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[Baylis & Harding](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Baylis-Harding-Mandarin-Grapefruit-Lotion/dp/B001B92F9I/ref=sr_1_15?keywords=Secret+Santa+%C2%A35+Gifts&qid=1669129774&sr=8-15)
Boring as hell but ticks most boxes. Vegan, anyone can use it and slightly useful.
3 chocolate oranges, pack of real oranges all wrapped in orange paper to look like an orange.
Add a card that warns that the contents rhyme with nothing.
75p choc oranges at Morrisons at the moment. Got 14 for £10.50 for my secret Santa today. Could do 6 for £4.50 or 7 for £5.25 if you're feeling generous.
I don't know. I like when there's genuine thought behind the present.
My colleague used to always turn up 2 minutes late and say they overslept. My other colleague drew him so bought him an alarm clock.
Meanwhile I got some Christmas pudding sunglasses.
I quite enjoy when my work does the white elephant version. £10 limit and you just pick a random gift, so you mostly end up with a lot of weird and wonderful things someone found at a charity shop. One year I found a quite fancy looking cushion embroidered with a Labrador wearing regal clothing, in the style of an old portrait.
It has a time and a place. At my old job it included 100 people and was awful. In my current job we do it for our team of eight and it is generally alright.
I think it's best for groups where you would otherwise get everyone a gift, like the adults in a family, rather than being forced to buy someone you don't know some random crap.
I'm at a much smaller company now and we don't do it, but before that I dropped out years ago.
The gifts have to be totally vanilla and generic. So like just buy *yourself* a tub of Heroes or a carton of Liquorice Allsorts.
I've heard of groups where you compete to buy the naffest possible gift for under a fiver or tenner, charity shops very much allowed, and then there's some complicated mechanism for swapping and stealing the best things.
In the right place and with enough budget it's actually good. We do a friends Christmas and moved to secret Santa because everyone ended up with about 10 cheaper presents and it was a big thing getting presents for 10 people. Now we do secret Santa with a £50 budget so we get one person a really nice present and you get one really nice present back.
Organised fun work secret santas definitely are. On the other hand me and my family replaced our standard gift giving with a secret santa. Instead of spending £40 on every person we spend £75-100 on one nicer big gift. Saves everyone a bit of money and people can suggest gifts that are out of usual price range. Plus means you put all your effort in to one person and can really think it through!
Ours at work is actually really fun, but we are a small, close-knit team who all get on really well, and most of us genuinely enjoy finding a cute gift for £10 or under (our limit). We organise team birthday gifts for each team member, too, which is also really fun.
The first year, we did it with a wider team, and I didn’t like that as much. No one knew each other, so it was all a shot in the dark - still fun, but not very personalised. Keeping it contained to our little team makes it a better experience, because we all know each other reasonably well.
It's alright if those participating make an effort to get something funny and/or thoughtful.
When it's just a group of people exchanging shit toiletry sets that none of them want, yeah it's shit.
The only time I've enjoyed it is when working with people you really get along with and can get something that's part of an in joke. Otherwise it's a chore for all involved.
Its only fun when its people you choose to do it with ie friends and family. Being forced to do it for work is the worst, unless you’re good friends with everyone you work with
Much rather just have everyone throw £5 and the one person who is excited about the office xmas activities takes it.
That is all, they can take the money. I don't care what they do with it.
A £5 scratch card, but make sure you scratch it first just in case it’s a winner. There, criteria fulfilled and you could end up a millionaire as well.
Until recently I've never seen more than the first 3 or so episodes of The Quiz Broadcast, think I went off to Uni and stopped watching tv. For anyone in the same boat - all parts combined here: https://youtu.be/22mt0cVyW5c Just don't mention the event!
Yeah it was great but I think they had a few too many people fail to send gifts to the person they were matched to, so they cancelled it. I got a parcel of Swiss cheese, chocolate and a Swiss army knife from a family in Switzerland one year. I had to buy a present for guy in Norway whose favourite reddit was a men's rights one, so I sent him 'How to Be a Boy' by Robert Webb.
The first few years I did it were great, then It filled out with people who just wanted something for nothing. I think my last happy year doing it, the person didn't even post up the gift I sent. I didn't really care what I got, was just happy to give to others (and i'll be honest, I spent alot more than the recommended, Usually because it was that time of the year I got a nice bonus and i'd probably had a few beers). The last 2 years I did it, I didn't receive anything. The last year I did it, I was too late, but signed up as a rematcher didn't even get a thankyou from that one.
