This happened to me just yesterday! I work on the admin side of a human-services non-profit with a team of mostly women and one man, who I will call Edgar. Edgar is in his mid-sixties, is very kind, very well-meaning, and not very smart – but his first two qualities make it difficult to get angry with him about the third.
Our team voted, unanimously, to do a Secret Santa this year, with gifts exchanged and givers revealed at the holiday luncheon. $25 present limit. Our boss distributed questionnaires to everyone to help us in our shopping endeavors. Stuff like, what kind of music do you enjoy, what’s your favorite snack, how do you like to pamper yourself, things like that. We fill out our questionnaires, pick our recipients, and everyone has a lovely time shopping over the weekend.
The luncheon is scheduled for yesterday afternoon. Yesterday morning, I am chatting to Edgar and to Mallory, another co-worker, and Edgar says to me, “How does this Secret Santa work, anyway? Do we all just put $25 in the pot and then draw names?”
Mallory and I exchange a Look, and I say to Edgar, as gently as I possibly can, “No. You buy a gift for your recipient that costs no more than $25, that’s appropriate to their interests according to the questionnaire that we filled out, and then we exchange them at the lunch.”
He says, “Oh, *shit*.”
After a hasty brainstorming session, Edgar leaves the office to run to the nearest Target, which sells both gift cards and festive greeting cards in which they could be placed, and Mallory and I express our mutual incredulousness that: one, Edgar hasn’t heard of Secret Santa before; two, he voted to participate in Secret Santa despite not knowing what it is; and three, he didn’t bother to ask anyone about how it worked until three hours before the deadline. Happy Holidays, one and all.
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