Does your department/office exchange gifts?

[rosetyler]

I've been here for a few months, and today got a bunch of small gifts from co-workers. Crap, I guess we are a gift exchange kind of team.

My gift from my boss was nicer, maybe a $50 value. Others I'd place at about $10-20.

What do you buy for others in your office? I need something easy - I'm not good with baked goods or cutesy, crafty add-ons. Also, fast, since people start leaving on vacation after tomorrow.

I work with three men and six women - any suggestions? I'd love to keep it under $10/each without looking too cheap.

[Deleted]

One of my CWs brought me homemade Christmas cookies. I really appreciated that, but at the moment I'm not planning to reciprocate (sorry, CW!).

[Deleted]

I give my secretary a gift, but nobody gives me a gift, and I don't give anyone else a gift. Thank god! That's a lot of work!

Wine is always appreciated, and there are good selections under $10.

[agnes]

I have no idea if they will leave gifts on everyones desks, but at my last 2 companies in the same kind of departments, everyone left did. I always felt like a boner for not doing.

So, this year, in a new office again, I bought 18 little holiday bath fizzies and put curling ribbon on them. It came out to a total of 40 bucks in all.

We are also doing Secret Santa and I drew my friend (got me this job) and have spent almost $50 on her. I <3 her though.

[Deleted]

DH generally buys gifts for those he directly supervises and occasionally gets something in return. This is his first year at this job and he continued the tradition assuming that his approach was normal. He didn't go crazy or anything, he just bought $25 restaurant gift cards. His employees were shocked because in the 15 years that some of them have been there they have never gotten a gift. I thought that was odd but I guess no gifts could be normal.

[catsarecute]

We used to do a secret santa but stopped doing it last year. This year, we compiled our favorite recipes into a cookbook! It was really simple but such a nice, personal gift that everyone can have without a lot of effort.

[HoneySpider]

I got a small ($10ish) gift from my boss and 2 of my co-workers gave everyone very small gifts (one gave chocolate, one gave a mug with cocoa). I am giving my 2 close co-workers and my boss some homemade cookies and that's it.

[luvmagoldn]

We used to do Secret Santa but that stopped somewhere along the way. I seem to get a card and a small treat from a few co-workers on my team - small hand lotions, chocolate, etc. This year I am giving a card and a big holiday Hershey kiss (we are chocolate fiends around here). They were $1 each at Target and I bought 14 of them.

[dr.girlfriend]

Our group does a group gift for support people, which honestly gets a little ridiculous. There are only four of us, and we are getting gifts for 17 people, including people I've never heard of who apparently process our billing and stuff like that. It's nice to appreciate people who work behind the scenes, but it's a giant PITA to buy, truck, and deliver a gift to someone you've never even seen, and I've been put in charge of all this. :-P Bah humbug!