The holiday season is here, and with it comes shopping. Whether it’s for Christmas and Hannukah gifts, or food for your Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts, you’re spending money.
You can bet that I’ve already started my shopping. I’m hosting Thanksgiving this year, and I’ve already bought my turkey.
But I’ve also started my Christmas shopping. I start looking for ideas for my son and my family around October. I’ve even started buying gifts for my son. I know it’s still pretty early in November, but there is the rumor going around about the shortages this year. Have you heard them? One rumor claims that items coming from China could take a long time, and another rumor says there’s a shortage of delivery drivers, which could add to the delays in getting gifts delivered to homes on time.
Generally, I prefer going into the store and picking out the perfect gift for a friend or relative. If I know I can see the item in person, I can better decide if I like it enough to buy it. But I’ve come to appreciate online ordering as well. I mean, the fact that I can shop online, and it’s delivered to my house? That’s pretty awesome! And I don’t really have to get dressed and get ready as if I was going shopping in the stores.
Secret Santa Shopping
But what about Secret Santa shopping? Do you look forward to this at work or with your family? Or do you groan over having to spend more money? I’m generally a mix of dread and excitement at the idea of Secret Santa. Before you get ahead of me, let me explain the emotions it evokes. I’m super excited because it’s fun to do and I love the idea of getting something the recipient might enjoy. But then I have dread as I worry whether I’ve picked the right gift. Will they like it? Do they already have it? Should I hang onto the receipt?
I promise you, faithful readers, that this blog is going somewhere. Last year, around the holidays, my team was introduced to a website called Elfster.com. The first time I heard of it was in an email, and the name felt funny in my mouth as I said it out loud. Then I was intrigued to see what the website was. As I visited the site, I immediately saw the festive feeling of Christmas.
Elfster.com Is Free To Join!
Let’s start with possibly the best part about this website. It’s free to join, and that just happens to be one of my favorite words. Also, everyone can create their wish list and it can be shared with whomever they choose. The way I’ve been looking at it is like a Christmas list. Except you can also let your colleagues see what your heart is wishing for this holiday season.
What do you think of this Secret Santa wish list? Will this make things easier for the gift-givers in your life? Better yet, would something like this help you with shopping for your loved ones? I’ll be honest with y’all…I can see our company using something like this in the future for Secret Santa.
The team with Albuquerque Plumbing Heating & Cooling was unable to hold our yearly Secret Santa last year for the obvious reason – Covid. But this year we’re looking forward to it. We’re ready to learn more about the person behind the name we pull from a bowl, including their likes and their hobbies. And while we may agonize over the perfect gift for that person, we will anxiously await seeing the smile on their faces or hearing from others what they thought of their present. Knowing how much someone enjoys a gift is pretty gratifying in itself, and we’ll be happy to see all the smiling faces of our team members this holiday season.