Secret Santa Gift Guide
Are you the one organising this year's Secret Santa for your extended family or the office? Here we tell you everything you need to know - from how it works, getting started, the top ten Secret Santa gifts and even an easy-to-use generator; we’ve got you covered!
Help! What should I buy as my Secret Santa Gift?
Before all else, let’s get the inspiration going with our top ten ideas for Secret Santa gifts (circa £10).
Pens with Attitude
These Pens with Attitude sets are perfect for the co-worker in your life who has a sarcastic sense of humour and loves a passive aggressive stationery set! They are bound to be a talking point in the office too … that’s if they are brave enough to use them in the office of course!
Photo Socks
These full face photo socks are perfect for the slightly self obsessed family member or colleague who is always checking themselves out in the mirror … or if you happened to draw your other half in the family Secret Santa what better gift to get them than socks with your face all over them!
Personalised Wine Label
If you are really stuck as to what to get then try a personalised wine label. Depending on budget you could already attach this to a bottle of wine. It makes an otherwise generic (dare we say cop-out) Secret Santa gift that little bit more thoughtful and meaningful.
Novelty desk gadget
Examples include a mini desk hoover or a fidget toy - check out some options at Menkind for presents that are both unique and most importantly will put a big smile on your recipient’s face!
Funny slogan mug
Call it cliche, or call it classic, but a personalised slogan mug allows you to get a gift that feels thought about and also allows for a good level of banter! For example we know of a certain CEO that will only drink Yorkshire Tea, so could her a mug that says ‘only tea from Yorkshire in here please’. Check out the almost endless options at Pretty Perfect Gifts.
Pick 'n' mix sweet hamper or retro sweet box
I’d hazard a guess that probably 98% of the nation appreciates something on the sweet side of life….I mean, I’m actually in the 2% and would much rather cheese, wine and savoury snacks BUT these mystery boxes from sosweetshop.co.uk are an absolute win!
Small home/lifestyle item
I’m thinking a candle, trinket dish, a mini notebook, that sort of thing. You can get some lovely things that don’t feel like you’ve raided the first aisle of Home Bargains at Oliver Bonas. You’re welcome!
Novelty gift or stocking filler
Fancy a browse? The Range does a huge selection (I guess that’s why they chose the brand name they did!) of gifts ideas at various different prices. I reckon 2 minutes on their website pages designed especially for this very purpose and you’re sorted!
Geeky/pop-culture item
I think this is one of my fave ideas - if you know the person well enough to know what they are in to, then you can pair this knowledge up with this fine list of mini collectables and TV/film themed goodies for a Secret Santa gift of champions!
Fun novelty item or small game
Not as twee as it sounds you know! Check out Maia gifts’ curated list of wonderment where you’re bound to find the perfect present on a budget.
What is Secret Santa?
In case you didn’t already know, Secret Santa is a tradition often used across families and especially across workplaces where someone buys a present for one other person, generated at random.
The identity of the gift giver is to remain a secret and is not revealed, reducing pressure on the gift buyer and also the gift receiver. We’ve all been there haven’t we? Where we know that the person who bought you the gift is scrutinising your every reaction to see if you like what they got you? The social pressure is real!
Secret Santa means it is a lot less hassle and usually a lot cheaper than buying for every single person in the social circle or in the office and totally removes the gift-giving guilt trip for these occasions.
Why do a Secret Santa?
It removes so many of the questions around what to get, how much to spend, who to buy for and probably most importantly the unspoken politics around gift-giving.
You spend £10 on your boss, a colleague else spends £25. Does that make you look bad? Does that mean next Christmas it escalates? You spend £25, they spend £50. Where does it end?!
The beauty of Secret Santa gifts are they are an agreed, fixed price across everyone taking part, regardless of their position, their relationship to you and the quality of your working partnership.
No passive aggressive ‘buying for everyone but you because you challenged that person 185 days, 4 hours and 13 minutes ago (not that they’re counting)’.
How do I organise a Secret Santa?
Decide who wants to be a part of it
To make Secret Santa a success, there must be willing participants - the more the merrier. Summon your team at work, friendship circles or extended family as a group who can join in. Make sure everyone is willing to keep it a secret, stick to a budget and an exchange date … which leads us nicely to the next steps.