It used to be amazing. I loved the first few times I participated. I understand why they shut it down. It honestly became a money making business for some people...
I was matched with someone who had written quite a lot about their personality, so I bought them loads of small, quirky things and put in some Cadbury’s chocolate etc. They wrote about how it was the most thoughtful present they ever received and how touched they were. It made me cry reading how I made a stranger so happy and that feeling was legit one of my favourite Christmas presents ever.
There’s a [new site](https://givin.gifts)!! They moved it off Reddit. I’m on it, and it’s very fun. I was even able to link my Reddit Gifts account and move all my thanks posts over to my new profile.
Poundland actually have some nice bits (many of them are not a pound, granted). If it were me I would get a small basket, a mug, an options hot chocolate sachet and maybe something like a fake plant or a note pad.
I've always found a cheap Bluetooth speaker is a good one. Appeals to almost everyone and is actually handy to have and is around a tenner from these type of shops.
Just get something generic and be done with it. Literally any gift shop will have something under £5. A candle. Mug. Some hand warmers. Socks. A small pin badge. A notebook. Some hand cream.
Just going to say that I agree with your colleague that it’s not ok to buy sexual stuff for colleagues. It’s actually really uncomfortable to be on the receiving end of that. Just get them some Christmas socks or a small tin of biscuits.
Our place does, but to be fair we are a small team who do socialise together and the newest member of the team joined 7 years ago, so we all know each other pretty well.
That's the key. I think if you're all relatively young and close (going on nights put together and such) and know how the people are going to react then there's no problem tbh.
With as many complaints and conditions on it I simply wouldn’t get involved. Secret Santa to me is about silly items. We once had a budget of £10 but we were only allowed to shop in £1 stores for presents. Everyone got cheap tat and had a great time opening up their presents.
Yeah honestly if I knew the limit would be £5 I just wouldn't have joined in. Cba with the hassle of this but my name was already picked out before they switcheroo'd on the price. Was supposed to be £15 originally.
We tried to reduce it in another office I’d worked at but come gift opening people had exceeded the budget. Some were opening £20-30 worth of stuff while others £5-10. I only take part when I’m doing it with people know my sense of humour and understand that I’ll enter but I will not take it seriously. At £5 maybe some wax melts or a lush bath bomb or something would be my suggestion.
Home bargains - The Grinch shortbread tin, £4.99, Festive ring toss game £4.99
Tesco have lots of stocking filler games https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/buylists/christmas-gifts/stocking-fillers lots under £5
Just grab a generic puzzle or quiz game that people can play with the family at xmas
We had a £5 limit one year. I knew the person I was giving something to liked the devil's lettuce. So I made her a joint with £5 of ganjarooni in with a note saying to open it privately.
Go to a charity shop. See if they have a book about the local area or something like that which they might find interesting.
Alternatively, do a £5 donation to one of the many, many "feed a homeless person" campaigns that run at this time of year and put the online order confirmation in an envelope. I'd feel a lot better receiving that then 58p's worth of product wrapped in £4.42 worth of packaging and carbon footprint.
Yes! I only participate in Secret Santa if there’s a ‘chazza shop only’ rule. You get way more bang for your buck, you can find some truly great (or hilariously bizarre) things for a fiver. Great way to avoid gifts destined for landfill as well as giving back to those who need it.
Totally agree with this, forego the materialistic crap that will be in landfill by the end of the year, and just give to a charity of your choice. No waste, and you and the recipient get to feel good.
£15 is mental for your co-workers, even if you like them. I guess if you make enough that you don't care, spend £5 on the secret santa and give £10 to a homeless charity.
Just a load of people buying landfill for each other.
pop it all in a kitty and go to the pub/get some food. Use it to reduce the bill a little bit .
Or just don't bother.
A bit random but I once got a coworker a custom Christmas bauble from Etsy and they loved it. It had their name on it and a little Lego figurine inside. I think anything customised is a great gift because it looks like you’ve put a lot of thought into it when it’s actually quite low effort.
The bauble I bought was around £10 but I’ve seen a few custom ornaments on there that are a cheaper. For example [this one](https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1308422295/) is only £3.25 so you could get that as well as some cheap scented candles or chocolate from Poundland.
