I’m not buying friends and family Christmas presents this year, and you shouldn’t either
Picture the scene. It’s the office “Secret Santa”, an annual tradition beloved by precisely no one, but one that employees nevertheless feel compelled to participate in each December as if it were a contractual obligation. Workers sit around awkwardly opening presents and trying to guess which colleague is responsible for whatever useless “under a fiver” object lies within.
A cheap candle; some unappealingly scented bubble bath; novelty socks; a regifted box of old Matchmakers chocolates; a set of plastic wind-up teeth related to a niche inside joke that was never all that funny to begin with; a “comedy” sex toy that makes everyone uncomfortable and gets flagged to HR. Present after present that nobody really needs or wants, hastily bought on lunch hours and stress-wrapped in work toilets. It prompts the question: what on earth’s it all for?