Compulsory Secret Santa???

[Sandra6]

I'm quite a fan of Secret Santa in general. One of my groups of friends do it every year with a fiver limit.
I organise it for my children so they each choose a gift for just one sibling and my eldest daughter has taken to doing it with a group of her friends.
But today my 10 year old came home and said she has to do it as part of her class and her person is a boy called Owen. I am supposed to provide a gift for £2.50. I said no.
Too harsh??
I really don't see the point. We don't buy presents for the children's friends as a rule, unless they have a "best" friend. £2.50 is not going to buy anything worth having and I don't even know this child so wouldn't know what to buy him.
Plus I have enough to do without going out for an additional gift before the end of the week.
Would you join in or make a stance?

 

[MontyVeda]

well... do you want your daughter to be the only one in the class who didn't join in? and poor Owen with no prezzie

it's only a couple of quid so get a generic boys prezzie... cheap woolly hat, a pair of gloves, a scarf?

or a "Nut Allergy Detection Kit" ... aka, a bag of mixed nuts

 

[Fab Foodie]

Yes, too harsh.
We used to have to make cakes for the cake sale at school, they sold for less than the ingredients to make them, we could have donated the cash, spared the time and they'd have made more money...
But that's not exactly the spirit is it?

 

[Hover Fly]

All the cigarettes you can get for £2.50. It won't happen again.

 

[green1]

I'd be more than a bit annoyed to be honest and would be telling the school so.

 

[green1]

All the cigarettes you can get for £2.50. It won't happen again.

or condoms...

 

[Hover Fly]

Or a miniature bottle of whisk(e)y.

 

[Arch]

I think it would have been nice to be consulted or warned in good time (unless it's like the time I forgot to tell my Mum about the costume I needed for a play, until the night before...), but for £2,50, I think I'd just do it. Perhaps also then have a word with the school to say you're not happy with the idea in future.

 

[green1]

Or a miniature bottle of whisk(e)y.

For the some of the 10 year olds around here the perfect gift would be a bottle of white lightning.

 

[mattobrien]

Doesn't Father Christmas bring the presents?

 

[MossCommuter]

All the cigarettes you can get for £2.50. It won't happen again.

You haven't bought cigarettes recently have you?

 

[mark st1]

£2.50 my boy's is £5 and he got someone in his class he doesnt like so he is more annoyed than us lol

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

We had a secret santa at work, and the person I'd been allocated to buy a present for was off at the time, and it turned out to be long term.

I left before they returned, so I never got my present

 

[Speicher]

We had a secret santa at work, and the person I'd been allocated to buy a present for was off at the time, and it turned out to be long term.

I left before they returned, so I never got my present

* goes to Shaun's office to find Mad Doug Biker's present *

 

[vernon]

£2.50 my boy's is £5 and he got someone in his class he doesnt like so he is more annoyed than us lol

He can always buy hair bands, and a bottle of cheap nail varnish to demonstrate his dislike. The rules don't say you have to buy nice presents.