My workplace has what I consider the perfect balance of co-worker gift-giving at Valentine’s Day and in December, which is that maybe half of the people do little gifts: that’s enough involvement that I don’t feel silly if I feel like giving other people little gifts (this past Valentine’s Day I taped foil-wrapped Dove hearts to paper classroom valentines), but also I feel free to skip it if for any reason I don’t feel like doing it. And I like my co-workers a lot (they’re one of my top reasons for liking my job) AND I like gift-giving, so I am inclined to participate this December.
However. I am noticing how difficult this is. (I find it the fun/happy kind of difficult, or else I would just skip it.) If I count only the co-workers I regularly work with and interact with, that is FIFTEEN PEOPLE. Keeping in mind that I am the lowest-paid employee and I make less than $10/hour—how much do I want to spend on a gift that needs to be multiplied by 15?
Which leads to my second issue: most of the inexpensive things I can think of that would work for a group of 15 people are things no one really wants. That’s not the deal-breaker: I got several things I didn’t really want from co-workers last year, but what I MOSTLY got was a nice warm happy feeling that they had given me a little holiday giftie (and it was especially fun bringing home a little PILE of little holiday gifties)—so I am going to assume it works the other direction, too. But I WOULD like to maximize the chances that it’s something SOME people MIGHT want.
For example, one of my co-workers last year handed out festively-packaged bars of soap. Well, that is a GREAT idea: inexpensive but you can get a fairly nice bar for $3, and library workers are not well-paid so we’re all more accustomed to the $5 ten-packs; festive (because of the packaging and because of the scent); practical, and if you don’t use bar soap it can easily be re-gifted or given to a shelter/pantry. But…she used that idea, so now I’d feel like I was copying. I could do…festive hand soaps? That might be nice. Practical and even fun, for those of us who like seasonal hand soaps; easy to donate for those who don’t; easy to tie a festive little ribbon around the little neck.
I want to avoid all the Pinteresty-type things I see where someone puts in a TON of time and effort to make a small cheap gift look like it also took a ton of time and effort. Even more, I want to avoid all the Pinteresty-type things I see where someone puts a ton of time and effort into something they THINK will be small and cheap—and yet with all the supplies they have to buy for it, they end up making something that is ALSO expensive (for example, anything in a mason jar). I would rather amp up the whimsy of the small and cheap: big bow on a single packet of expensive cocoa mix, for example. We all know these gifts are going to be small and cheap! Let’s at least spend the money on something someone MIGHT WANT at that price point. If a single serving of hot chocolate mix is $3, that might be some very yummy hot chocolate mix, and something I would not otherwise have tried!
Oh, and I’m not leaping to the idea of book/library-themed items. We DO all love books and libraries, natch. But: (1) we all have a fair amount of book/library-themed things already and (2) it’s just such a quick little non-leap, it makes it feel too generic/workplacey—like “What would my co-workers at a library enjoy? How about something library-themed?” But I wouldn’t RULE OUT something book/library themed, so you should feel free to mention it if you have a book/library idea. It’s easy to imagine doing a 180 on this for the right idea.
You may notice I keep carefully saying festive and holiday and seasonal and December. That’s because another complication is that I’d prefer to avoid Blatant Christmas. I assume my co-workers all understand that the timing of our workplace gift-giving is suspiciously Christmas-centric, but that doesn’t mean we can’t show a little situational awareness. So I am hoping for SNOWFLAKE and WINTER and so forth. If the scented soaps smell like balsam fir, I am not going to say “NO: IT CAN’T SMELL LIKE PINE, BECAUSE PINE TREES AND PINE WREATHS ARE CHRISTIAN CHRISTMAS SYMBOLS”; but I am not going to give out little soaps with decorated pine trees or pine wreaths on the wrappers, if you see the distinction. Little forest creatures in a winter scene that includes pine trees and a starry sky: yes! Little forest creatures in Santa hats around a star-topped pine tree looking up at One Big Star in the sky: no.
Here are the things I am NOT taking into consideration:
1. Some people are allergic to certain foods / chemicals. I know. And if I KNEW about any particular allergy, I would certainly avoid it. But this is an inexpensive co-worker gift, the kind where over a dozen people all receive the same item—and, perhaps this is naive, but I have a secure and shining faith in the ability of each of my co-workers to throw out or give away anything that won’t work for them while still receiving the warm intention of the gift.
2. Some people don’t like scented things. I know. And if I KNEW about any particular aversion/sensitivity/allergy, I would certainly avoid it. But this is an inexpensive co-worker gift, and I feel confident in the ability of my co-workers to throw out or give away anything that won’t work for them, while still receiving the warm intention of the gift.
3. Some people won’t eat homemade foods. I know. But this is an inexpensive co-worker gift, and I feel confident in the ability of my co-workers to throw out or give away anything that won’t work for them, while still receiving the warm intention of the gift.
