It’s even harder to organise a secret Santa from a home office. There isn’t a hat to put names into, or even a tree to store the presents when you’ve finally found something under the budget. So, here are a few Christmas gift ideas to spread some festive cheer even during a lockdown.
Secret Santa
If you’re still looking for that secret Santa experience there are many websites designed to help you keep the spirit alive without being present in the room. Sites such as drawnames will send an email out to confirm participation and then draw names for you successfully. You can even give present ideas for people in the office you don’t really know too well. You never know what you’re going to find out about a person.
Now, let’s move onto the gifts…
Vouchers
Vouchers may not seem like it’s keeping in the spirit of the holidays, but they can be sent electronically or designed into a festive card with the code attached to it. All you need to do is get creative with it. Instead of simply sending over a confirmation email, you can design an eCard that keeps in the spirit of things. If you’re not technologically savvy you could write the code out on a card and take a picture of it in a winter wonderland. Then, even though it’s a simple gift you are going the extra mile to put a smile on their face at the same time… Or they’ll roll their eyes at how corny you are. But, they’ll still appreciate the gesture.
Netflix / Amazon / Disney+
During the holidays a lot of people use the time to catch up on the shows they’ve missed out on throughout the year. Understandably the furloughed staff haven’t, but others may be willing on the winter break to get back to the Mandalorian or binge-watch Stranger Things they’ve heard so much about. Why not turn this need into an office Christmas gift? Add a few months onto a prepaid card and send that to your secret Santa. They’ll appreciate a few months not paying for a subscription and will think of you next time someone is getting blasted by a laser beam… it’s a win/win.
Training and Courses
Some people don’t enjoy the hustle and bustle of Christmas and want to use their time to upskill, refresh and start the year off fresh-faced and ready to go. If you want a not so subtle way to tell your team to use their time wisely, why not send them over a quick guide book or course for them to leaf through over the holidays. It might shorten those long nights, especially if they fall asleep on Lynda dot com. This idea isn’t really for a secret Santa… More like a secret boss.
Video Games / Ebooks / Audible
Whatever the hobby there is probably a digital version of it somewhere. Whether you have a kindle, the new PS5 or a simple media player where Stephen Fry can read Harry Potter to you. You can get almost anything online sent straight to your PC. Understandably, you can’t simply ask for someone’s address to send their gardening equipment for. So, you have two options: have the office Christmas gifts sat in the office for when everything blows over, or you incorporate the digital world. There may even be platforms that your secret Santa has never heard about before which suits their needs.
Just because this year has made us very distant it doesn’t mean we can’t show appreciation to the people we see nearly every day. Those that made the office a place to be missed. So, if you’re looking for Christmas gift ideas for your office, just keep it digital this year. OR, send a treasure trove of gifts to the office and leave them there for when everything blows over. Just make sure someone is there to accept the delivery.