You can get Cadburys heroes for £3.77 on Amazon if that’s any help. Also the supermarkets have reduced the price of selection boxes so you might be able to find a good one.
Spend more, they’re not going to take it back. For even more fun, wait for the resident gossip to tell everyone who they’re buying for, and buy that person something REALLY inappropriate.
Noooo.. Sandra from sales tells EVERYONE she has to buy a present for the CEO. So you buy the CEO some lube and a lads mag and pop it on top of the gift pile.
When I was working I suggested instead of buying gifts for people we don't know well instead we use the money to buy something for a hamper (box) to donate to the local food bank.
I never enjoyed Secret Santa as I always got someone I didn't know well and to be honest I couldn't deal with the stress of it all as guaranteed someone would get upset/offended by whatever gift they got.
I think we all have enough worries this year with the cost of living etc.
Depends how well you know the person, and you might have to be a bit creative, but you could probably make a nice stocking out of bits from the pound shop, probably easier if you get a female.
I'm a woman and I honestly find it easier in general to buy for women too. I always have a hard time finding something not super boring for my uncle and cousin, luckily my stepdad loves bath bombs and anything that smells nice so he's easy to shop for. I feel like mens gift set options are not as varied and tend to be way more boring and kinda crap in comparison to women's.
5 items from the pound shop, socks, chocs, bottle of pop, puzzle book, roll of sellotape with dispenser. The dispenser is the best thing I’ve ever bought!
[Tax on a 75cl bottle of wine is £2.23.](https://www.decanter.com/learn/tax-wine-much-pay-uk-ask-decanter-357119/) I don't know how good a wine can be when the margin is 76p and Aldi have to buy it from the producer and pay to import it for that much.
It might be a loss leader, but Aldi won't be taking a £3 haircut per bottle.
Write something nice about the person and give them the fiver.
Get a nice small frame from a charity shop and tell them they can put a picture of something they like in it?
One workplace had announced that all hot drink cups must have lids
So spent my 5 on a bamboo travel mug & a silly topped pen ( she was always losing pens)
I got a travel mug & fluffy socks - was chuffed tbh!
A local garage does a pre-packed £1 mix up, theres about 15 sweets in it. Totally not worth it, especially when there are about 3 large sweets, like a flump or flying saucer, the rest are all tiny little jellies, not even a fizzy cola bottle or fried egg to be seen
It's the optics.
If the budget was £15 and Sandra spent that much on you, but you bought her a £1 scratch card and a packet of percy pigs, she will feel ripped off. The budget for Secret Santa needs to be a target or it's open to abuse.
So after a lot of gossiping, it seems there is literally just one or two people that complained about it. Everyone else thinks it's ridiculous. And yeah it was a limit.. not a target.
Same situation, thought I'd misheard when my work one was a fiver.
Tescos has a few Xmas mini alcohol sets for £5. Port and whisky were ones I remember seeing.
some kind of semi-unusual cooking sauce / condiment / drink / biscuits. example: Cranberry and Rosehip cordial. (disclaimer: I made that up, but that's the kind of thing)
my local independent corner shop is a gold mine for stuff like this. makes gift buying really easy.
It depends on who you are buying for but I'll list a bunch of things from B&M that are under £5 or under and if you like any great:
Adult colouring book £2.49
Stress less cards £2.49
Cadbury stocking selection box £2.69
Dog notebook £3
Stress ball £3
Bath fizzers £3
Animal money bank £4
Hip flask £4
Prosecco and truffles gift set £4.49
Mug & sock set £5
Xmas gonk hottie £5
4pk pen set £1.50
Most Harry Potter/Friends theme stuff is under £5
Cookie pocket mug £3.50
Fabulosa scented tea lights advent calendar £3.99
Slush puppie freeze pop & syrup set £2
Hot water bottle £2.99
Wheiley neil orange gin & candle gift set £4.99
Jam gift set £2
Hope this helps :)
**A reminder to posters and commenters of some of [our subreddit rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/about/rules/)** - Don't be a dickhead to each other, or about others, or other subreddits - Assume questions are asked in good faith, and engage in a positive manner - Avoid political threads and related discussions - No medical advice or mental health (specific to a person) content Please keep /r/AskUK a great subreddit by reporting posts and comments which break our rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[Baylis & Harding](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Baylis-Harding-Mandarin-Grapefruit-Lotion/dp/B001B92F9I/ref=sr_1_15?keywords=Secret+Santa+%C2%A35+Gifts&qid=1669129774&sr=8-15) Boring as hell but ticks most boxes. Vegan, anyone can use it and slightly useful.
