Secret Santa and aftermath

What did you get as a gift from your secret Santa this time? I was fortunate to receive two, very thoughtful gifts this year at my office.

I wonder if kids still expect a gift from Santa hanging on the Christmas tree. Whether kids expect or not, every office goer irrespective of age aspires for Secret Santa. It is interesting how Secret Santa has caught the fancy of office goers across the globe. As the last month of the year approaches, along with the festive decorations at the workplace, buzz starts about Secret Santa.

People have innovated variations to the traditional way of keeping the gifts at the work desk. Usually in offices people make chits and pick names for gifting. While this ensures that everyone gets a gift, sometimes you may not know the person well, for whom you are bringing a gift.

Santa is secret, but it has become popular to give away the gifts publicly. Giving gifts publicly has its own charm, but also leads to some amusing situations.

• The size of the packet can become a point of comparison. “Oh! She got such a big carton, must be from a real fan” or “sad, he got only an envelope”.?What was inside that carton or the envelope, is a different matter.
• The ‘personalization’ of gifts could go wrong sometimes. Like the size of clothing, or a perfume fragrance or a book author. What you assumed and what the person liked could be different.
• After picking each gift with the names of the recipient written, at the end you are left with some people without any gifts.?The disappointment on their face says it all. The reason could be simple, the person who had to buy a gift is absent that day, or they simply forgot to buy. (Smart organizer's usually keep some chocolate boxes for such contingency and announce names).??
• Another situation emerges, when they are gifts but the named person(s) is missing. Why? Maybe the person went on a long holiday combining Xmas. Such gifts lie like unclaimed baggage in the office. What will the employees think, who took pains to buy those gifts?

Watch out, all good intentions of using Secret Santa for motivation could get into knots. Did you experience any such situation?

Rishikesh