I really suck at Kris Kringles. I guess it's because I always insist of giving the right gift to the right person. I don't fall for the commercialization of Christmas wherein you just give gifts for the sake of giving. I don't agree at all.
Another factor is that most (note... MOST... not all) people don't take Kris Kringles seriously and you always get something that fits the criteria but is far from useful.
This year, we had 4 categories.
- cute and heavy
- funny or naughty
- geeky
- chemical
There was a 50 Peso minimum requirement. The workaholic that I am, I was late with my weekly gifts and ended up having to shop for all of them at the same time at the very last minute.
Cute and Heavy. Paper weight? Scotch tape dispenser? Paper weight? Really now, office supplies are the second worst gifts you can ever get. The worst gifts? Christmas decors! We'll discuss that some other time though. What's cute and heavy? Paper weight. Darn it! I can't get paper weight out of my head! After walking around, I settled with this photo holder (which doubles as a paper weight :P)
Funny or naughty. My personal experience - never go with naughty. If you HAVE to go with naughty, go with the most conservative "naughty" gift you can find. Why? Let's flashback to 4 years ago - Kris Kringle of 2004 which had a "naughty" gift requirement --> a senior executive holding out a pair of thongs and a very embarrassed dude in the background. Poor guy. This time, I was going for funny. Almost all the time you'll get a Pugad Baboy or a Pupung comic book. At the last minute, the sponteneous guy that I am, I suddenly went with naughty with probably the most straightforward gift I've ever given, a keychain that says "Naughty".
Geeky. It was the first time I had to shop for something "Geeky". I had one thing on my mind though - a Sudoku book. Easiest gift of the day.
Chemical. Another first time category. cleaning agent? too household. cologne? too complicated. scented oils? nah. I decided to go with a fancy soap and pray that my gift "baby" is a girl.
The Christmas party came and like all events in December, I missed it because I had to work. My "baby" was Tina who thanked me for the gifts. She said a lot of thought really went into the gifts and there was no way it could be from a guy.
Hmmm, I'll take that as a compliment.
How about the stuff I got?
Cute and heavy - a souveneir jeepney. I never saw that coming but it was actually more than decent. I find it hard to see jeepneys as cute though :-/
Funny or naughty - a Shrek 2 VCD. One of my favorite movies! Too bad I already have it in DVD.
Geeky - a Sudoku book.
Chemical - alcogel, which is actually in my shopping list. :)
We oughta do something else next year... :)
2 comments:
We have a similar thing here but it's Secret Santa --> you actually know who your baby is. When you pick your baby, it has some information there about your baby which they filled up themselves such as favorite candy, color, food, drink, etc. :) So it was easy to shop for... we give them what they want --> just like Santa!
Secret Santa! Yeah, that's what we did on my first Chicago Christmas... I messed it up though since I gave my name (not following instructions) :P
Last year we had a better game though... it's Dirty Santa or something wherein you can steal a gift :D
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