Mean Santa ideas please?

[ImNotReallyHere]

Does anyone else do Mean Santa? It’s become a tradition in our house after reading about it on this board 10 years ago. But I feel like I’ve run out of ideas. This year there will be 8 of us. A mix of male/ female. 4 are aged 19-23, 3 are late 50’s, one 87. Any suggestions?

For those not familiar with the game I need some things around the £3 mark ideally. Some nice, some not so nice

Ideally I would like about 30 things, I can obviously throw some cheap/ free things that I find around the house. I’ve been known to put a potato or tin of out of date food in for the mean part, but would like a few funny ideas. Or a link to a website?

I don’t know what mean Santa is, I presume it’s a game?
And not someone’s actual present but just a joke one?

Anyway, a toilet roll, deodorant, character plasters, a box of grapes, a second hand book, handcream/handsoap… i struggle with things like this because although I happily spend a tonne at Christmas I don’t want anything I buy to be useless/tat/single use plastic type stuff. £3 is a figure where it would be easy to buy a load of wind up Santa sort of gimmicks that get used once and then dispatched to landfill 😭
so I hope you get some good ideas from this thread and I’m sorry to shit on your parade because it does sound like fun if it’s a game but my conscience just pricks at me the older I get!!

Brussels sprouts are roughly the size of Lindor chocolates. Do with that information what you like 😉

Thanks, some things to think about.

I don’t buy lots of stuff to go in landfill although possible some do.I hope not.

The game is, roll a 6 and take a wrapped present out of the sack.
When all taken, set a timer and you can steal a wrapped present from someone if you roll a 6.
Unwrap the presents and do a final timed round where if you roll a 6, you can steal again.

Nice presents will be chocolate, cocktails etc. Bad are the potato, tin of veg etc

it’s throwing a few funny ones in that I struggle with

Thanks, the brussel sprouts idea is perfect. Sorry I don’t know how to tag you.

Poundland have Santa washing up brushes and some funny things.

30 things at £3 a go? £90 plus wrapping it all up?

A sandwich or even better a sandwich with a bite out if it. A cold roast or baked potato. A pound shop pack of cuticle sticks, a bottle of washing up liquid.

Thanks. I’ll check out Poundland.
No, not £90. I’ve said the mean things are a potato etc. I probably spend £40 max. And as that’s for 8 people, works out about £5 a head.

A bottle of dishwasher cleaner.

Love these, thank you for understanding the game

I can't really help other than to 'bump' this thread and to say, my friend did this one year but they did £1 presents 😬. Everyone in their family had to buy £1 gifts from Poundland. The person who bought the 'best' £1 present 'won' a bottle of wine and the same for the 'worst' £1 present.

It doesn't appeal to me I have to say... it'd take me forever and then I imagine you end up with a lot of useless items.

What types of items were exchanged in previous years?

I love this idea! I'd do exclusively charity shop buys though so there are no complaints about environmental issues or money wastage! Plus you can get some insanely crap stuff for the 'mean santa' part.

A lottery ticket.
A can of coffee and a canned cocktail.
An out of date pot of yogurt.

Caneston Thrush
Germaloids Triple Action
Caneston Athletes Foot Dual Action Cream
Tongue scraper and a packet of mints

We do something similar and it’s a huge hit in our family. We’ve been doing it for years , ever since the dcs stopped believing.. The only difference is that we ask everyone to buy 1 gift for £4 (and I buy 2 gifts for £4 each.)

So we have 7 gifts for 6 players , and 1 person will leave the game with 2 gifts.

But all players will contribute so the search for a cheap but funny or useful gift doesn’t lie with 1 person - save yourself some work 😅

Bad gifts could be pretty much any rubbish you collect around your house over the coming weeks, pens that’s have run out, out of date tv guides and newspapers
a box inside a bigger box inside a bigger box and so on so it takes forever to unwrap and then there’s nothing in there. Or there’s 2p or something.
Some weird food gifts, I’m sure years ago you could get lollies with bugs inside?

Thanks, what sort of things do you buy? I like this twist on the game

There’s normally something to eat like chocs/sweets, we’ve had a bag of funny shaped pasta , a shower gel type gift, tote bags, candle , socks, stationary items, silly games - those small gifts. We never purposefully give awful gifts, everyone always tries to find THE gift that is the most wanted during the game, and it’s surprising to see you can actually buy something that’s wanted if you put some thought into it.
It’s always funny to see how competitively we all get over the best gift , even though we could just go out and buy the same thing for £4 🤪

A tin of beans wrapped up really nicely? Or maybe wrap something nice in amongst like washing up sponges or toilet roll so on the surface it looks bad but there's actually something nice in the middle? Could make it a bit more interesting (as long as I'm understanding the game correctly)

A lump of coal
a cup of gravel
packet of paracetamol
box of tissues
tin of sardines
packet of sanitary towels
bottle of loo cleaner

Love this! Thanks for the idea!

I was thinking of trawling the charity shops to get some naff things and money goes to charity.

A family I knew used to get a large box, add bricks and a smaller, actual gift inside then wrap the whole thing up. Recipients assumed it was a heavy, large gift where in fact it might be just an orange.

There are lots of gag/funny sweets. Chili hot gummy bears, sweets that stain your tongue/teeth blue, sweets which are Russian roulette of which one is dud etc

There are also funny gift boxes. The outside looks like a legit item but the actual box is empty.

https://www.nomadandthebowerbird.co.uk/products/prank-gift-box-socks-lids?variant=44010443931880&country=GB&currency=GBP&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&srsltid=AYCX9vIpTAnnQ4ijSN_q6Ko-Ty6z02bGq9v_2WjLSRU2qaWKroNSCmSv1eo
https://www.faire.com/en-gb/product/p_1x0ru2denk
https://pranko.com/products/roto-wipe?srsltid=AYCX9vJFxyXraKZO87GmpKOWR8WCU6plDMHj4QbVUfs6yir_V4b1HnBg
https://pranko.com/products/cat-hat?pr_prod_strat=similar&pr_rec_id=ca1d477ce&pr_rec_pid=8126041096431&pr_ref_pid=4673314750600&pr_request_id=50305548-d562-454c-b91d-c5f294461c23-1794312041&pr_seq=uniform
https://pranko.com/products/tidy-tips?pr_prod_strat=similar&pr_rec_id=ca1d477ce&pr_rec_pid=5953072038056&pr_ref_pid=4673314750600&pr_request_id=50305548-d562-454c-b91d-c5f294461c23-1794312041&pr_seq=uniform