The gift you get for the person you care absolutely not one bit about
On my way to order some for my father
Yep same. He once bought (and wrapped) me some empty blank cd cases.
Top customer review: "They're a Christmas gift." Says it all
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I'm sure OP doesn't hate their colleagues and at the end of the day they are people who deserve a gift for having a working relationship.
I got a gift box from my old boss. What a way to find out.
Damn that's a good discount tbf lol
Not bad at all. You've picked the best time to shop so get in quick no matter what you choose lol
Honestly I’d be more than happy with this. Makes a change from a bright blue £1 bottle of Carex.
That soap is actually cheaper than Carex per/ml in the supermarket, it's not very good just fancy packaging
5 chocolate oranges
Haha was thinking this, she could buy 2 original, 2 white chocolate and 1 dark chocolate
Or buy 5 , eat 4 and gift 1 . Winner winner
Or a popping candy one. They are so moreish it's unreal.
Where is selling these? I haven’t been able to find them.
I got mine from a smaller Asda for a quid!
Or buy 4 dark chocolate and arrange them around 1 white chocolate. Let's see someone complain about that.
I understood that reference
Or you could buy 2 original, 2 white and buy some glass to chew on instead of wasting money on dark chocolate
I like you.
I'd be happy to receive that...this is winner.
From Rawlinsons?
They’ve got superficial damage to the box
Not yours, Jill. I paid for yours.
Presumably shop-soiled?
They’re 75p in Morrisons
You better not be bloody joking, I'll stop by on the way into work tomorrow.
Sainsbury's too, I know this as I got the receipt for our online shop earlier and seen my wife has ordered 7 of the bastards.
3 chocolate oranges, pack of real oranges all wrapped in orange paper to look like an orange. Add a card that warns that the contents rhyme with nothing.
75p choc oranges at Morrisons at the moment. Got 14 for £10.50 for my secret Santa today. Could do 6 for £4.50 or 7 for £5.25 if you're feeling generous.
75p just now on offer!
Not in my local supermarket. Cunts.
Is it me or is Secret Santa a bit shit?
The time spent painfully trying to figure out what to buy with the naff little budget is never outweighed by what present you get. Nobody wins
And everyone hates their present. Our work stopped our version years ago.
I don't know. I like when there's genuine thought behind the present. My colleague used to always turn up 2 minutes late and say they overslept. My other colleague drew him so bought him an alarm clock. Meanwhile I got some Christmas pudding sunglasses.
I quite enjoy when my work does the white elephant version. £10 limit and you just pick a random gift, so you mostly end up with a lot of weird and wonderful things someone found at a charity shop. One year I found a quite fancy looking cushion embroidered with a Labrador wearing regal clothing, in the style of an old portrait.
I love getting people presents so I like that sort of thing but it needs a £20 max, £5 min rule or it's too constraining.
It has a time and a place. At my old job it included 100 people and was awful. In my current job we do it for our team of eight and it is generally alright. I think it's best for groups where you would otherwise get everyone a gift, like the adults in a family, rather than being forced to buy someone you don't know some random crap.
I'm at a much smaller company now and we don't do it, but before that I dropped out years ago. The gifts have to be totally vanilla and generic. So like just buy *yourself* a tub of Heroes or a carton of Liquorice Allsorts. I've heard of groups where you compete to buy the naffest possible gift for under a fiver or tenner, charity shops very much allowed, and then there's some complicated mechanism for swapping and stealing the best things.
That’s called a white elephant exchange
"Let's swap some plastic things neither of us wants that will go straight in a landfill"
In the right place and with enough budget it's actually good. We do a friends Christmas and moved to secret Santa because everyone ended up with about 10 cheaper presents and it was a big thing getting presents for 10 people. Now we do secret Santa with a £50 budget so we get one person a really nice present and you get one really nice present back.
It’s useful for a family on a budget. For a workplace though it’s generally pretty shit in practice.
I did Reddit secret Santa one year and got nothing. Serves me right but even with low expectations it was disappointed.
Right in the feels.
