What is the most disappointing Secret Santa gift you can come up with for a £10 budget?

Have you received a gift that ranked as a 5/5 on the “couldn’t give 2-shifts about my co-worker” scale?

Or perhaps you’ve pulled the booby prize name from the hat this year and you need suggestions for someone who is really annoying?

Anyway, here at UdderLok Towers we’ve seen the crumpled faces of disappointment over the years and feel we’re experts on what not up buy… or what to buy if you’re holding a vendetta:

  1. Sugar free chocolates – usually inedible and a great way up tell your co-worker “maybe another session or two at the gym each week wouldn’t harm you either?”
  2. A candle – nothing better says “I spent under a minute choosing this gift” than buying a candle. Watch out though, there’s a fair possibility you’ll get it back in next year’s Secret Santa.
  3. A “Things to-do” notebook – is this a subtle hint for your co-worker? If not then avoid writing the words “Your job once in a while” on the inside front page.
  4. A Nutella cook book – the sort of person you would think to buy this for will already have 3 other copies of it… along with a cupboard full of the Nutella. In fairness, it is lovely stuff.
  5. A tote bag with “Live, Love, Life” on it – clear as day shows you weren’t worrying about busting the £10 limit. This bag, which was obviously under a fiver, would be useful to carry home a nice gift, except that you didn’t buy them one.
  6. An office mug – perhaps a “hilarious” one implying there’s gin in it rather than  Kenco or Mellow Birds. Why not see if this mug lasts as long as Christmas before the new owner comes out with a story about it breaking in the dishwasher. Because dishwashers do that.
  7. A £10 gift voucher. No, wait, a £5 gift voucher.
  8. A gift with your company’s logo on it – even if it costs you money to buy it, the message will come across loud and clear “I found this in my desk drawer, and thought of you”
  9. Sponsor a panda – the ultimate incarnation of the phrase “ It’s the thought that counts”. Well, it has to count, because there isn’t a gift.
  10. A bag of “smellies” – maybe you can slip in a tin of Right Guard in the hope the message lands… and that you don’t end up with a trip to see HR when there’s a complaint and you’re ratted out as the buyer.

Or if you like your allocated ‘co-worker’ enough to call them a ‘colleague’ or, even ‘friend’ you could always get them something they’d really like…. An UdderLok perhaps!

Merry Christmas!!