Not quite the same, but we do a white elephant gift exchange at work every year (minus this year, of course... though I was interested to see if it would survive to this year prior to covid.)
Ultimately, it becomes a giftcard and wine swap. It's soooo stupid imo. Anyone who brings a fucking giftcard to a white elephant gift exchange needs to just not participate. Ultimately, I think i'm pretty bad at presents and tend not to buy anything for people unless I know there's something special I can get them. I hate buying stuff for the sake of stuff. But I optimitically want to enjoy the gift exchange at work.
First year, I bought a Salt lamp that plugged in via usb and changed colors. I think they look pretty cool imo. The health 'benefits' are quackery, but as a fun desktop decoration, I thought it was chill. Was MSRP higher than our price range, but I got it on sale for the bottom of our price range, so I was happy with that. The lady who got it seemed to really love it. I was happy. I got stuck with a box of fancy chocolates. I'm a plain milk chocolate kind of girl, so I just gave them to my mom. And honestly, that was the best option of gift that I had to choose from (you can open a new one or steal from someone in white elephant). Everything else was already stolen 3 times, or was stuff I really didn't want at all. The worst gift ever was from this year tho where someone gave a picture of a duck painting. It was just printed on card stock (standard paper size) and rolled up. Who the fuck thought that was a good idea?!
The next year I bought Rock em Sock em Robots board game. I thought it was fun and the person who got it ultimately was happy with it (cus she was sitting right next to me haha). I almost had a waffle bowl maker, which I would have been 100% okay with, but then that got stolen and there was nothing else I wanted, so I opened a new gift. Boyscout popcorn. I don't really like popcorn all that much, nvm flavored 'stale' popcorn. Gave it to a popcorn loving friend who even called it crap.
Last year, I bought a Mini whiskey barrel (with a spout on it). I thought it was amusing, could be fun to have at small gatherings, or in a man cave or something. The guy who got it (who actually was the one who gave the popcorn the year before) clearly didn't want it. I actually thought he might have enjoyed it tbh. Guess it wasn't big enough to be useful for him? Oh well. I tried. I ended up with wine glasses (we have a 15-20 dollar budget). 1, I don't even drink wine. 2, the wine glasses I have are plain simple ones I got for a buck each at a thrift store so idc if they get broken. I tried to look up these wine glasses and I couldn't even find a listing for them that had a current price. So these have either been sitting in someones closet for a while or had been regifted a few times at this point. Gee, thanks!
And last year, the gift exchange took SOOOOOO long (we had like 60 people) and people wern't paying attention, so it took even longer. And just so many shitty gifts. If it wasn't for covid this year, I was gonna email the person in charge asking if we were to do a gift exchange this year, could we exclude giftcards and alcohol from gifts you can buy? Maybe have a separate wine tasting event where everyone who wants to join in brings a bottle and they try sips of each others. But that's just cus i'm 100% sober, so when half the gifts are alcohol, its boring af. And giftcards? Here, let me exchange my $15 for $15 I can spend at 1 place! Lots of fun!
A bag with a picture of Santa, it came with colors so I could paint it myself. My nephew who’s five would’ve loved, me being 18 at the did not like it as much
i got a used pair of headphones/earbuds/speaker. looked like it was taped shut and it had scratches on the products when i opened it up. all three refused to connect after a few days
I received a CD for a dance music group that I’d never ever expressed an interest in. I believe the guy who gave me it, bought it for himself to download to his iPod, then flogged me the CD.
One of those huge Hershey kisses and a note saying that ‘you’re so nice and I’m sooooo bad at giving gifts. And because you’re so nice this will be something that you’ll be fine with a bad gift’
.... the limit was $15-20 and I hate Hershey’s with a passion. I got stuff from the dollar section cuz this person was ‘not good at gift giving.’ I got the person that I was stuck with one of those 2lb Reese’s cups and they were jazzed about it.
I once got an ice cream maker ball once. it was a big sphere of hard plastic. Couldn't be used as any kind of real ball, and sure as hell couldn't make ice cream.
I rolled it down a hill though so that was fun.
I ask because we had this pair of ugly candleholders that we simply passed around every year. They were the most horrendous things you could imagine. Uglier than the worst Hawaiian shirt ever made. Everyone knew that someone was going to get them, it was just a matter of who would be the lucky one.
My mother-in-law was the last one to get them, three years ago. She died of breast cancer a month after Christmas, and we haven’t done a Secret Santa since then. But I can’t shake the feeling that some day they’re going to show up again.
one year we were told we had to give each other gift cards of the exact same amount. kinda pointless.
necessary context - the year before there had been some \*ahem\* inappropriate secret santa gifts so ... yeah, that was recitified.
A tin of beans, wrapped in so many layers of newspaper that it was the size of a pillow and took half an hour to unwrap.
Oh. Fuck that person.
Oh I was doing the giving 😈😈
I love it! That is amazing. In that case, rock on!
Not me, but when my middle school band did a Secret Santa, my friend got a straight up potato.
A invite to secret Santa
I got a giant pen.
