L<\/span>ip balm. A pair of socks. Some kind of \u201ccomedic\u201d mug; The selection of Secret Santa presents gifted by colleagues each festive season range from the boring to bizarre and \u2013 more often than not \u2013 wind up in only one place by January: the bin. These forced-fun emblems stand to see a lengthier shelf life in the supermarket they spawned from than in our begrudging homes. Which leads most Grinches to reach the same conclusion; With a (corporate) Christmas haul this disappointing, surely it\u2019s time to give the tired tradition Santa\u2019s big shiny boot?<\/p>\nAccording to a survey conducted by rubbish removal company HIPPO, a fifth of us admitted to launching gifts from our colleagues straight into a black bag. \u201cThese workplace exchanges are proving to be more wasteful than wonderful. Small gestures can have a big environmental impact,\u201d the company\u2019s managing director, Gareth Lloyd-Jones observed. <\/p>\n
The man has got a point. The UK Environment Agency found that household waste increases by 30 per cent during the festive period. \u201cFor the office scrooges, perhaps the most appreciated present in the office this year would be skipping Secret Santa altogether,\u201d he adds. Listen, it\u2019s the Hallelujah chorus. <\/p>\n
A glance at Reddit will show you, office Secret Santa almost always ends in dissatisfaction on all sides. \u201cA manager of mine got given one of those adult colouring books one time and she ended up sacking the person that gave it to,\u201d one person shares. \u201cI got a used candle,\u201d another user writes. \u201cPacket of condoms and two 50ml spirits miniatures,\u201d a third victim says. \u201cThey were \u2018wrapped\u2019 in the McDonald\u2019s bag that her lunch came in, stapled closed with my name written on it. There was a cold, forgotten French fry in the bag. That was the last Secret Santa I ever did.\u201d Who can blame them? They probably would\u2019ve preferred the Big Mac. <\/p>\n
Even if our gift selection doesn\u2019t get us fired or called into a meeting with HR, the process of presenting your piece of tat to a near stranger can be excruciatingly awkward. Neil from IT does not want the giant Jenga set you found for him in the charity shop. The intern has no interest in a portable coffee cup and stale pound shop Toblerone. It\u2019s decidedly hard to buy \u201cgood\u201d gifts on a measly budget for people you don\u2019t know all that well; Research shows that around 42 per cent of us don\u2019t feel a sense of connection to our coworkers. <\/p>\n
Perhaps, herein lies the problem. <\/p>\n
In reality, it\u2019s not just office Scrooges who\u2019d like to see Secret Santa ousted from the office entirely. A recent employee wellness report found that 60 per cent of workers don\u2019t like taking part in the tradition. While Gen Z were semi enthusiastic, with 51 per cent excited to take part, a huge 72 per cent of over 55s wanted out of the gift exchange for good. Like all things, the novelty evidently wears off \u2013 there\u2019s only so many times you can say \u201cAh! A comedy drinks mat!\u201d <\/p>\n
Additionally, while many are opting for family Secret Santas with a budget of \u00a3100 or more, so everyone gets one thing they actually<\/em> want and only has to buy one item, office editions do the opposite and put pressure on people to spend money they don\u2019t have on junk nobody appreciates. At a time when financial pressure is huge and 13.5 million UK adults have said they plan to cut back on Christmas spending this year, the last thing you need is another person on your list. Plus every year, someone forgets to bring in their present and a participant is left empty handed. <\/p>\n\n
\n<\/p>\n
open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>(Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nUltimately, the issue is that Secret Santa is forced (read: fake) fun. Like a pizza party when you were promised a promotion or a company retreat instead of a bonus, it simply isn\u2019t going to soften the blow of stagnant wages that have failed to keep up with inflation. You can wrap it up in tinsel as much as you want, corporate Britain is a bleak place to be right now. We\u2019d rather be with our actual friends and family than exchanging a piece of plastic with a yawning suit. <\/p>\n
This being said, a surprisingly fun alternative has entered the chat in recent years from America: White Elephant. The Christmas game got its name from the sacred animals kept by Southeast Asian monarchs that legend says the ancient kings would give to courtiers who annoyed them as the royal pets were expensive to keep, protected from doing any labour and couldn\u2019t be sold on. Really, they were more of a burden than a blessing. Imagine the giddy glee of landing a modern equivalent upon your workplace nemesis. Ho, ho, ho. God bless Us, Every One! <\/p>\n
White Elephant follows similar rules to Secret Santa, except you bring gifts that are genuinely coveted, a funny gag \u2013 or complete, intentional, trash. Players all draw numbers and, starting with the person who picked one, take turns to unwrap a gift, with each subsequent player then having the chance to steal someone else\u2019s present and replace it with their own. Essentially, it\u2019s chaos and mutiny \u2013 and a lot more entertaining than smiling through the pain of opening yet another Boots shower set. <\/p>\n
So, if your office insists on a gift exchange, perhaps introduce the White Elephant to the room this year \u2013 and hope you\u2019ve got more conniving tactics than your boss or your least favourite colleague. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference. Read more Lip balm. A pair of socks. Some kind of \u201ccomedic\u201d mug; The selection of Secret Santa presents gifted by colleagues each festive season range from the boring to bizarre and \u2013 more often than not \u2013 wind up in only one place by January: the bin. These forced-fun emblems stand to see a lengthier shelf life in the supermarket they spawned from than in our begrudging homes. Which leads most Grinches to reach the same conclusion; With a (corporate) Christmas haul this disappointing, surely it\u2019s time to give the tired tradition Santa\u2019s big shiny boot? According to a survey conducted by rubbish removal company HIPPO, a fifth of us admitted to launching gifts from our colleagues straight into a black bag. \u201cThese workplace exchanges are proving to be more wasteful than wonderful. Small gestures can have a big environmental impact,\u201d the company\u2019s managing director, Gareth Lloyd-Jones observed. The man has got a point. The UK Environment Agency found that household waste increases by 30 per cent during the festive period. \u201cFor th…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9466"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}