Comments on: Undercover Kringle

Question: Undercover Kringle

DisreputableDog — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 08:53:10 -0800

I hate giving people normal gifts, like soap or cheeses...

This year, I'm taking part in a Secret Santa at work. The possible receivers of this gift 96% most likely going to be male (I'm female), mostly geeks, a fair number of book readers, many gamers, very open to humor (they'll all randomly yell "red light behavior!" and start humping their also male victim, who pretends to either swoon or flail helplessly). Basically, very very nerdy weird people.

I really dislike giving people normal gifts for these kinds of things.

I will be looking on ThinkGeek.com to see if I can find something, but would like other online stores or ideas for gifts.

I have about a $15 cap, but am willing to spend about $20 if the gift is really good.

It should really be something either super randomly awesome and/or white elephant hilarious.

By: griphus

griphus — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 08:58:54 -0800

Giant bag of cereal marshmallows?

By: routergirl

routergirl — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 08:59:00 -0800

I love Archie McPhee for this kind of thing. Though YMMV. I got my sister an action figure from there one year and she got completely offended. However my sister gets offended when people breathe. So you'd probably be fine with normal folk.

By: iconomy

iconomy — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 09:01:04 -0800

A flashing red light to use as a prop.

Look in the geekery section of Etsy...some of it's lame but there's a lot of great video game humor. And robots. And science.

By: kataclysm

kataclysm — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 09:02:16 -0800

Inexpensive but fun and not overly-complex games? Like Fluxx or Guillotine or any of the seven million other ones?

By: TooFewShoes

TooFewShoes — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 09:03:40 -0800

How about a Chemistry Set?

By: MonkeyToes

MonkeyToes — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 09:05:52 -0800

Geek (or kid) toys from American Science & Surplus.

By: specialagentwebb

specialagentwebb — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 09:11:15 -0800

I am also nerdy and weird (albeit female), and if someone bought me Ctrl + Alt + Del cups I would be super impressed.

By: Madamina

Madamina — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 09:31:29 -0800

Don't laugh, but the Mustard Museum could give you some good ideas. In addition to tasty and fun products, including many non-mustard and non-edible goodies, the Curator has, shall we say, a creative sense of humor. (I think you'd have to if you wanted to make something out of this business, and boy has he ever.)

I've ordered several custom gift boxes from them, mainly because they're great with shipping products from my home state, and people have enjoyed them quite a bit.

By: Madamina

Madamina — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 09:33:29 -0800

OH! Also, maybe you should check out Regretsy (and then poke around those posts if the item in question is unavailable or out of your range).

By: MsMolly

MsMolly — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 09:34:47 -0800

Crime scene scarf?

Plush microbe?

Soap Lady soap?

Conjoined gingerbread men cookie cutter?

By: Night_owl

Night_owl — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 09:35:09 -0800

Well, the screaming flying monkey can't be dismissed. It's only a few bucks, but maybe in conjunction with something else?

By: whatzit

whatzit — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 09:37:29 -0800

How can you go wrong with a pound of silly putty? (various sources available, depends if you want name brand or cool colors)

By: A Terrible Llama

A Terrible Llama — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 09:43:39 -0800

Fireworks. Everybody likes fireworks. Except dogs. Don't give them to dogs.

By: cathoo

cathoo — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 09:45:32 -0800

Giant Microbes

Specifically, the STDs (everyone loves "The Clap!" And Syphillis is a good one too)

Of course, it's not 100% unique because I did it this year already, but it went over really really well!

By: Madamina

Madamina — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 10:15:50 -0800

The creators of the plush microbes, Infectious Awareables, have other great stuff. (I LOVE my dad's syphilis tie *giggle*). Non-boxers might be a little out of your price range, but the sale page has some stuff in the $20-$25 range.

By: bearwife

bearwife — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 11:13:33 -0800

This gift showed up in this thread and frankly it looks really cool.

By: mewmewmew

mewmewmew — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 11:23:31 -0800

Specifically, the STDs (everyone loves "The Clap!" And Syphillis is a good one too)

Is it weird to give this to family members?

By: juliapangolin

juliapangolin — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 11:27:48 -0800

ant farm

By: mysterpigg

mysterpigg — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 11:55:13 -0800

Creationary is a fun nerdy game to play, but unfortunately is more like $30. However, while trying to find that game the weekend before Thanksgiving, we were told of the Catan Goodies. I know at least we immediately had a couple friends in mind as possible recipients.

By: geeky

geeky — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 12:14:32 -0800

Urban Outfitters has all sorts of unusual toys and gizmos for $20 and under.

By: peagood

peagood — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:57:14 -0800

The Mütter Museum Calendar is always a favourite gift of mine... though they have a glorious selection of gifts. And, I love the Skull a Day blog's "Skulls" book.

By: theora55

theora55 — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 15:08:55 -0800

a really good marshmallow shooter and a bag of ammo.
Lego minifigs
several screaming monkeys
LED holidays lights for cube decoration.
make candied bacon, or get some very high quality bacon to give. and maybe some bacon bandaids. MeFi mail me if you want my candied bacon notes. It's insanely delicious.

White elephant hilarious works if you have some really weird thing at home, or find something awesome. Buying truly random stuff is kind of a waste of energy.

By: kataclysm

kataclysm — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 07:04:53 -0800

Specifically, the STDs (everyone loves "The Clap!" And Syphillis is a good one too)

Is it weird to give this to family members?

It's probably weird to give it to family members, but my little sister gave me The Clap! for Xmas last year, and I thought it was awesome. (Now my kitten is obsessed with the clap. She carries it around and alternates between grooming it and ferociously attacking it, which is adorable in a deeply disturbing way.)

By: ifjuly

ifjuly — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 07:47:51 -0800

I just bought a bunch of math-nerdy (non-transitive and Sicherman) dice at Optical Illusions as stocking stuffers for my newly minted math teacher husband (probability is his favorite unit to teach). There's also Unemployed Philosophers Guild (though maybe it's just me but it's gone downhill it seems like), whose stuff you often see in in-store quirky boutiques. You know, philosopher finger puppets, watches, ties, t-shirts, clocks.

By: ifjuly

ifjuly — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 07:47:59 -0800

Oh and uncommongoods.com