With the office Christmas party rearing its head, Secret Santa shopping’s driving fear and loathing into the hearts of office workers across the capital.  Like a game of office Russian Roulette: who you get and what you buy has repercussions for the rest of the year. To help you tackle this most perilous of tasks, we’ve devised a list of fail safe secret Santa gift ideas to suit every office type.

The perfect Secret Santa Gift for every office worker

The party animal: fresh out of yoonie with oodles of energy and three years of clubbing under their belt, the party animal has the stamina of an ox.  Flitting from nightclub to desk, this co-worker can sustain 24-hour marathon shifts while still effortlessly climbing the career ladder.   To help them when they’ve overdone it, snap up this snazzy ostrich pillow which will allow for a sly power-nap in between PowerPoint presentations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The organiser: With an Excel spreadsheet for every occasion, the organiser glides through her to-do list with the greatest of ease. Having motored through a week’s work in the space of an afternoon, she sweeps out the door without a backward glance on the stroke of 5.00.  To appeal to her rigorously structured schedule, splash out on a compact bento lunch box where carbohydrates and proteins can be diligently filed into their respective quarters.

The tea drinker: with the average office worker drinking 33,000 cups of tea in their lifetime, this chai fiend knocks back an equivalent amount in the space of a week. Tear him away from his Tetley addiction by raising his caffeine aspirations with a pug in a mug. The pug will open up whole new vistas of loose-leaf heaven.  The gentle drifts of Lapsang Souchon, Darjeeling and Jasmine will permeate the stale office air while the sink-clogging leaves stay safely contained in the pug’s tum.

The headless chicken: Rushing from one deadline to the next, the headless chicken’s anxiety puts them in a state of high-alert even when the desks are clear. Forever on a deadline, there’s always too few hours to accommodate the avalanche of work snowballing towards them.   Release them from their self-induced angst with a mindfulness colouring book proven to temporarily calm and soothe – until the next deadline…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The boss: If you’ve drawn the short straw and got the boss, you have our sympathy.  With such high stakes this is easily the most stressful Secret Santa gift of all. Get something classy and you’ll endure the scorn of your colleagues all year.  Risk cheap and tacky and you could be picking up your P45 along with the bill. Avoid at all costs, the temptations of the boss voodoo doll. Our advice: opt for bland and inoffensive.   A new mouse mat (tasteful design) or how about the whistle key finder to really blow their socks off?

Have you had any successes or disasters with Secret Santa gifts for colleagues?  Fess up below.