Useful Yankee swap gifts?

[maslex]

We have a Yankee swap coming up Christmas Eve with a $20 limit. If you've ever participated in these what has been the most useful gift you have either given or received.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

We have one of these at work. I literally just brought back the same thing I ended up with last year and re-gifted it.

I did like some soup cups that I ended up with. I like stuff like that. Some people really liked silly stuff like Snuggies and stuff like that.

 

[mmbrad02]

I've never played under that particular name but my daughter had what seems like a similiar exchange last week with one of her clubs. We ordered a set of Emotional Support Chicken Nugget stuffed animals from Amazon and included a $10 Chick Fil A giftcard.

 

[hardcorestitch]

We have a Yankee swap coming up Christmas Eve with a $20 limit. If you've ever participated in these what has been the most useful gift you have either given or received.

(hands out gift card)

 

[CynBeth]

When we did at my former job people seemed to like gift cards, Bath and Body Works (you would need to be sure no one is scent sensitive), and scratch off lottery tickets.

 

[fla4fun]

Something useful to anyone, like some kitchen towels/pot holders in a neutral color were always appreciated. I never wanted anything that wasn’t useful. Gift cards only work if they are very generic (for example, not everyone drinks coffee or likes a specific restaurant). I have sensitive skin so any kind of bath or lotion gift set was automatically regifted. One year I got a set of small kitchen utensils (a manual can opener, measuring spoons) and that has been very useful. Another year I got a crank powered flashlight which is always handy since I don’t need batteries for it in an emergency.

 

[disneychrista]

I am not a fan of these types of things especially if you don't really know the people well. What is useful and fun for one person may not be for another. We used to do this for my department at work. I opted out the last few years as I don't really want these types of gifts. Even though they were with "good gifts" not joke gifts, I still ended up donating the items to Goodwill.

If I was to do it again I would probably pick up some cozy socks or something similar.

 

[Genie+]

Roughly $20 - I think people would find these more useful than they expected, and if not something they’d ever use probably know someone else who’d enjoy them

 

[kanne323]

My large extended family does a Yankee swap- our limit is a little higher, though. You never really know what's going to be the biggest hit, but the most fought-over gifts of the last few years have included a set of Pyrex (not sure if that's in your budget, it was a Costco thing), LED flashlights (two people put them in one year), and believe it or not, a Squatty Potty. That one was stolen three times, our steal limit. Gift cards usually go over well, too.

 

[barkley]

I like useful things so here's a few I've gotten or gifted-


(I like the sets b/c that way every seat in the car has one within hand's reach)





zipties are VERY handy to have on hand/a few in the car. likewise are-




but then I would also be very pleased to get one of those big packs of brand name double or triple A batteries from Costco.

 

[LoveDaisy]

We have one at work that is optional. I don’t do the gift exchange but I usually go to watch. It was a $25 limit. This year the popular gifts were gift cards to a local breakfast and lunch place by work, gc for the movies, a collection of gift sets from Trader Joe’s (3 packs of balsamic glaze and a 3 pack of honey with a grump tree), scratchy tickets, and a beautiful hand knitted scarf, hat and mittens.

Grump tree. I bought one at Trader Joe’s today.

 

[anniemae]

One year I bought a pizza stone and it was the gift everyone wanted. Another year I did some fancy dipping olive oil's and that was a hit too.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Somebody brought a Covid test to ours this year... I gotta admit, I laughed a lot over that. Another one that got a lot of laughs was a partially used Starbucks GC.

For legit gifts though, I think a GC would be a good idea (if it was fully loaded)

 

[barkley]

rolls of pennies for the dollar amount of the swap. tell the recipient to put them away for nostalgia purposes.