The Secret Santaland Diaries
Posted by erin at December 15, 2004 05:12 PMSo at work we have two different Secret Santa gift exchanges going on. One is open to anyone at CP who wants to be in it, and the other is just for the KND staffers. The KND-specific exchange is very easy - at our party on Friday we give each other the gifts and either 'fess up or let people wonder about it for the next six months. The CP-wide one is different. Participants are expected to give their secret pal several small gifts over the course of a week and a half leading up to a big gift at the company party. I got my person three things and some candy.
Last year the CP-wide exchange was pretty weird. People in the commercial department got each other booze and porn, unthinkable for our more reserved KND staff. My secret santa from last year didn't get me anything until the last two or three days of the event - and in the meantime I got a confusing letter from "santa" (the organizer) that should've gone to Alison, leading me to think my secret santa didn't know who I was. So I emailed santa and gave some gift suggestions, which my gift-giver person followed up on.
This year my secret santa is some kind of jerk. Or I am. It's hard to tell the difference.
On Monday there was a weird little peacock ornament on my desk. Not a Christmas ornament, just some weird thing from India or something like that. A small tin peacock. I thought about that peacock a lot. Was my secret santa trying to make fun of me? Had the not figured out what kind of person I was and just gotten something they'd liked? Were they trying to make fun of my pink hair in some weird way by comparing me to a peacock?
On Tuesday I got a promotional sampler CD (not for resale) of some "World Music". Now, when it comes to music I hate, "World Music" falls on my list somewhere below Country and Techno. I'd rather listen to some "House" than to "World" music, and there's a lot of Country music I'd give more of a chance to than World music. In fact, I can't imagine anyone liking World Music. The CD got me to thinking - maybe my Secret Santa knows me really well, and got me a CD of music that's the opposite of my taste in order to mock me.
Today I got a Kodak-brand calendar of scenes of "Nature's Wonders." This is the kind of calendar Kodak might send you for free with some other stuff. Suddenly it dawned on me - my Secret Santa isn't giving me gifts that he/she likes, or gifts that they think I'd like, they're just CLEANING OUT THEIR OFFICE of stuff they don't want and passing it on to me as gifts.
What a rip off! I spent a lot of time researching the person who's name I drew and coming up with appropriate gifts. My Santa is either really clueless, misguided, and hopelessly uncool, or else he/she is some kind of jackass. In any case, if it was his/her goal to completely obscure their identity - mission accomplished!
Comments Individual Archive Index
December 15, 2004 06:39 PM, N. said:
I dunno. I'm beginning to think it could be Barry.
December 21, 2004 11:42 AM, Halifax said:
>This year my secret santa is some kind of jerk. Or I am.
Maybe it's one of those "one from Column A, one from Column B" situations?
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