Secret Santa Gifts for Coworkers You Don't Know (At All)
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Todd Winfield writes the HR-Approved workplace humor series.
You unfold the little piece of paper. It's a name you've seen exactly twice: once in the elevator, where you both stared at the floor numbers like they were a thriller, and once on a Teams call, where they said "sorry, you go" and then neither of you went.
The best Secret Santa gifts for coworkers you don't know are about shared office life, not about them: a desk blanket, a good notebook, or a clean office humor book. Spend 90 seconds looking for clues first, then add a card that makes them laugh. This guide covers all three, so you can hand over the gift in front of 22 coworkers, a tray of cookies and someone filming on their phone without breaking a sweat.
Quick answer: what do you get a coworker you don't know?
Short on time? Any of these 10 works for someone you know nothing about.
| Gift | Why it works on a stranger |
|---|---|
| A cozy fleece desk blanket | Every office is freezing. This is not a guess, it's a law of physics. |
| A good dotted notebook | Everyone takes notes. Nobody buys themselves the nice one. |
| A desk organizer tray | Neat people love it. Messy people need it. Win either way. |
| A 500-piece jigsaw puzzle | It's a gift and a quiet weekend in one box. |
| A plant mister or a fun plant pot | Half the office has a desk plant. The other half has a dead one. |
| A pack of fun vinyl stickers | For the laptop lid, the water bottle, or the boring badge holder. |
| A "do not disturb" desk sign | Everyone has a coworker who drops by "real quick." |
| Office Survival Explained by Cats | Office jokes told through cats. It's the safest book we publish. |
| Office Holiday Party Survival Guide | They're literally at the office holiday party. It's on theme. |
| Would You Rather? HR Approved Edition | It gives the two of you something to talk about at the party. |
How do you find out what a coworker likes without asking?
Use the 90-second detective method. You don't know them, but they've been leaving clues all year, and nobody's been reading them.
Here's where to look. The rule: anything they share with the whole office is fair game. Anything you'd need a ladder, a password, or their mother to find is not.
- Their desk. Walk past once, casually, holding a coffee as cover. Look for plants, photos, a sports team, a sad pile of chargers.
- Their Slack or Teams profile. The photo, the status emoji, the custom status. Someone whose status is always 🎧 is telling you something.
- Their video background. A real bookshelf is a clue. A blurred background is also a clue, just a more mysterious one.
- Their out-of-office message. Nobody writes "hiking in Utah" in an auto-reply unless they want people to know about the hiking.
- The potluck. Whatever they brought last year is a free personality test.
- Their work bestie. Ask, but give yourself a cover story. "I'm doing a team quiz" works. "I'm buying them a gift" works only if the friend can keep a secret, and the friend cannot keep a secret.
Ninety seconds. No stalking, no LinkedIn deep dives, no checking who they followed on Instagram in 2017.
Step 2: Match the clue to the gift
Found something? Here's what to do with it.
| If you noticed… | Get them… |
|---|---|
| A sweater on their chair in July | A fleece desk blanket or a USB hand warmer |
| A small jungle on their desk | A plant mister or a quirky pot. Not another plant, they're full |
| Noise-canceling headphones, always on | A "do not disturb" desk sign. They'll understand |
| A laptop already covered in stickers | More stickers. They have a system, so respect it |
| Lunch at their desk every day | A nice bento-style lunch box |
| A spotless, color-coded desk | A desk organizer tray. Yes, even though it's already organized |
| A desk that looks like a tornado hit it | Also a desk organizer tray, for a different reason |
| A beach as their video background | A 500-piece puzzle of somewhere warm |
| Always first to the trivia table | HR Approved Corporate Trivia |
| A status that says "in meetings" all day, every day | HR Approved Corporate Sarcasm, a 365-day desk calendar |
The last two are ours, and we're biased. But the person stuck in back-to-back meetings has earned a page a day that laughs about it with them.
No clues at all? The Switzerland gifts
Some people leave no trace. Bare desk, default avatar, camera off since 2020. You could be buying for a very polite ghost.
For them, go neutral. A Switzerland gift is one that won't offend anyone, doesn't assume a hobby, and has no age, gender, or diet attached.
- Office Survival Explained by Cats. Office jokes, delivered by cats. The cats take the edge off every joke, so it lands with anyone from the intern to the CFO. If you're buying blind, this is the one.
- HR Approved Office Holiday Party Survival Guide. Secret Santa, awkward small talk, that one coworker by the snack table. You're handing it to them at the office holiday party, so the timing is unbeatable.
