Secret Santa anxiety

[Maleficent_vf]

I need help!:blush: I'm part of the Secret Santa exchange at work and I drew the name of someone I barely know. I am not a shopper, so it is really difficult for me to come up with ideas. I'm trying to avoid the usual - socks, scarf, coffee mug - if I can. Does anyone have any suggestions? We do three gifts - which aren't supposed to exceed $5-7 each.

Any suggestions from the creative shoppers out there???

Thanks!

[Janmac]

Three gifts to the same person?

Is the person male or female? Does the person drive to work? Any other info?

We do a thing at Christmas among the family with smaller, general gifts. I recently bought a windshield scraper - from Amazon - for $5. Almost not worth the shipping except this scraper has the metal blade, instead of being all plastic. Perhaps there in NY such a scraper might not be as valued as here where we are just as apt to have a quarter inch of stubborn ice as six inches of dry snow. That quarter inch of ice just laughs at the all plastic scrapers. We almost keep the few metal ones we are able to find under lock and key. (Weird I know)

My sister loves to shop for the family small gifts in the grocery store. One year she had caviar. There is also cheese, or special coffee or hot chocolate. Small individual packages of these specialty items might be within your price range.

Another general idea are those things that keep all your electrical cords (like behind the tv or the computer) bundled together neatly. I can't think now what they're called. Some types use velcro.

Another gift that doesn't miss with us is light. You can often find small key chain sort of flashlights in your price range, or an LED nightlight or one of those tap lights that either has a sticky back or is magnetic.

Good luck!

Jan

[vicster]

How about movie tickets or a gift basket for watching movies at home? A gift card for movie rental, popcorn, candy...

My place of employment adopts a school and selects children to purchase gifts for - the children make up a list of what they would like for Christmas. Certainly makes for a much happier Christmas for children in need.

[SBETigg]

I know you're trying to avoid the usual, but umbrellas are always handy. You could go with a weather theme: A good push-button mini umbrella, sunglasses, scarf/hat/or gloves (or the ice scraper mentioned by previous poster). Throw in a pack of Skittles (taste the rainbow).

Or the more non-committal way to go, three gift cards to favorite office places, like Starbucks or Dunkin or Barnes & Noble.

[faline]

I was in Bed Bath and Beyond yesterday and saw a mug warmer for $5 - kind of cool.

[IwannabeinNarnia]

are there any holiday bazaars going on? you can usually find some pretty neat, unique, handmade stuff at those, and usually quite reasonably priced. a lot of nursing homes and churches have them this time of year...