I have my first Christmas party of the season today, well this evening, and we – that is, everyone in the office – have been asked to take part in a “Secret Santa Extravaganza!”

I can only assume that in this case ‘Extravaganza!’ is defined as, ‘Buying a stranger something for under a fiver!’.

I have no interest in buying a present for Anne in Projects. I don’t care if it is ‘only a fiver’. What about my time? This is incredibly valuable (to me an society at large), and I could be doing something much more life-affirming than looking for a moderately amusing novelty gift for someone I’ve spoken to twice in my entire life.

I have to give this ‘gift’ at 6pm this evening, and I have not done any shopping for it (this should not come as a surprise to any of you).

So this is where you all come in.

I must put something in the Secret Santa Sack for Anne in Projects at some point later today, and it must be something that is readily available to me from my current desk-bound location.

So far my short-list of gift ideas is:

1. Five pound coins cellotaped to the inside of a card given to me by a supplier.
2. Eight Euro’s cellotaped to the inside of a card given to me by a supplier.
3. A handwritten IOU.
4. A Nokia mobile phone charger (I have a spare one in my desk).
5. A full set off barely-used Impega colour marker pens.

Please let me know which you think will be most appropriate, or suggest some other gift that would be both suitably ingenious and also mean that I don’t have to leave my desk. I will be busy for most of the and then flying to Edinburgh for the party, but will check back in with you all later in the afternoon and I will go with whatever the general consensus appears to be.

I will then report back on Monday on how well the gift was received.

Thinking caps on people!

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