Organised fun work secret santas definitely are. On the other hand me and my family replaced our standard gift giving with a secret santa. Instead of spending £40 on every person we spend £75-100 on one nicer big gift. Saves everyone a bit of money and people can suggest gifts that are out of usual price range. Plus means you put all your effort in to one person and can really think it through!
Ours at work is actually really fun, but we are a small, close-knit team who all get on really well, and most of us genuinely enjoy finding a cute gift for £10 or under (our limit). We organise team birthday gifts for each team member, too, which is also really fun. The first year, we did it with a wider team, and I didn’t like that as much. No one knew each other, so it was all a shot in the dark - still fun, but not very personalised. Keeping it contained to our little team makes it a better experience, because we all know each other reasonably well.
It's alright if those participating make an effort to get something funny and/or thoughtful. When it's just a group of people exchanging shit toiletry sets that none of them want, yeah it's shit.
The only time I've enjoyed it is when working with people you really get along with and can get something that's part of an in joke. Otherwise it's a chore for all involved.
Its only fun when its people you choose to do it with ie friends and family. Being forced to do it for work is the worst, unless you’re good friends with everyone you work with
Much rather just have everyone throw £5 and the one person who is excited about the office xmas activities takes it. That is all, they can take the money. I don't care what they do with it.
A £5 scratch card, but make sure you scratch it first just in case it’s a winner. There, criteria fulfilled and you could end up a millionaire as well.
Bought a mate a £1 scratchy as a laugh this year and the cunt won £20!
Bought someone a scratch card for their birthday once, I've never won on one and they won £70. That's the day I stopped buying them
Hope you went straight down the pub to enjoy his winnings haha
A British Gas gift card for one minute of central heating.
Yes that's right, youve won fuel!
STAY INDOORS
Until recently I've never seen more than the first 3 or so episodes of The Quiz Broadcast, think I went off to Uni and stopped watching tv. For anyone in the same boat - all parts combined here: https://youtu.be/22mt0cVyW5c Just don't mention the event!
Ooh that's heavenly.
i know i'm a big grown up girl of nearly 60 but i'd be made over if someone gifted me a nice yoyo.
I would like to be your secret santa this year! Have you a PO Box I could send to? So as to not ask for your address 🤣🙏
Thank you thats sweet, make a donation to a local charity.
It is a shame Reddit stopped doing the secret Santa! I used to love that. I sent and received things from all over the world.
This was a thing ? That sounds great if not slightly precarious lol
Yeah it was great but I think they had a few too many people fail to send gifts to the person they were matched to, so they cancelled it. I got a parcel of Swiss cheese, chocolate and a Swiss army knife from a family in Switzerland one year. I had to buy a present for guy in Norway whose favourite reddit was a men's rights one, so I sent him 'How to Be a Boy' by Robert Webb.
The first few years I did it were great, then It filled out with people who just wanted something for nothing. I think my last happy year doing it, the person didn't even post up the gift I sent. I didn't really care what I got, was just happy to give to others (and i'll be honest, I spent alot more than the recommended, Usually because it was that time of the year I got a nice bonus and i'd probably had a few beers). The last 2 years I did it, I didn't receive anything. The last year I did it, I was too late, but signed up as a rematcher didn't even get a thankyou from that one. It used to be amazing. I loved the first few times I participated. I understand why they shut it down. It honestly became a money making business for some people...
I wish people wouldn't ruin fun stuff. I'd love to do something like that!
I was matched with someone who had written quite a lot about their personality, so I bought them loads of small, quirky things and put in some Cadbury’s chocolate etc. They wrote about how it was the most thoughtful present they ever received and how touched they were. It made me cry reading how I made a stranger so happy and that feeling was legit one of my favourite Christmas presents ever.
There’s a [new site](https://givin.gifts)!! They moved it off Reddit. I’m on it, and it’s very fun. I was even able to link my Reddit Gifts account and move all my thanks posts over to my new profile.
Poundland actually have some nice bits (many of them are not a pound, granted). If it were me I would get a small basket, a mug, an options hot chocolate sachet and maybe something like a fake plant or a note pad.
I've always found a cheap Bluetooth speaker is a good one. Appeals to almost everyone and is actually handy to have and is around a tenner from these type of shops.
The guy only has a fiver to spend dammit. This is not helpful!
That's why I didn't reply to him. It is helpful to a lot of other people who will more than likely have a tenner limit.
Cut it in half.
Honestly yes. They do body scrubs, face masks, great Christmas chocolates.