Set a budget
The usual idea of Secret Santa is to make Christmas time a little bit more affordable so that you only have to buy one person in the group a gift rather than buying for your entire office. And of course it is something fun!
So set a budget that is affordable for everyone and encourages them to be a little bit creative - common budgets are £5 or £10 per person. You can buy very funny Secret Santa gifts for these little amounts - it is amazing how far your money can go when you put your mind to it!
That said, you may want to set one a little higher because you are only giving your one Secret Santa Gift - particularly when it’s across a family. This allows everyone to get one ‘big’ gift to enjoy.
One thing is for sure - you have to really stress that the budget is not a guideline but a specific limit. Why? We have spoken with many of our customers across the years and to coin some of their phrases:
’you agree a gift budget of £10/person, then watch other parents quietly pay in £20-25 — leaving you feeling like "the poor relation" for sticking to the agreed number’
Another described the classic Secret Santa spiral: ‘agree £50 as a family, one person's gift ends up worth £70, another gets a bag of tea bags’.
Really over-stress the importance of people sticking to the agreed amount.
Confirm a gift exchange date
Probably the most important and least complied with element of Secret Santa gifts; getting the gift in time for exchange.
What is it about deadlines? At Collctiv, we exist almost entirely because people don’t do what they say they are going to do when they say they are going to do it by. People therefore use Collctiv to collect money in advance of a gift or event so they are spending actually received funds, not their own and then spending the rest of their days chasing for it back!
Set a date that the gift MUST be delivered by. Secret Santa does not mean it’s so Secret that it doesn’t exist! A quick tip from Collctiv as expert organisers - build in a contingency. Tell people the gifts must be delivered by one date, but actually the gift exchange is happening on a later date, so you have some breathing space to lay it on heavy with non-conformists.
Don’t forget you will need an out of sight location for everyone to drop their presents at so that the Secret Santa stays secret!
Perhaps if your friendship circle now lives across the country? You could agree on a date to put them in the post so that Secret Santa lands on doorsteps all at the same time? Take it one step further and gather on Zoom to open them together virtually!
Put a name tag on the gift
REALLY IMPORTANT! It’s great to not know who the gift is from, but it is much less great to not know who the gift is for!!
Ensure everyone taking part makes it clear who the gift is for before they drop the wrapped present in.
If there are any exceptions, take a picture of the unnamed article and post it on your work comms channel or email group to get the person who left it to go back and put a name on it.
The last thing you want is a recipient sitting there having to wait to see what’s left to figure which gifts might be theirs!
Allocate the names
You will need a way to make sure that each Secret Santa is allocated a name to buy for. The old fashioned way, as long as you can all get together, is to throw everyone’s name into a hat and then each person picks out a name and that is who they are to buy for. If they pull out their own name, they just put it back and pick another - Simple!
If that seems like too much work, just use the generator we have created for you here;
[INSERT GENERATOR AGAIN HERE]
This ensures you don’t get yourself and even more beneficial is the functionality to ensure that two people who might not be best to get each other, don’t!
For example they might be separated parents in an extended family WhatsApp group. They want to be involved, but one getting the other could have disastrous consequences (not to mention fairly offensive gifts!!!)
Buy the gift
The only bit that actually needs some thought from you!
It can be difficult when there is a small budget to stick to so most people tend to try and get funny Secret Santa gifts, unless the person loves chocolate for example, you can buy a lot of chocolate with £10 (so I’m told…)
The Secret Santa Generator
Ready to sleigh the office Secret Santa this year? (see what we did there…)
Simply enter the names of your group in the generator below. Choose if certain people shouldn't be paired together. Then send to all your group!
We’re here to help for more than just your Secret Santa gift!
If you are reading this you must be the person organising the Secret Santa and therefore very probably the ‘organiser’ in your social group at home or at work?
The 10% of the nation who researches, sorts out and books everything for the other 90% ?(actual stat based on our 7 years of experience in group payments!)
We know firsthand how difficult it can be to get people to pay you what they owe and help by making collecting money quicker and easier for them (using ApplePay and GooglePay), and administrating it all so much easier for you. See who has paid what and when whilst ensuring the funds stay separate to your own - download the Collctiv app for free here and start collecting money now!
Sorting the Christmas do as well? Check out our Christmas Do guide now for all the answers to your Christmas organiser challenges, then sit back and enjoy the mince pies and sherry!
