Christmas gifts for co-workers

[Gutmutter]

What are Yankee swaps?

I'm so sorry, I didn't catch this before. A Yankee swap is when a group of people all bring presents and then open them and show the group. The moderator then asks a series of questions and if you can answer yes to them you can swap your present for another one. It gets viscious and comes down to the last timed second as vultures hover over the most desired gifts. Feelings get hurt either because you got a good gift and it was taken from you or because the present you brought is never fought for. I learned early on to take what I get and not expect to take a gift of equal value home. I also learned that if I take a small tin of rumballs, which I make anyway, they will be fought over and I won't feel like a loser. Another version of this, seen on Big Brother, is for smaller gatherings. Everyone draws a number. Number 1 opens first, number 2 opens and can either keep or exchange for number 1. You keep opening by numbers and each progressive person gets to choose from her own gift or any gift that's already been opened. When all are opened, number 1 gets the choice of any opened gift. Again - hurt feelings abound.

[buglover]

I put together little boxes of See's candies for my co-workers. Nothing special, but lots of chocolate and peppermint candies. Simple and easy.

[MRD]

I baked a cake and did handmade cards for each of my co-workers. They were genuinely happy and that made me happy. Simple, easy and inexpensive, but thoughtful. I'm into all 4 of those things this year.

[buglover]

As you should be MRD! You deserve a break after all you and your family have done this year!! Great gift idea because anything that comes from the heart is always a good thing.

[Lois Lane]

A homemade cake trumps just about anything in my book. For office gifts, I really like the idea of everyone bringing in baked goods and/or taking the money they'd spend on Yankee Swaps or whatever ($5 or $10 each) and donating it to a charity, orphanage, nursing home or some place like that. I've received a few Christmas cards this year where the sender said that in lieu of holiday gifts, they donated money to the American Cancer Society or the Alzheimers Association etc. I loved that. It reminded me a little of when cheapo George said he donated money to a fake charity (on "Seinfeld") but I know my friends actually donated to a real charity.

[MRD]

Lois, that's a really thoughtful thing. I heard today that donations to charities are really down this year. I did my part early and gave to the Salvation Army this year. I had intended to do more, but then unexpectedly I got the chance today. It's in the Koffee Klatch thread.

[Melitta]

Oprah showed thrifty Christmas ideas this week in place of her "My favorite things" segment. I'll bet the audience members were in shock as that's usually the show everyone tries to get tickets for because she gifts the audience with everything she shows. Anyway, this was a cute idea that you can give to co-workers or teachers.

I did these hot chocolate cones two years ago along with candy and cookies on tiered platter, they were a big hit.

[MRD]

Lois, if I worked with you, I'd make you your own cake and you wouldn't have to share.

[Gutmutter]

I'm going to bump some of the gift threads in case anyone is already starting to shop or does a "Secret Santa" exchange at work. My go-to gift for co-workers is a small tin of homemade rumballs. I'm kind of famous for them.

[Tilden]

I really like the idea of giving money to a charity. A number of years ago, my co-workers all chipped in to sponsor a family. I forget what organization in town was doing this, but they had a list of families you could choose from and a list of items they wanted for Christmas. I ended up doing the shopping with another woman, and since we're both good bargain hunters, we got everything on their list plus some extras and still had money left over, which we put in a card for the family and told them they could use it to buy some extra holiday goodies. I was also with the group who delivered the gifts to the family--a young couple with one child--and that was a lot of fun too. I remember the mom was especially appreciative that we'd gotten gift receipts for the child's clothing, in case anything ran a bit small or large, so she could exchange it for something more appropriate.

Of course, after my boss saw what the two of us had managed to purchase for the amount of money we had, he jokingly asked if we'd like to do his holiday shopping for him too. We really pored over ads before we went out, so we knew exactly what stores had the best deals on which items and then we power-shopped our way through their list.