‘Tis the season of awkward office parties and obligatory gift exchanges a la Secret Santa. In the popular holiday tradition, each participant is randomly assigned to another to whom they present a gift anonymously. Each person’s gift-giver is only revealed after everyone has received their gifts.
Now this eventual reveal would be fine if you know your recipient well, and have gotten them a gift you know they’ll love. Unfortunately, when played among colleagues, Secret Santa is often semi-stressful, unlike when the game is played among longtime friends.
But team bonding doesn’t have to be painful, as unusual as that sounds. You can have fun.
Enter Secret Satan: A subversive version of Secret Santa that my ex-colleagues and I once played to unexpected success. The ridiculous absurdity of the whole situation bonded us faster than any Christmas custom would.
We weren’t fans of the unspoken pressure to impress with our gifting skills in Secret Santa, not least since the holiday season is meant to be relaxing.
So we switched up the rules – and now you can too.
HOW TO PLAY SECRET SATAN
Similar to Secret Santa, each participant is randomly assigned their gift recipient. The identity of givers is kept secret here too. But the rules for gifting are where it gets interesting.
In the Secret Satan that I played, there were only a few criteria: First, gifts had to cost less than S$5, and second, they couldn’t be items considered “normal” under Secret Santa.
There also remain no-go zones, like no religiously- or racially-insensitive gifts, despite the nature of Secret Satan. Even if you know the recipient appreciates such dark humour, remember they wouldn’t initially know who their gift-giver is.
In short, gifts can be tongue-in-cheek but not tasteless.
5 IDEAS FOR SECRET SATAN GIFTS
If you’re stuck on ideas, here are five to get the ball rolling.
They won’t get you a promotion, but you can expect to earn extra street cred. After all, a workplace would have to be pretty cool to agree to play Secret Satan in the first place.
1. A single sock
