Secret Santa - What to Buy

Day 6

What to get your secret santa

Participating in a secret santa gift exchange can always be a little stressful.  What if you get that person in the office that you know absolutely nothing about?  What if you get that person who already has everything?  Or the person that is never satisfied (well, for this person it's simple.. get them some Christmas cheer!).

Anyways, here are some ideas for things to get that special secret santa in your life.

At the school I was at in the past you did smaller gifts leading up to one bigger gift on the last day when everyone guessed who had them.  Here are some ideas for smaller gifts.

1)  Chocolate.  Candy.  Easy.  Done.

2)  A Gift Card for a coffee.  A coffee doesn't have to cost a lot (in fact, if you time it right you may be lucky and McDonalds may be giving them away for free!).  You could even bring the coffee to them and leave it on their desk for when they get to work (of course this could be tea as well... whatever they like really!).

3)  Speaking of tea... why not get them a little tea sampler.  If you are like me (which you may not be) you have a bunch of tea in your cupboard and you don't even like it.  I would give them a bunch of tea bags one day (if they like tea... if my secret santa did this to me I would think it was some cruel joke).

4)  Bring them some kind of small treat (that isn't chocolate or candy) such as a doughnut.  I would be really happy to get a doughnut!

5)  Go to the dollarstore and see if there is anything there they need.  Is their desk always littered with pens? Maybe they need a pen holder?  Are they always asking to borrow your tape?  Buy them some tape.  Maybe they need a memo pad.  Or a to do list pad that sticks to their fridge.

For some "bigger" gifts I would simply suggest finding out what they are into.

For example....

My boyfriend is really into the Washington Capitals (I bought him tickets to the hockey game and we are going today!... but you likely aren't allowed to spending hundreds of dollars on this person... hopefully).  But in the process of trying to decide what to get him I found so many other smaller Washington Capitals stuff that I know he would be into or need (and okay... I probably bought him some of them but I can't go into details because what if he reads this!?!) 

Does the person need a day off?  Get them a reasonably prices massage or manicure or pedicure.  Does the person eat out a lot?  Get them a gift card for their favourite restaurant.  Does the person always come with their nails done?  Buy them some new (decent quality) nail polish.  Does the person love all things zombies... go with that theme.  Does the person love puzzles?  Get them a puzzle... those little mind puzzles are usually pretty cheap too!  A bottle of wine.  A new game.

You get the idea... don't over think it (but make sure you keep the person in mind that you are buying for).

and most importantly, have fun!

What other ideas do you have for secret santa shoppers?  Leave a comment below!