A cheeky gift works at the office when it jokes about something the whole team shares, like meetings, the printer, or the coffee machine, and still gets used in January. Jokes about bodies, age, or dating belong in a friends' exchange, or nowhere.
Three checks before you buy
- Could it be opened in front of the whole team and explained in one sentence? If the explanation starts with “you had to be there,” it's an inside joke, and the rest of the room won't get it.
- Is the joke about a situation or about the person? A “this meeting could have been an email” notepad laughs at the meetings. A diet book laughs at your coworker.
- Will it be used after the laugh? A gag that ends up in the trash a day later wastes the whole budget.
Office-safe picks that still get a laugh
- A desk button that plays a sound effect. Sad trombone, rimshot, or applause, kept on the desk for the next bad pun in a meeting.
- A chocolate tool set. Hammer, wrench, and screwdriver in milk chocolate, for whoever always fixes the printer or the projector.
- A rubber duck for a developer. “Rubber duck debugging” means explaining a bug out loud, line by line, to a duck on your desk, so anyone who codes gets the joke. Pick a large one or one in a silly costume.
- A mini zen garden with a tiny rake. The joke is the stress of December deadlines. The sand and rake give their hands something to do during calls.
- A mug with a small ceramic frog sitting at the bottom. It looks like a normal mug from the outside, so it catches out anyone who borrows it and gets to the last sip.
- A comically large bag of one candy. Two pounds of gummy bears or licorice. It gets shared, so the whole team is in on the joke.
For gifts that are useful first and funny second, see our Secret Santa gifts for coworkers.
Friends-only: when the group knows each other well
A group that has been on vacation together can handle more. One condition still applies: the person opening the gift should laugh as hard as everyone watching.
- A toilet golf set. A small putting green that fits around the base of the toilet, with a mini putter and a couple of balls.
- Pasta in rude shapes. Fine for a group that jokes like this anyway. Skip it if a partner or relative of someone in the group will be there.
- A trio of very hot sauces with a pack of plain crackers. For the friend who claims nothing is too spicy.
- An all-white jigsaw puzzle. Hundreds of pieces and no picture, for the friend who brags about finishing every puzzle in one evening.
Where the line is, topic by topic
| Topic | At the office | Among friends |
|---|---|---|
| Work: meetings, emails, the printer | Yes, the safest topic | Works if the friends work together |
| Food and coffee habits | Yes, as long as it's generous, not a dig | Yes |
| Bathroom humor | No | Yes, if the group jokes like that |
| Innuendo | No | Only if nobody in the room would mind |
| Alcohol | No, unless the team clearly drinks and the company allows it | Yes, if you know the person drinks |
| Age, weight, looks | No | Only if it's a joke the person makes about themselves |
| Dating, religion, politics | No | Usually no |
Pair the joke with something they'll use
Wrap two things together: a cheap joke and a small present they'll use, so they still go home with something they like if the joke falls flat. Our suggestion: keep the joke to about a third of the budget. For example:
- The sound-effect button with a good gel pen
- The rubber duck with a bag of coffee beans
- The rude-shaped pasta with a jar of good pesto
On a small budget, take the useful half from our low-budget gift ideas.
Keep yourself anonymous
A joke only the two of you understand gives you away the moment it's opened. Skip anything custom-printed with a photo you took. Leave the card unsigned, and if you write anything, use block capitals so your handwriting doesn't give you away.
If your group draws names with our free Secret Santa generator, your private link shows your recipient's wishlist, interests, and gift ideas in the budget. If they listed something specific, buy that and add the joke as the small extra.
More ideas, including gag gifts for a group that agreed on joke presents only, are on our funny Secret Santa gifts page.
FAQ
Are gag gifts OK for a work Secret Santa?
Yes, if the joke is about work and the gift is still useful. Check the invitation first: if the organizer asked for serious gifts, a joke on its own can look like you didn't bother, so keep it to a small extra.
Can I give a funny gift to my boss?
Yes, from the office-safe list, but skip jokes about meetings or deadlines they run. From an anonymous coworker, those can read as a complaint about how they manage the team.