What do I do about work gifts this year?

December 12, 2020 3:33 PM

What are people doing about gifts for coworkers this year? I haven't seen mine in person since March, nobody is coming in to the office now, I'm sure as heck not driving around to everyone's house, and it seems like massive overkill to mail or mail order anything. But it also feels a little bit wrong to do nothing. What seems to be the norm for this year? Do you have any good ideas?
posted by HotToddy to Work & Money (17 answers total)

I think this is an excellent year to do nothing on this front.
posted by shadygrove at 3:35 PM on December 12, 2020 [33 favorites]

Normally I do a minimal amount, a small box of candy, something that won't make anyone feel obligated to respond.

I would say no one expects you to do presents this year. Office gifts are always a bit awkward. if you are really bothered and have addresses, send a nice card.
posted by emjaybee at 3:48 PM on December 12, 2020 [2 favorites]

As someone who admittedly doesn't celebrate Christmas and would love to opt out of a work obligation regarding it, I'd third considering letting the gift-giving slide and seeing whether other people really miss it or find it a relief - especially in a year when finances and mental bandwidth might be strained. Thoughtful personal emails or e-cards with sincere good wishes might suffice.

But if you really want to stick with presents, two potential solutions I've heard discussed in my department this year are: 1) delivering non-time-sensitive presents to the office and letting people schedule their own staggered trips to the building to pick them up, and 2) switching out the usual coffee shop gift card bonus for an electronic gift certificate for our local restaurant delivery app.

My team has also decided this year to take the money we'd usually put toward an office party and up our annual giving to a local charity that gets gift cards for people in the community who are struggling to afford something nice for Christmas. Just throwing that out there in case it's something that might satisfy that same feeling of coming together that a gift exchange met in previous years.
posted by northernish at 3:59 PM on December 12, 2020 [2 favorites]

I think my boss is individually mailing our (small) team some branded swag, which she tends to do throughout the year. I also think she's as burnt out as the rest of us, so it might not actually happen by Christmas.

All of which is to say that I cannot imagine that anyone will be expecting gifts or anything else this year; everyone is just too...*stares in exhausted 2020*
posted by kalimac at 4:00 PM on December 12, 2020

2020 SOUVENIR CORONAVIRUS RECIPE

Ingredients:
- Something round. For example, a styrofoam or wooden ball.
- Nails. Like the kind you normally hit with a hammer.
- Paint
- Wire hook (optional)

Instructions:
Poke nails into round thing. Paint the thingy. Maybe add a wire hook if it's for someone who does the christmas tree thing.


Voila! Small and lightweight, so they're cheap to mail.
posted by aniola at 4:01 PM on December 12, 2020 [2 favorites]

if you mean gifts from the company to the employees, then we received them by mail - no problem there.
if you mean from employees to other employees (like within a department or team), we don't do that at all.
posted by alchemist at 4:39 PM on December 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

I’m back at work, but I had a conversation with the co-workers that I usually do gifts with, and we mutually agreed that we were going to skip it this year. Money has been tight, and we are at a school and didn’t (still don’t!) know what days we will actually be open. We shared that we all appreciate each other and next year we will go back to normal, but for now, we are just skipping it. (With the exception of one woman, we who didn’t ask, because we all suspect that she would be offended if we suggest skipping gifts.)
posted by firei at 4:58 PM on December 12, 2020

Create a cookie exchange for people that really want to send/receive things and let people select a charity people can donate to?
posted by Candleman at 5:10 PM on December 12, 2020

Skip the gifts. Seriously, this is the year of all years to not gift people. Unless you can mail stuff or drop it off to people's homes, which you may not have the address or others may not want you to come by their house. Or if you want to buy online gift cards.

But that said, my office did an online gift exchange in which the person who designed it did the following:
(a) Had everyone Venmo her $10
(b) She picked out $10 or less stuff on Amazon.
(c) She designed a Power Point in which you'd pick gift #2 and the gift would be revealed as a picture, and then people did the traditional "steals."
(d) Coworker got addresses and placed orders with Amazon.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:20 PM on December 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

The cookies (because I can't stop baking) are going to the neighbors and friends in driving distance.

My manager sent us all something. A team-mate also sent out something small. I've been mailing some hand-mad trinkets to friends, and will mail them to my co-workers with a note. By New Years.

But if it feels overwhelming, don't do it! I wanted to go full on with the decorations and everything this year, but it ran smack into the stress of nine months of COVID.
posted by JawnBigboote at 5:25 PM on December 12, 2020

We're at work, but we're skipping our secret santa this year. I don't think any of us have the emotional bandwidth right now, nor the finances.
posted by kathrynm at 6:08 PM on December 12, 2020

We are doing a strictly opt-in gift exchange this year, which is actually the same as previous years. I actually handed it off to a very social colleague who will, I’m sure, do a great job. The theme is to support small local businesses, which seems like the right mood in these parts.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 8:08 PM on December 12, 2020 [2 favorites]

Our department did a gift exchange via Elfster. Our company sent each of us employees a gift via Brightbox. My best work friend and I are sending gifts. Thaaaat’s it.
posted by kimberussell at 8:25 PM on December 12, 2020

A little late now maybe but we are doing a secret santa via elfster. Each person only has to get one gift, deliver to the person's home and then we are opening together on zoom.
posted by metahawk at 10:49 PM on December 12, 2020

What do you normally do? I'm hoping this isn't a thing in my new team as mid-December is a little late to organise anything and I don't have addresses, but normally I would give a token chocolate gift. I'm probably going to create an e-card and say thanks for a great year since we shut down completely between Xmas and New Year. Organisations seem to be mailing swag as far as I can tell.
posted by plonkee at 2:23 AM on December 13, 2020

Four of us have taken part in a Secret Santa, with another trusted co-worker emailing everyone with a list of all our addresses and then, separately, an individual email telling us who our recipient is. It's a £10 limit. Regrettably, my local Royal Mail office is having horrendous difficulties (mail only delivered once every 10 days or so, and then only some of it, with vast bins of unsorted mail in the back office), so much as I hate to line Bezos' pockets any further, I've sent my recipient her gift via Amazon, anonymously.
posted by essexjan at 3:02 AM on December 13, 2020

Time off. Forget the gifts and just give everyone a day off (or more if you can swing it). But I realize you are now saying you are looking for coworkers, not direct reports. Some other suggestions I have seen are gift certificates to local restaurants or maybe a gift card to a local bookstore?
posted by something_witty at 3:03 PM on December 14, 2020