Office holiday gift exchanges are designed to be fun, but in the end, you often end up buying something someone else doesn’t like, need, or want and receiving something you don’t like, need, or want. We keep doing it in the name of “fun.”
Many offices have adopted a “Secret Santa” game where all participants (and participation should always be voluntary) are assigned a co-worker and instructed not to tell that person who he or she is. Everyone buys a gift and everything is revealed at the end, and it’s great fun. Except, at the end you have a gift you really don’t want. (Unless it’s food, in which case you probably want it, but your middle could probably do without it.)
I stumbled across a much better version of this game. It comes from a friend of a friend who tried to track down the originator of her husband’s office tradition, but couldn’t. They gave me permission to share this fabulous idea. Here’s how it works.
To keep reading, click here: The Best Office Secret Santa Idea Ever
(Yes, I ran this last year, but it was way too close to Christmas and I love this idea so much, I wanted to make sure people had a chance to see it again!)
Now that kind of Secret Santa exchange I would participate because the gift goes to a charity. A similar idea that I have seen involved working with a local charity who submits requests (from notes to Santa) posted up on either a bulletin board or hanging on a tree and those participating take a note and get the item requested. Usually the items are within a certain price range ( no extremely high price items)
I’ve seen a version where people buy their favorite childhood toy or something they would enjoy, and then turn it into a game of which toy goes with what person.
I like that one! Yankee swap white elephant is a good game too. Everyone carefully wraps something they have that they don’t want: the towels with the ex’s initials, ugly souvenirs, etc. Everyone opens them Yankee swap style – when it’s your turn you can open a new gift or take one from someone else, and if you steal theirs then they get to decide whether to open again or steal. In the end you have something else you might not want, but it was fun and nobody spent anything and there’s no guilt in tossing the object when you get home.
Its all funny until the Mean Girls (and Boys) play. The fat guy gets a Pop the Pig game. The lady with alopecia gets one of those dolls that you pull their hair and to make it longer. Maybe I’m too cynical to have fun with coworkers.