Tis the season to be jolly… Falalalalala lah… This is also the season where there will be office parties and gift exchanges. It can be the most stressful part of the year when you grimace and pull your hair out, going from stores to stores to find the perfect gift for Janice – the dull accountant from your office.
Here are some tips that help you to save your office Christmas:
Short of Money Buying Christmas’ gifts can be a toll on your wallet especially when you have a huge family, huge group of friends and huge office. Rather than starving yourself through December, why not rope in a group of people from the office to share the gift?
Quote Helena “I never know what to buy for our boss, she already have everything! So every year, I’ll go around asking who is buying what for her and ask if I can chip in. If you ask nicely, no one will say no. After all, it means that person I have asked is going to fork out less money or we can buy a much bigger present.”
One for Each Do the secret Santa thing! You may groan if you get Joel the nerdy engineer or Fiona the wallpaper admin girl but this way, everyone gets a gift, no matter what and no one gets left behind during this sharing season. And you may not be as unlucky as to get the same person in a row for three Christmases. May the odds be in your favour.
Pinky Promise Have a pact with anyone not to give presents to each other and resist the urge to buy and surprise.
Quote Tim “I have two very close buddies at work, we swore to each other never to buy gifts for each other, whether it’s our birthday or Christmas. It’s too much pressure to choose the right gift. Instead, we’ll go for a round of beer after work.”
Food If you are a baking genius, kudos to you! Bring a huge box of cookies you baked and shared among the colleagues will get you brownie points every time. If you can’t bake to save your life, having a spouse who can do wonders as well!!
Quote Wilson “During Christmas, my wife will bake cupcakes for her colleagues and leave a batch for me to take to work as well. Her cupcakes became so popular, my colleagues have been pestering me to ask my wife to make more!”
Buy in Bulk If you don’t know what to buy or your budget is looking nonexistent, purchase your gifts in bulk. I know I know, having individual gifts are more meaningful. Some would say if I have nothing better to give, rather not give at all. However, you can not giving to your family or your friends, these are colleagues we are talking about. They might not be close to you but you see each other 5 days a week, a tiny little gesture might mean the world to the person to say “Hey, you are in my thoughts although I don’t know you very well.”
I once bought 100 candy canes and tagged it with a personalized quote and Christmas wishes, giving it to whoever that passes by my cubicle. Soon, I have a queue of people who heard I’m giving out sweets! And it’s not Halloween!
Forecast Buy in advance and don’t wait until the year end to rush in with the crowd. I bought Christmas gifts during mid year sales and store it safely until the time comes. This way you’ll never clash with someone else who is giving the same thing.
Emergency Gift Always have one or two generalized gift in the office desk. It’s really embarrassing if you gave everyone a gift but you happened to miss out giving to Betrica the receptionist, perhaps now you know why you have to pick up your own letters from the mailroom while others get theirs delivered to their desk.
Do you have any tips to share on office gifting?
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