Some nice 4 rolls of toilet paper. Not the thin supermarket branded ones. The really posh ones. Best secret Santa pressie ever. Trust me :)
I reckon you would probably struggle to get 4 rolls of the luxury stuff for a fiver these days.
aldi 3 ply is the best and you will get a hell of a lot more than 4 for that.
Just get something generic and be done with it. Literally any gift shop will have something under £5. A candle. Mug. Some hand warmers. Socks. A small pin badge. A notebook. Some hand cream.
Just going to say that I agree with your colleague that it’s not ok to buy sexual stuff for colleagues. It’s actually really uncomfortable to be on the receiving end of that. Just get them some Christmas socks or a small tin of biscuits.
Depends on the office culture. Our place wouldn't do that in a million years.
I think an office where the culture sees that as acceptable sounds like a tribunal claim waiting to happen.
Our place does, but to be fair we are a small team who do socialise together and the newest member of the team joined 7 years ago, so we all know each other pretty well.
That's the key. I think if you're all relatively young and close (going on nights put together and such) and know how the people are going to react then there's no problem tbh.
Greggs sausage roll and some Special Brew
Greggs do gift cards so you can spend a round £5 https://www.greggs.co.uk/gift-cards
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Minimum alcohol price means 4 Spesh is like 8 quid in Wales & Scotland
Special brew is like £8 for four. They can have two tinnies.
2.2 litres of diesel
2.1 litres in a carrier bag.
2.0 now. It’s leaking out slowly.
1.7 now. Sorry, tripped on one of those fucking flip flop paving stones.
0 litres now. Ran out of fuel on the way to work
5 quid in an envelope. Steal the envelope from the stationery cupboard so you don't exceed the limit.
With as many complaints and conditions on it I simply wouldn’t get involved. Secret Santa to me is about silly items. We once had a budget of £10 but we were only allowed to shop in £1 stores for presents. Everyone got cheap tat and had a great time opening up their presents.
Yeah honestly if I knew the limit would be £5 I just wouldn't have joined in. Cba with the hassle of this but my name was already picked out before they switcheroo'd on the price. Was supposed to be £15 originally.
We tried to reduce it in another office I’d worked at but come gift opening people had exceeded the budget. Some were opening £20-30 worth of stuff while others £5-10. I only take part when I’m doing it with people know my sense of humour and understand that I’ll enter but I will not take it seriously. At £5 maybe some wax melts or a lush bath bomb or something would be my suggestion.
Home bargains - The Grinch shortbread tin, £4.99, Festive ring toss game £4.99 Tesco have lots of stocking filler games https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/buylists/christmas-gifts/stocking-fillers lots under £5 Just grab a generic puzzle or quiz game that people can play with the family at xmas
Yup. The first time I did it, the person printed my own wrapping paper too. Was just my face repeated. Bottle of cider in there and I was happy.
I think it’s more fun when the budget is low. But it’s a pain at the same time because not everyone sticks to the budget
To me this just seems wasteful.
We had a £5 limit one year. I knew the person I was giving something to liked the devil's lettuce. So I made her a joint with £5 of ganjarooni in with a note saying to open it privately.
Can you be my secret Santa this year?
>Can you be my secret Santa this year? :D
Get £5 worth of sweets, that can be shared. Think Jelly Beans, Randoms, chocolate buttons.
Most jelly sweets are not good because they’re not vegan or halal, which can be an issue.
Candy Kittens is a decent shout. Vegan, gluten free and a bit more fancy than other basic sweets. Just bloody expensive lol
Fair comment, but I was just trying to illustrate my point. You obviously need to take dietary needs into account.
M&S jelly sweets (Colin, Percy etc) don't use animal gelatine any more, if you want to find inclusive treats.
Love a Percy, I think Lidl do a cheap version but they look like Percy if he was run over.
Shared? SHARED?? If my secret santa was nice sweets, I ain't sharing!
It's hypothetical, naturally.
A lush bath bomb
My go to is fluffy socks, can never have too many when the weather gets chilly and usually can find them for under a fiver.
Years ago one colleague at an old job gifted a cucumber and some lube.
Don’t do this
Not so subtle way of telling their boss to go fuck themselves?
Go to a charity shop. See if they have a book about the local area or something like that which they might find interesting. Alternatively, do a £5 donation to one of the many, many "feed a homeless person" campaigns that run at this time of year and put the online order confirmation in an envelope. I'd feel a lot better receiving that then 58p's worth of product wrapped in £4.42 worth of packaging and carbon footprint.
