Do you give your co-workers holiday presents, and if so, what kinds of gifts do you give them?

I have given my staff presents in the past. I have done gift certificates to major bookstore chains; bottles of wine; movie tickets (a pair).

I usually do a lot of cookie baking re-Christmas for my family and bring a big box of assorted cookies in for my colleagues as my Christmas gift.

Since my husband is the office manager, he distributes the company supplied gifts, which are usually Starbucks cards or similar. There are usually cookies and candy supplied by the workers, and they organize a pot luck once a month or so.

I do not.

I do, and we exchange gifts. I spend usually in the $25 – $30 range and get them something specific to them I think they would like. My boss is the hardest though, as he has everything and never uses anything anyone gives him. It always winds up sitting in the office :/

Things I have given in the past:

$10 gift certificate for Starbucks tucked into a tiny Xmas stocking

Bottles of hot sauce (for a guy I knew who loved hot sauce)

A single serving tea pot with a lid that served as a cup and some loose tea and tea bags (for a co-worker I knew loved tea, who I knew hated drinking burnt coffee out of styrofoam cups)

Loaves of pumpkin bread

Cookbooks (inexpensive ones, but still with good recipes) maybe with a wooden spoon tied onto the package.

Jams and jellies and honey from one of our local farms.

Giant chocolate bars from Trader Joe’s.

Most of the boxed and tinned holiday candy selections from Trader Joe’s.

A book called Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook for a co-worker who was interested in survival stuff.

A hot food thermos and a spork, for a fellow who was always eating his lunch out of the vending machines (got a few nice ones at Cost Plus Imports last year for $7, they’re usually about $20).

One of those ceramic coffee cups that looks like the paper Starbucks cups with the ring around them. Like This

For one older co-worker who told wonderful stories about his life (and I kept encouraging him to write the down) I got this book called The Book of Myself that helps the story teller get started by asking 201 questions.

A selection of dry spice rubs for a co-worker who liked to barbecue.

A calendar with horses on it, for a woman who loved horses.

Single bottles of exotic beer, like a chocolate stout, for one guy who was a beer enthusiast.

An insulated water carafe for one of my co-workers who liked to keep hydrated but was relegated to his office most of the time and his office was far away from the water cooler. He was tickled pink when he saw it.

A homemade CD of Christmas music for one of the few co-workers who actually enjoyed Christmas music. I have a rather large collection of Xmas music, so this guy was thrilled with my choices. I also designed the cover.

And last, but not least, a rare book of poetry by Hunter S. Thompson that I found at a thrift store, for a co-worker who was a huge fan of the writer.

I use to work part time at a wholesale drug company. I transported pharmcy drugs to KMart and various other stores. One year, Christmas was about to roll around and the drivers and other employees were excited as to what the company would give us for Christmas. It did not take long for the company to kill our Christmas spirit. There were seven delivery people. The company had planned a Christmas dinner about four days before Christmas. The day for the dinner finally arrived and we loaded our trucks as usual for the days delivery. We all waited about thirty minutes to see what the company had for us for Christmas. Nothing! Zero! Naught!

They had forgotten about their drivers, the people that made them their money. We thought they would have at least given us a card with $50 dollars in it or invited us to the big Christmas dinner at 2 pm. Nope…..they just plain forgot about us and apparently did not care. We the drivers were steaming mad. We kept seeing delivery trucks of food being brought in, but not a morsel for the drivers. Five out of the seven drivers walked into the supervisors office and asked us why they left us out? His reply was, “we knew you would be out on the road making deliveries and this is why you were not invited”. “What about $25, so we could eat out on the road or maybe a Christmas basket for each driver”, I asked. He said they had made no arrangements for us. All of the drivers held a huddle and came to this conclusion:
They only thought of themselves. It was obvious. We were the breadwinners for this company and they never even acknowledged that we existed.

We all took a quick vote and decided to quit, that very moment. We left our trucks loaded with drugs to be delivered. We left our supervisor with a red face and panicking as to what to do next.

That was a good Christmas that year, despite the lack of concern from the drug company.

Our decision to quit was never regretted.

@john65pennington Wow that stinks! Good for you guys.

At the place where I used to work, there were certain employees, like guards and the folks that worked at the front desk and the retail section that couldn’t come down for the holiday party, so we also got a bunch of These and put together meals for everyone who was working during the party and we put their names on them and stuck them in the fridge (before all of the food was gone).

One year, we had a few contract technicians working in the building, I think they were electricians or something like that, we even put together plates for them, so they wouldn’t feel left out while we all stuffed our faces down the hall. You’ve never seen such happy service people : )

Not unless they’re close friends who just so happen to also be coworkers. I might make some baked goods if I feel in the mood and take it into the office, but I actually prefer to do that when it isn’t the holidays. Then it’s more like a random treat, instead of pressure for everyone to taste yet another thing while also trying to ‘cut down on holiday sweets this year’.

One year we had a really fun secret santa/ party at my boss’s apartment, and everyone got plastered off of the spiked eggnog. We did a secret santa and it was really easy for me, because my co-worker and I liked all the same music. I just filled up a USB device with lots of different songs.

This year I don’t know the people in my workplace as well, but they’d probably enjoy some fancy snacks to go with beer and wine.