Funny Secret Santa Gifts for Colleagues: 15 Ideas

A good funny Secret Santa gift for a colleague gets a laugh when it's opened, stays within the agreed limit, and would go down just as well if the boss, the new starter or someone from HR unwrapped it. That rules out most rude gifts. The safest humour is about work itself: meetings, emails, coffee, Mondays. Below are four rules, 15 ideas on a small budget, how to run the draw without awkward moments and the gifts to steer clear of.

Four rules for a funny gift at work

1. Joke about work, never about the person: not their age, weight, looks, love life or habits. “Meetings are long” is funny; “you talk too much in meetings” isn't.
2. Stick to the limit: going over it embarrasses the people who didn't.
3. Make it usable or edible: a joke that ends up in the bin by January wasn't much of a gift.
4. Pass the open-in-public test: no swearing, no innuendo, nothing you'd mind being read out at the office party.

15 funny Secret Santa ideas on a small budget

1. A mug with a mild office joke, such as “This meeting could have been an email”.
2. A desk plant that's hard to kill, like a small cactus or succulent, with a name tag already written (“Kevin”).
3. A homemade “Out of office” sign for their desk, with a holiday photo of a beach they've never visited.
4. A printable colouring break kit: a few funny colouring pages and a pack of pencils (details below).
5. A “Do not disturb” desk sign with a line like “Deep in thought. Or a biscuit.”
6. Christmas socks: Christmas pudding pattern, nothing more personal than that.
7. A tin of biscuits for the team, labelled “For sharing (in theory)”.
8. A squishy desk toy for long phone calls.
9. A rubber duck for the IT team, who will know what it's for.
10. An emergency chocolate box: “Break glass in case of Monday”.
11. A tiny desk Christmas tree for the colleague with the barest desk.
12. A jar of 30 compliments, written on slips: “You were right in that meeting”, “Your spreadsheets are beautiful”.
13. Meeting bingo cards, homemade: “Can everyone see my screen?”, “You're on mute”, “Let's take this offline”.
14. A tea selection with a “Brew Crew” membership card.
15. A pack of playing cards or a pocket puzzle for the lunch break.

A printable colouring break kit

Our idea for someone who's always running from one meeting to the next: ZEN? NOT TODAY!, a book of 50 colouring pages for grown-ups, each with a funny quote about everyday life in big outlined letters to colour in too. Plenty of them suit an office: “Normal service will resume after coffee”, “I survived a meeting that could have been an email”, “My brain has too many tabs open”, “My social battery is flashing red”. There's no swearing anywhere in it.

How to put the kit together:

• Print 8 to 10 pages that suit your colleague, in black and white. The pages are US Letter; on A4, choose Fit to page.
• Use slightly thicker paper if you're adding felt tips, and print single-sided. Our guide to colouring pencils or felt tips explains which to pick.
• Clip them together with a bulldog clip, or tie them with ribbon or string.
• Add a pack of coloured pencils and a label: “For your next meeting that could have been an email.”

One rule matters here: the PDF is licensed for personal and family use, so you give the printed pages, never the file. Don't email or forward it, and don't print a copy for the whole team. More colouring ideas on our funny adult colouring pages page.

The colouring book for the kit

Zen? Not Today! Funny adult colouring book

€9.90

Zen? Not today! So you might as well grab the pencils.

Running the office Secret Santa without awkwardness

1. Make it opt-in. Ask who wants to take part; nobody should feel they have to.
2. Agree a limit and a date in the same message, so everyone knows both from the start.
3. Draw the names: from a hat at a team meeting, or with a free online name-drawing tool for remote teams.
4. Ask for a short wish slip: likes, dislikes, allergies, “no alcohol, please”. It saves a lot of guesswork.
5. Choose how the gifts are given: all opened together at the party, or left anonymously on desks on the last day.
6. Keep a spare gift for the new starter who joined after the draw or the person whose Santa forgot.
7. For remote colleagues, set an earlier date so presents can be posted in time.

In the US, many offices play White Elephant (or Yankee Swap) rather than Secret Santa: everyone brings one wrapped gift, then players take turns either opening a new one or stealing one already opened. Funny gifts work especially well, because the steals are half the game.

Wrapping a small gift so it looks generous

• Brown paper and string, with a sprig of something green tucked under the knot.
• A box inside a bigger box, inside another one: the unwrapping becomes part of the joke.
• Tissue paper in a paper bag, for awkward shapes.
• A handwritten tag with a line that keeps the mystery: “From your Secret Santa (no, it wasn't me).”

Gifts to avoid at work

• Anything about age, weight, looks or health: anti-ageing cream, diet books, “over the hill” mugs.
• Toiletries, deodorant or perfume, which can read as a hint.
• Alcohol, unless you know the person drinks and your workplace is fine with it.
• Rude gifts and innuendo, however funny they looked in the shop.
• Food with nuts, unless you've checked for allergies.
• Novelty clutter that will be in the bin by January.

Frequently asked questions