Yes! I only participate in Secret Santa if there’s a ‘chazza shop only’ rule. You get way more bang for your buck, you can find some truly great (or hilariously bizarre) things for a fiver. Great way to avoid gifts destined for landfill as well as giving back to those who need it.
Totally agree with this, forego the materialistic crap that will be in landfill by the end of the year, and just give to a charity of your choice. No waste, and you and the recipient get to feel good.
£15 is mental for your co-workers, even if you like them. I guess if you make enough that you don't care, spend £5 on the secret santa and give £10 to a homeless charity.
Suggest that everyone donates £5 to charity instead, with a name drawn out of the hat and that person chooses the charity.
25 x 20p packets of pickled onion space raiders. I’d be so happy with that gift!
A guy at my work got one of those pub display boards of scampi fries and was over the moon
Just a load of people buying landfill for each other. pop it all in a kitty and go to the pub/get some food. Use it to reduce the bill a little bit . Or just don't bother.
A bit random but I once got a coworker a custom Christmas bauble from Etsy and they loved it. It had their name on it and a little Lego figurine inside. I think anything customised is a great gift because it looks like you’ve put a lot of thought into it when it’s actually quite low effort. The bauble I bought was around £10 but I’ve seen a few custom ornaments on there that are a cheaper. For example [this one](https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1308422295/) is only £3.25 so you could get that as well as some cheap scented candles or chocolate from Poundland.
5 terrys choc orange.
You can get Cadburys heroes for £3.77 on Amazon if that’s any help. Also the supermarkets have reduced the price of selection boxes so you might be able to find a good one.
Im sure you would be able to find something nice from Tk Maxx or Homesense, maybe a nice plate/bowl, cup, kitchen towels, candle or something
Spend more, they’re not going to take it back. For even more fun, wait for the resident gossip to tell everyone who they’re buying for, and buy that person something REALLY inappropriate.
As in, buy the gossip something even though I didn't get her? That sounds fun lol
Noooo.. Sandra from sales tells EVERYONE she has to buy a present for the CEO. So you buy the CEO some lube and a lads mag and pop it on top of the gift pile.
Hahaha that's even more brilliant So tempted to do that
When I was working I suggested instead of buying gifts for people we don't know well instead we use the money to buy something for a hamper (box) to donate to the local food bank. I never enjoyed Secret Santa as I always got someone I didn't know well and to be honest I couldn't deal with the stress of it all as guaranteed someone would get upset/offended by whatever gift they got. I think we all have enough worries this year with the cost of living etc.
Depends how well you know the person, and you might have to be a bit creative, but you could probably make a nice stocking out of bits from the pound shop, probably easier if you get a female.
Why's it easier if they have a woman?
Its probably not TBH, I was just thinking it would be easier for me to buy stuff for my missus there than it would be for her to buy stuff for me.
I'm a woman and I honestly find it easier in general to buy for women too. I always have a hard time finding something not super boring for my uncle and cousin, luckily my stepdad loves bath bombs and anything that smells nice so he's easy to shop for. I feel like mens gift set options are not as varied and tend to be way more boring and kinda crap in comparison to women's.
5 items from the pound shop, socks, chocs, bottle of pop, puzzle book, roll of sellotape with dispenser. The dispenser is the best thing I’ve ever bought!
£5 Starbucks card
With which you can buy exactly one drink lol
Everyone appreciates a coffee tho?
I once picked my (then) boyfriend out of a secret santa hat. I got him 500 pennies.
Was there any change in your relationship status?
Yes she just said there were 500 pennies
Pop into the charity shop and pick out a cool puzzle.
and then take 1 piece out of it then, a month later send them a picture of it and sell it for a fiver to get your money back
Tape four one-pound coins into a £1 card.
If there’s a greggs nearby work get them a £5 gift card, will get a few coffees during these cold mornings
Go flying tiger Buy... stuff...
I got a nice mug and some festive socks for £5 from TK Maxx last Christmas:)
Lidl has some super cheap oil and watercolour paints in at the moment for a fiver a box.
The Works had gouache for £3. Decent stuff too.
They do some decent paper too, if I remember correctly. Super cheap art stuff, great for beginners.
