have agreed with ILs to just do a family gift per family. Last year we just got for the kids but this year we'll have 4, sil1 has 2 and sil2 has 1 so it's fair to do a family gift. I'm thinking board game, hamper or experience.

I also loathe SS. Wouldn't like to do it with family as it feels too impersonal somehow, and have opted out of work ones for years (not in the office for foreseeable anyway, thankfully). The only time I ever got something decent it was twice the budget and came from a chap whose mum did all his shopping for him!

@awkwardintrovert10

This might not be something people like, but we usually keep a budget or money limit and go for gift cards. We'll pick a common store, food joint or whatever works best and just go for it. It always works for us. I usually pick up a few Christmas cards from Clintons and attach them to the gift card. No complaints and everybody can get themselves something they like. It's a win-win for me 🤷‍♀️

so whats the point ? you might as well go into the shop yourself and spend a tenner 😳

[quote BackAwayFatty]@mam0918 you could be my sibling! Haha

Would your opinion change if the idea of SS came from your mum (because dad is about to be made redundant & money will be tight)?
[/quote]
I would just tell Mum not to worry about it, they have given us more than enough in life (including life itself lol).