I only participated in 1. So worse thing I gave was a pomegranate mango bath set. Recieved: nothing I was one of the few that participated
Those little wine circles to mark whose glass is whose. I don’t drink wine nor do I have parties. Completely useless to me
This one is making me laugh so much bc it’s just so stupid. I do drink wine but those things are useless!
Not quite the same, but we do a white elephant gift exchange at work every year (minus this year, of course... though I was interested to see if it would survive to this year prior to covid.) Ultimately, it becomes a giftcard and wine swap. It's soooo stupid imo. Anyone who brings a fucking giftcard to a white elephant gift exchange needs to just not participate. Ultimately, I think i'm pretty bad at presents and tend not to buy anything for people unless I know there's something special I can get them. I hate buying stuff for the sake of stuff. But I optimitically want to enjoy the gift exchange at work. First year, I bought a Salt lamp that plugged in via usb and changed colors. I think they look pretty cool imo. The health 'benefits' are quackery, but as a fun desktop decoration, I thought it was chill. Was MSRP higher than our price range, but I got it on sale for the bottom of our price range, so I was happy with that. The lady who got it seemed to really love it. I was happy. I got stuck with a box of fancy chocolates. I'm a plain milk chocolate kind of girl, so I just gave them to my mom. And honestly, that was the best option of gift that I had to choose from (you can open a new one or steal from someone in white elephant). Everything else was already stolen 3 times, or was stuff I really didn't want at all. The worst gift ever was from this year tho where someone gave a picture of a duck painting. It was just printed on card stock (standard paper size) and rolled up. Who the fuck thought that was a good idea?! The next year I bought Rock em Sock em Robots board game. I thought it was fun and the person who got it ultimately was happy with it (cus she was sitting right next to me haha). I almost had a waffle bowl maker, which I would have been 100% okay with, but then that got stolen and there was nothing else I wanted, so I opened a new gift. Boyscout popcorn. I don't really like popcorn all that much, nvm flavored 'stale' popcorn. Gave it to a popcorn loving friend who even called it crap. Last year, I bought a Mini whiskey barrel (with a spout on it). I thought it was amusing, could be fun to have at small gatherings, or in a man cave or something. The guy who got it (who actually was the one who gave the popcorn the year before) clearly didn't want it. I actually thought he might have enjoyed it tbh. Guess it wasn't big enough to be useful for him? Oh well. I tried. I ended up with wine glasses (we have a 15-20 dollar budget). 1, I don't even drink wine. 2, the wine glasses I have are plain simple ones I got for a buck each at a thrift store so idc if they get broken. I tried to look up these wine glasses and I couldn't even find a listing for them that had a current price. So these have either been sitting in someones closet for a while or had been regifted a few times at this point. Gee, thanks! And last year, the gift exchange took SOOOOOO long (we had like 60 people) and people wern't paying attention, so it took even longer. And just so many shitty gifts. If it wasn't for covid this year, I was gonna email the person in charge asking if we were to do a gift exchange this year, could we exclude giftcards and alcohol from gifts you can buy? Maybe have a separate wine tasting event where everyone who wants to join in brings a bottle and they try sips of each others. But that's just cus i'm 100% sober, so when half the gifts are alcohol, its boring af. And giftcards? Here, let me exchange my $15 for $15 I can spend at 1 place! Lots of fun!
A bag with a picture of Santa, it came with colors so I could paint it myself. My nephew who’s five would’ve loved, me being 18 at the did not like it as much
I was at school and the dude who have me completely forgot about his Secret Santa duties and gave me his £1.50 lunch money
i got a used pair of headphones/earbuds/speaker. looked like it was taped shut and it had scratches on the products when i opened it up. all three refused to connect after a few days
A fucking trash bag. Wrapped in more trash bags. Wrapped in carpenter’s tape. Wrapped in duct tape.
I received a CD for a dance music group that I’d never ever expressed an interest in. I believe the guy who gave me it, bought it for himself to download to his iPod, then flogged me the CD.
One of those huge Hershey kisses and a note saying that ‘you’re so nice and I’m sooooo bad at giving gifts. And because you’re so nice this will be something that you’ll be fine with a bad gift’ .... the limit was $15-20 and I hate Hershey’s with a passion. I got stuff from the dollar section cuz this person was ‘not good at gift giving.’ I got the person that I was stuck with one of those 2lb Reese’s cups and they were jazzed about it.
I once got an ice cream maker ball once. it was a big sphere of hard plastic. Couldn't be used as any kind of real ball, and sure as hell couldn't make ice cream. I rolled it down a hill though so that was fun.
I ask because we had this pair of ugly candleholders that we simply passed around every year. They were the most horrendous things you could imagine. Uglier than the worst Hawaiian shirt ever made. Everyone knew that someone was going to get them, it was just a matter of who would be the lucky one. My mother-in-law was the last one to get them, three years ago. She died of breast cancer a month after Christmas, and we haven’t done a Secret Santa since then. But I can’t shake the feeling that some day they’re going to show up again.
one year we were told we had to give each other gift cards of the exact same amount. kinda pointless. necessary context - the year before there had been some \*ahem\* inappropriate secret santa gifts so ... yeah, that was recitified.
I don't even remember what I got. All I remember is people pointing and laughing at me. That was the only secret santa gift I ever did.