I used to work at a place where we exchanged gifts at Christmastime.
Well, some of us did.
We would draw numbers. Number one would open a gift. Number two could “steal” number one’s gift or open a new one. A gift could be “stolen” up to three times.
Sadly, most of the people just bought gift certificates for different places. Imagine the joy of opening a $25 gift certificate from Wal-Mart…or the Home Depot. I don’t know if the creative juices weren’t flowing for these people or they were afraid their gift choice would be ridiculed, which did happen every once in a while. But only to me.
This seemed to be an opportunity to have a little fun, to buy something out of the ordinary. The gift would say a lot about the giver. The gift certificate thing to me seemed like giving them a free haircut or a carton of milk.
The first year I thought it was a gag gift exchange. I bought an electric hairbrush. Don’t ask me how it worked, I was afraid to plug it in.
The next year, I had a photo on my wall in the spare bedroom that was a picture of a hole at Pinehurst #2, the famous jewel (kind of like a cubic zirconia) of the Pinehurst, Inc. empire. I don’t know where it came from, but it was there.
Anyway, I wrapped up the photo and took it to the gift exchange. After my unfortunate recipient opened it, I realized that it wasn’t a photo but a page out of a magazine put into a picture frame. You could see the crease in the paper and where the staples were.
Oops. However, it’s still hanging on the wall in his office.
I refused to give in to the gift certificate ground swell, which had engulfed almost the entire office. It was a tough road. I don’t remember what I did for the next few years, except for the year I gave a book in the “Worst Case Scenario” Series and a Leatherman tool. No one saw the irony. Not sure I do anymore either.
Another year, I gave “Magnetic Poetry” for the gift. It’s a bunch of little magnets with words that you can use to string together sentences on your refrigerator. It’s for creative people (who happen to be standing in front of their refrigerator) and I thought I worked with these types. I thought it was a great gift.
However, not so. The blank look on her face after she opened it and the laughter that ensued is still a painful memory.
Unrelated to that, it was my last year with the company. I don’t know what they do now for gift exchange…maybe just trade $20 bills in unmarked envelopes…