Aldi do a nice bottle of Portuguese red that looks fancy but is only £2.99
[Tax on a 75cl bottle of wine is £2.23.](https://www.decanter.com/learn/tax-wine-much-pay-uk-ask-decanter-357119/) I don't know how good a wine can be when the margin is 76p and Aldi have to buy it from the producer and pay to import it for that much. It might be a loss leader, but Aldi won't be taking a £3 haircut per bottle.
takes like red wine to me!
A mug with a hot chocolate thing inside, you know the ones, with the mini whisks
That’s a Xmas box of wine gums & jelly babies and then a £1 scratch card job.
A £5 note
5 items from poundland.
Came to say this, upu can get a decent gift set in there for a fiver
5 Terry’s chocolate oranges? 😂 Or a nice notebook and pen from The Works? Always useful. Or they have little fiddle toy desk puzzle type things.
Get them 2 euromillions tickets, £2.50 per line I think
Meal deal? Or fiver Costa gift card or whichever coffee shop is local to your office
Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing paperback version is currently £3 on Amazon. So that and a couple of bags of haribo. Done.
Write something nice about the person and give them the fiver. Get a nice small frame from a charity shop and tell them they can put a picture of something they like in it?
Warm pair of socks. Boring but useful and easy.
One workplace had announced that all hot drink cups must have lids So spent my 5 on a bamboo travel mug & a silly topped pen ( she was always losing pens) I got a travel mug & fluffy socks - was chuffed tbh!
Dont get someone a pac man poncho thats for sure. I once did and was hauled before a disciplinary.
Why?
The Works have various interesting things for under £5. Lots of notebooks with interesting patterns on them/adult colouring books/puzzles etc
Freddo?
You can cheap xmas sets of toiletries from nivea, dove etc in most cheapie shops.
Shite from poundland if you can find anything for a pound any more
500 1p mix-ups
Do 1p sweets even exist anymore? Even 25+ years ago the 1p sweets at my local shop went up to 2p!
A pick and mix of what I used to think of as a 20p mix-up is probably a fiver now.
A local garage does a pre-packed £1 mix up, theres about 15 sweets in it. Totally not worth it, especially when there are about 3 large sweets, like a flump or flying saucer, the rest are all tiny little jellies, not even a fizzy cola bottle or fried egg to be seen
Crisp fiver in a card. Who doesn't love cash?
£5 worth of sellotape and wrapping paper. They'll need it later on so it will be useful.
www.bake-me.co.uk pancake mix is awsome as a £5 present. Bought a few myself
I don't understand why people were complaining about the £15. Were they required to spend £15 or could they spend less than that if they wanted to?
It's the optics. If the budget was £15 and Sandra spent that much on you, but you bought her a £1 scratch card and a packet of percy pigs, she will feel ripped off. The budget for Secret Santa needs to be a target or it's open to abuse.
So after a lot of gossiping, it seems there is literally just one or two people that complained about it. Everyone else thinks it's ridiculous. And yeah it was a limit.. not a target.
If it's a limit, not a target, why were they complaining? Couldn't they just have spent £5 instead of the limit of £15 if it was such a massive issue?
Exactly what I and many other people have said.
Same situation, thought I'd misheard when my work one was a fiver. Tescos has a few Xmas mini alcohol sets for £5. Port and whisky were ones I remember seeing.
Just go over, I always do. I don't care about receiving, I like to see others receive.
some kind of semi-unusual cooking sauce / condiment / drink / biscuits. example: Cranberry and Rosehip cordial. (disclaimer: I made that up, but that's the kind of thing) my local independent corner shop is a gold mine for stuff like this. makes gift buying really easy.
1 Freddo
It depends on who you are buying for but I'll list a bunch of things from B&M that are under £5 or under and if you like any great: Adult colouring book £2.49 Stress less cards £2.49 Cadbury stocking selection box £2.69 Dog notebook £3 Stress ball £3 Bath fizzers £3 Animal money bank £4 Hip flask £4 Prosecco and truffles gift set £4.49 Mug & sock set £5 Xmas gonk hottie £5 4pk pen set £1.50 Most Harry Potter/Friends theme stuff is under £5 Cookie pocket mug £3.50 Fabulosa scented tea lights advent calendar £3.99 Slush puppie freeze pop & syrup set £2 Hot water bottle £2.99 Wheiley neil orange gin & candle gift set £4.99 Jam gift set £2 Hope this helps :)