I organised a secret santa at work this year as I usually do, and it was very popular in our section, we had 17 people in it. I was lucky enough to draw out the name of somebody I know very well and bought them a present I knew they'd love, and they did. We've always said spend about £10 on a present, normally this works very well. This year quite a few people blatantly spent far far less, one even accidentally left the receipt attached on a small packet of chocolates which was obviously bought hurriedly in our store for the princely sum of £4.31 after staff discount, somebody else received a bar of whisky flavoured fudge that probably cost even less than that, another bath bombs which I swear were from Poundland!
I was one of the lucky ones receiving a beautiful Emma Bridgewater scented candle. The candle was in a gorgeous decorated glass and came in a presentation box and it actually makes the whole room smell gorgeous when lit - something I've been looking for in a scented candle for years, so very happy! There was some other very happy "customers" receiving things they really loved, or at least something that the person had actually put a bit of thought into!
The worst though was this. A lovely lady in our section, she's middle aged and whilst she's no prude, was horrified to receive a calendar called "A sexual position for every day of the year" She said she was absolutely disgusted, by all accounts it depicted cartoons including people in threesomes, using "objects" and performing various sexual acts, and rather unpleasant descriptive prose. Not only was she utterly offended, she was completely baffled as to why somebody would want to send that to her!
Next year think I might have to put in a few ground rules. Rule no. 1 - Please try and spend around the £10 mark, if you get something half price and pay a fiver for it that's great as long as it's something that looks as though it's worth that amount.
Rule no.2 Make sure you remove the receipt
Rule no. 3 If you are really stuck for ideas and can't think past a box of chocolates or sweets, at least make sure they're decent ones
Rule no. 4 Don't buy anything that could be offensive!
I was one of the lucky ones receiving a beautiful Emma Bridgewater scented candle. The candle was in a gorgeous decorated glass and came in a presentation box and it actually makes the whole room smell gorgeous when lit - something I've been looking for in a scented candle for years, so very happy! There was some other very happy "customers" receiving things they really loved, or at least something that the person had actually put a bit of thought into!
The worst though was this. A lovely lady in our section, she's middle aged and whilst she's no prude, was horrified to receive a calendar called "A sexual position for every day of the year" She said she was absolutely disgusted, by all accounts it depicted cartoons including people in threesomes, using "objects" and performing various sexual acts, and rather unpleasant descriptive prose. Not only was she utterly offended, she was completely baffled as to why somebody would want to send that to her!
Next year think I might have to put in a few ground rules. Rule no. 1 - Please try and spend around the £10 mark, if you get something half price and pay a fiver for it that's great as long as it's something that looks as though it's worth that amount.
Rule no.2 Make sure you remove the receipt
Rule no. 3 If you are really stuck for ideas and can't think past a box of chocolates or sweets, at least make sure they're decent ones
Rule no. 4 Don't buy anything that could be offensive!
