Sex toys, a half-eaten jar of jam and nose hair are among the weirdest Secret Santa gifts ever received, a new survey has revealed. And in one macabre case, a woman was gifted a personalised mug featuring a photo of her recently deceased husband.
Millions of Brits are expected to partake in a secret santa this Christmas, with the survey finding that most set a £10 limit on gifts. However it also revealed that despite being the season of goodwill, most shoppers are scrooge-like when it comes to splashing the cash.
Barely any break the bank – with most of those polled admitting to spending well under half of their budget on a gift. The poll of over 400 shoppers also revealed almost one in eight shoppers buy secret santa gifts from Poundland, with 63% admitting they would rather buy for a colleague they detest, than one they actually like.
“It turns some people are more like the Grinch than Father Christmas when it comes to Secret Santa,” said Matt Mavir, managing director of Last Night of Freedom. The Gateshead-based stag and hen party specialists conducted the survey ahead of launching their annual Top 20 rudest Secret Santa gifts.
And the firm found some had been on the receiving end of some “freaky” Secret Santa gifts. “Shoppers told us that they’d had everything from sex toys to food that had clearly been wrapped a few weeks earlier, and had long gone off,” said Matt.
“One man had received a sex toy that had clearly been bought last minute from a toilet vending machine. While someone else got given some posh preserves – albeit with what appeared to be a spoonful of jam missing from one unsealed jar.
“But there were also some freaky stories. One woman was just given what she thinks was nose hair and had no idea why."
Another woman admitted she was left in tears after someone had printed a picture taken from Facebook of her and her husband on a cup. “It would have been a thoughtful gift, but clearly it had been made weeks earlier – before he had died.”
Previously it was claimed that almost half of workers felt they had to tread carefully when it came to finding a Secret Santa gift that didn’t offend colleagues. But Matt said it is the season to be jolly – and that means mischief.
“Secret Santa is all about letting off a bit of steam and embracing that cheeky British sense of humour,” he said. "A gift shouldn’t be offensive or hateful, but given that it is anonymous, is also shouldn’t be dull and unimaginative.”