4. Some people don’t want any more “cheap crap.” You know, I don’t think I have ever done a post on relatively-inexpensive gifts (teacher gifts, party favors, etc.) without receiving several comments making this point, almost always using those exact words: “cheap crap.” It gives me a wince of revulsion each time, to think of people regarding other people’s warmly-intended small offerings in that way. It is not how I regard the appropriately-inexpensive items other people give to me. If you are someone who regards such things as “cheap crap,” perhaps you could think of this as indicating that one of your roles in the universe is to be a conduit for getting these items to someone who WILL appreciate/enjoy them: one person’s cheap crap is another person’s fun/nice little treat, and I am sure the universe would appreciate the help of One Person to help get the apparently-incorrectly-directed item to Another Person.
Okay, so here are some of my ideas so far, for co-worker not-Christmas gifts at around $3 or less:
• The aforementioned hand soap. I could do a Mrs. Meyer’s, maybe the nice pine one or the orange clove one; it’s more like $5, but maybe I’d find it on sale / maybe I could just relax a little.
(image from target.com)
• The aforementioned festive bar soap, even though it feels like copying my co-worker. I don’t think she will care or think about it. I’d be pretty confident of finding a nice selection of these at HomeGoods/Marshalls/TJMaxx for about $3 each.
• Something from See’s Candies. They don’t have all their Christmas stuff up yet, and probably most of the good options will be too Christmassy (foil-wrapped Santas, for example)—but if they had, say, bags of foil-wrapped snowflakes or something, I could buy those plus enough cinnamon or mint lollipops to give one each to everyone, and break them up into little parcels. I’d have to be careful because this is the kind of project that can easily end up going over budget: “Oh, now I need festive little bags to put the things into, plus festive little ribbons…” and so on. Pretty soon it’s a hundred and fifty dollars’ worth of candy/packaging divided into fifteen portions that look like they cost about a dollar each.
• I could make fudge. I make what I believe to be good fudge, and it is the kind where you use a candy thermometer and it takes careful timing and can easily go wrong, so I don’t know many other people who make it. The two most expensive elements would be the baking chocolate and the little festive paper boxes I’d need to buy to put it in.
(image from Amazon.com)
• I could find the theoretical individual packets of expensive hot chocolate I keep mentioning as examples, if they exist. Does anyone already know of such a thing existing? I mean like two or three dollars for a single-serving packet.
• Packets of fancy marshmallows (I remember last year Target had some cute snowflake-shaped ones), or a cocoa topper, or one of the many options for heavily-laden stir-sticks/spoons you put in coffee or cocoa or tea. I have received these sorts of things several times and have always enjoyed them: I’m not going to buy MYSELF a dark-chocolate-and-crushed-peppermint-coated cocoa stick, or a honey-and-lavender-coated tea spoon, but I would love to receive one and try it. (This idea may lead you to think of the idea of cocoa bombs, but my BOSS did cocoa bombs for everyone last year, and I definitely don’t want to duplicate HER idea!)
• A flameless candle, plus batteries for it. I have SO enjoyed mine, and I’ve seen them sold in bigger multipacks at HomeGoods/Marshalls/TJMaxx. Maybe I could find a multipack where all the candles are the same size, for a nice price per candle. This strikes me as a SLIGHTLY weird gift to imagine giving/receiving—but not really any weirder than the small indeterminate knitted thing someone gave us all last year and none of us wanted to ask what it was so we still don’t know. And for someone like me, who already has some flameless candles, it would be fun to add to the existing grouping; while for someone who doesn’t have any, it might be the fun kind of weird where they take it home and try it because what IS this thing??
• I can imagine just going right ahead and leaning into the weird idea: like, going to HomeGoods, seeing nice spatulas, buying everyone a spatula and tying a jaunty ribbon on each one. Or, here’s a gift-wrapped package of snowflake-themed baggies for you! Here’s a neat ruler, I put a bow on it! Here’s a jar of cookie-decorating sprinkles! Why not? Who cares? This isn’t going to make or break anyone’s festive season. Plus, they already know me.
• A festive baggie or festive little box including, say, a seasonal lip balm (I’d get the normal packaging since I’ll just be opening it and throwing it away, except the tree package has four lip balms for $5 and the regular packaging has only three for the same price), plus an assortment of individually-wrapped candies. I like the way this leans into the Token Gift intention—the 3D equivalent of holiday card in the mail. It says: This is a little token of festivity, of the sort I thought Anyone Would Like! I am giving it to you, festively! The festive transaction has now been completed! It is clearly no big deal if you did not get anything for me!
(image from Target.com)
(image from target.com)
• If I were buying for a group where everyone celebrated Christmas, it would be fun to give everyone a Christmas ornament. I can’t think of any way to make this non-Christmassy, but I include it here for anyone who IS looking for small Christmas presents. Individual Christmas ornaments are sometimes surprisingly expensive, so if I couldn’t find anything I liked in the $3-each range (though Target usually has a bunch of cute ones at exactly that price: retro deer! dressed birds! dog in a top hat! a hippo!), I’d look for SETS of ornaments I could divide up.
(image from target.com)
