Should “Secret Santa” at the Office Still be a Thing?

We asked you last week to weigh in on the question: "Are You a Fan of Offices doing Secret Santa?" Here are your response's:

• Joey R - "Yes! We do secret Santa every year and we all have so much fun with it" 
• Traci J - "Yes so fun! But then again my co-workers are practically family - we have no rules except for to have fun with it. I think it has to be the right mix of people or otherwise there has to be ground rules to be fair to everyone." 
• Carolyn K - "Yes! I think it brings people together!" 
• Stacy H - "No I’m a grinch" 
• Jeff J - "Yes, we do!" 
• Bill B - "Nope....It creates an opportunity for someone to feel left out or forgotten about. Cant make someone feel bad from not celebrating Christmas, birthday or leaving if don't celebrate none of it." 
• Sue S - "I am not because without fail someone gets nothing or something lame." 
• Chad S - "Only if it includes booze." 
• Rene K - "I'm always waaaaaay to broke for that!!"

Great responses to the question. Now, I understand that a lot of people like doing this and that many places of employment have been doing it for years. As someone stated above, I think the type of office, relationships in the office and the size of office comes into play. But...

I think Secret Santa is a bad idea for most businesses. Listen, I get it. It can be a fun thing to do around the office during the Christmas holiday but I also think that people have enough pressure and worries about gifts they have to buy their families, relatives and friends.

Plus, there's other things to factor in. Can everyone afford it? Maybe an office has employee's that don't have it in their budget to spend more money but they feel obligated to participate.

And then there's the possibility of, God forbid, you get someone in the office that you don't really know or even like. Now you have to try and buy something for them. That's not fun. 

There are many more reasons, but ultimately it doesn't seem worth it in the end.

Try something else to bring the holiday spirit to your office, something more beneficial to everyone. Like helping a charity. Use that money to stock local food shelves, for example, or help the many children in our community that desperately need it or any number of other great causes. That way, the money being spent makes everyone at office feel good...and some of those outside of it as well.