Office contest prize ideas

September 2, 2008 12:53 PM

What are some good prizes to give out at an office bowling party?

We're organizing a bowling outing for our office of about 30 people. Prizes will be given out to the 1st and 2nd place teams. Teams will consist of about 4 people each. Each member of the winning team will receive identical prizes. I'm stumped - other than gift certificates, what are some fun, inexpensive (<$15 ea) prizes that we can give out?

posted by Alpenglow to work & money (11 comments total)

I'd prefer time off over an ITunes gift card.
posted by rhizome at 12:57 PM on September 2, 2008

A DVD of the movie Kingpin?
posted by burnmp3s at 1:00 PM on September 2, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Or The Big Lebowski
posted by burnmp3s at 1:02 PM on September 2, 2008

The bowling alley may allow you to buy used pins cheap. If you have an office that is a cube farm, spray painting a few of them gold and putting a little plaque on it might be fun. They are HEAVY.
posted by jessamyn at 1:14 PM on September 2, 2008

I really like the things from think geek. I always go here for inexpensive office "white elephant" type gifts.
posted by doorsfan at 1:19 PM on September 2, 2008

How about a small rug that really ties the room together (Lebowski reference)?
posted by plinth at 1:36 PM on September 2, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Why don't you want to give gift certificates? A generally agreeable gift certificate, like to a large book store, or similar, is the only office gift everyone's likely to like. There's a large segment of people who aren't going to want any one 'thing' you could possibly give out.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:56 PM on September 2, 2008

Yeah, we gave out used pins with tags on them. In addition to giving them to the winners, we gave them out for ridiculous feats like "most gutter balls."
posted by desjardins at 4:24 PM on September 2, 2008

300 DVD
posted by troy at 4:40 PM on September 2, 2008

If you go the gift certificate route, please get them from unisex stores. (Better yet, an American Express gift check/card that can be used anywhere.) Twice now I've gotten Sephora gift certificates at the awfis festivus party. I'm a single man, and this was a negative gift as it just made me sad that I didn't have a GF to treat to a shopping spree with it.

You might consider a prize of lunch for the winning team at a local restaurant. I was part of a team that won this once and it was fun to all sit down to a meal together. Also, a floating Friday/Monday off would be a great prize if you can get your finance/HR folks to approve it.
posted by Cranialtorque at 5:34 PM on September 2, 2008

Thanks guys. I love the Big Lebowski ideas. I found these mini oriental rugs that are actually mouse pads - those might be great gag prizes.
posted by Alpenglow at 6:30 AM on September 3, 2008