- Would You Rather? HR Approved Edition. The gift that solves your other problem: what to say once they open it. Read them the first question, and you've got a conversation. (It's also activity #2 in our virtual team building activities, if your team is remote.)
- A good dotted notebook. The safest non-book gift there is. It costs very little to look thoughtful.
- A fleece desk blanket. No one has ever complained about being slightly too cozy at 3 PM in December.
For a male coworker, a female coworker, or anyone
People search for "Secret Santa gifts for coworkers, male" and "female" a lot. Here's the honest answer: when you don't know someone, gender is the least useful clue you have. A desk blanket doesn't care. Neither does a cat.
Still, if you want a starting point:
- For a male coworker you don't know: a desk organizer tray, a 500-piece puzzle, or Would You Rather? HR Approved Edition. Avoid the cliché "for him" aisle of novelty bottle openers. He has four.
- For a female coworker you don't know: a fleece desk blanket, a good notebook, or Office Survival Explained by Cats. Avoid the cliché "for her" aisle of scented candles. She also has four, and you don't know which scents she likes.
- For anyone at all: any Switzerland gift above.
What should you write in a Secret Santa card?
The card is where you get to be funny. A plain "Merry Christmas!" is fine. A good line makes them show the card to the person next to them.
Pick one:
- "From your Secret Santa, who has definitely seen you near the printer."
- "I asked around. Nobody knows anything about you. Very impressive. Enjoy."
- "Selected after a thorough investigation that HR has confirmed was not creepy."
- "Per my last gift… just kidding, this is my first. Happy holidays!"
- "May your inbox be empty and your meetings be canceled."
- "I don't know you yet, but I know you've survived this year. That's enough."
Avoid anything that sounds like you know a lot about them. "Saw you at the gym" is a gift card's worth of creepy.
Need more office-safe lines like these? We wrote 66 of them in HR-approved ways to say things at work.
How not to blow your cover
The secret is half the fun, so protect it.
- Wrap it at home. Wrapping at your desk is how everyone finds out.
- Ditch the receipt and the order confirmation. Leaving a "Your order has shipped!" email open on your screen counts as a confession.
- Disguise the handwriting. Print in capitals. Or type the tag. Or get your kid to write it, which also improves the spelling of nobody's name.
- Act surprised. When they open it, look as curious as everyone else. Do not say "I hoped you'd like that one."
Secret Santa crimes to avoid
A few gifts look fine at the store and get awkward in the break room:
- The regift with the old tag still on it. "To Dave, love Grandma" is a terrible way to start a working relationship.
- The gift you secretly want. If you're already planning to borrow it, buy two.
- The inside joke you don't have. You don't know them. There are no inside jokes yet.
- "World's Best Coworker" anything. You've met them twice. You can't make that claim.
- Going way over the price cap. It makes everyone else look cheap, and nobody forgets it.
For more on what not to buy (and the gifts that actually get kept), see our funny coworker gifts guide, sorted by Secret Santa budget.
Questions people actually ask
What if I drew my boss in Secret Santa?
Treat it like any coworker you don't know well, and keep it light and clean. Skip "World's Best Boss" (it reads as flattery in front of the team) and skip anything expensive. Office Survival Explained by Cats or the Office Holiday Party Survival Guide are safe in both directions.
What if I drew someone I don't like?
Congratulations, you now know more about them than anyone else in this guide. Use what they complain about to pick something genuinely useful. A good gift for someone you don't get along with is quietly generous, and no one ever has to know.
Is a gift card a bad Secret Santa gift for a coworker?
It's not bad, just forgettable. If you go that route, make it specific (a local coffee shop beats a generic Visa card) and add a funny card so it feels chosen, not grabbed at the checkout.
How do you reveal yourself as a Secret Santa?
Only if your office does reveals. If it does, keep it short: wait until they've opened it, then say "That was me. I hope the investigation paid off." If your office keeps it secret, let it stay secret. The mystery is part of the gift.
Is a book a good Secret Santa gift for a coworker?
Yes, if it's quick and funny, not homework. Skip anything productivity-related, because nobody wants to unwrap a hint. Short, clean humor books are easy to read in a break, easy to pass around, and easy to open in front of the whole team.
Start here
You've got a name and three weeks. Here's the shortcut:
- No clues at all: Office Survival Explained by Cats. Safe for anyone.
- Want it on theme: HR Approved Office Holiday Party Survival Guide. It's literally the holiday party.
- Want to break the ice when they open it: Would You Rather? HR Approved Edition.
Shopping for someone you do know? Our funny coworker gifts guide matches the gift to whatever they've complained about all year. And if you're the boss buying for the whole team, see funny employee appreciation gifts under $20.