Annual Holiday Gift Exchange
So we had our annual gift exchange today at work. Basically, everyone picks a number. Starting from 1, people can either pick a gift from the table or steal a gift from someone that already picked one. The person with number 1 is allowed at the end to steal a gift from someone if they so choose. As far as stealing gifts, you are allowed to steal a gift from anyone that already has one, but each gift can not be stolen more than 3 times. Once it’s been stolen for the third time, it can no longer be stolen.
Anyway, this year, they allowed people to immediately steal a gift back from someone that stole it from you. So, say I see someone with an iTunes gift card (just using the example of what I ended up with… /snore). I can steal it from them, but if they wanted, they could have stolen it right back. Well, what that basically ended up creating was a situation where if you were the first person to steal a gift from someone, it was basically yours to keep if you wanted it. Once you steal something for the first time, even if that person stole it back from you, you could immediately steal it back again, which makes 3 steals and locks the gift. So yeah, that happened a lot.
Like I said, I ended up with a $15 iTunes gift card. Try as I might, no one would steal it from me. Big surprise. That’s the one thing I dislike about these gift exchanges. People get lazy and uncreative. I always bring in a gift that is a little funny, somewhat useful, and definitely not a gift card. This year, I brought in one of those M&M candy dispensers in the shape of a fortune teller green M&M. I think last year I brought in like a mini pool game or something. Also, every year I’ve done this gift thing except this year, I ended up with something cool. Last year I got a pair of Nerf guns. The year before that, I got a dancing Santa. Before that, I got a desktop punching bag.
I guess I can’t really complain about my gift card. I can use it to buy some apps for my iPhone. I’d use it for songs, but a) I could maybe get one album with it, and b) I’ve stopped buying music from iTunes. I’d much rather buy DRM-free songs from Amazon.com. So yeah, maybe I’ll get some cool paid apps or something.
Hopefully next year, people get more creative. We’ve already determined that we’re not going to allow people to steal gifts back immediately after they’ve been stolen from you. That should help it not be so predictable…
