The short answer
- Best for someone you barely know: 2 big bars of Tony's Chocolonely. It gets shared round the office and is gone by Friday.
- Best desk gift: a 3-pack of Field Notes pocket notebooks. Cheap enough that people write in them.
- Best plant: a snake plant or a ZZ plant. Both cope with office lighting and 2 weeks without water over the holidays.
- A gift that lasts all year: 365 Days of Zen, a desk book with a Zen teaching and a short reflection for every day. It takes about 2 minutes with the first coffee, from the first workday in January.
- Best book for a colleague you don't know well: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (2021). About 115 pages, set in the week before Christmas, and safe for anyone.
- Best if you know what they're into: the Oxford Very Short Introduction on their subject. There are hundreds, each short and written by an expert.
Book prices move in December, so check on the day. Each category is below, and all 12 are in one table at the end.
Something to eat or drink
Food is the safest Secret Santa gift. It gets shared around, and by the new year it's gone.
Tony's Chocolonely is a Dutch company set up to make chocolate without slave labour. The bars are split into uneven pieces on purpose, as a point about how unequally the cocoa trade is divided. Buy 2 big ones.
Coffee from a local roaster is the other easy one, as long as they drink coffee. Leave alcohol out unless you know them well. It's the one food gift that can go wrong at work.
Something for the desk
Field Notes are pocket notebooks sold in 3-packs, and they're cheap enough that people use them. A notebook too nice to write in ends up in a drawer, which is the thing we're avoiding. Add a good pen and it looks like a set.
A snake plant or a ZZ plant is the other safe desk gift. Both cope with low light and with going unwatered while the office is shut over the holidays.
And offices get dry in December. A tube of unscented hand cream gets used daily, and unscented matters, since you don't know who gets headaches.
A gift that lasts all year
A desk book keeps working after the party. It's a subscription that arrives all at once: 365 short pages, starting January 1, so it's in use on their first day back.
365 Days of Zen is the one we'd pick for an office. Each page has a Zen teaching or koan and a short reflection, and it takes about 2 minutes with the first coffee. ★4.6 across 76 Amazon ratings.
365 Days of Tao is our bestseller. Each day has a few lines of the Tao Te Ching and a short reflection on what they meant then and what to do with them now. ★4.7 across 222 Amazon ratings.
Both paperbacks come in under $25 in the US, and 365 Days of Zen is often discounted. The best-known book in the format is The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman (2016). It's a hardcover, so check the price against your limit on the day you buy.
365 Days of Zen is the wrong gift for a colleague who'd rather not be handed anything spiritual at work. If you're unsure, go with the chocolate. To check the tone first, read a week of the free daily Zen or Tao email. Both are the same one-page format.
For a remote Secret Santa, send the Kindle edition. Amazon's "Buy for others" button on the Kindle page takes their email and a delivery date.
A book they'll finish
Small Things Like These (2021) by Claire Keegan is the one for a colleague you've spoken to twice. It's about 115 pages and set in an Irish town in the week before Christmas 1985. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (2019) by Charlie Mackesy is ink drawings with a few kind sentences on each page. It's hard to give to the wrong person.
Four Thousand Weeks (2021) by Oliver Burkeman suits the colleague with 3 calendars. An average life is about 4,000 weeks, and Burkeman's case is that you'll never finish the to-do list, so choose what to neglect.
If you know what they're into, the Oxford Very Short Introduction on it shows you listened. There are hundreds of them, each small enough for a coat pocket. Small books for stocking stuffers has more in this size.
What to leave out
Skip jokes about age or weight. They get a laugh from the room and a quiet grudge from the person.
Skip anything that needs explaining. If you have to say "it's a joke", it's already gone wrong.
All 12 at a glance
| The gift | Category | Why it gets used |
|---|---|---|
| Tony's Chocolonely, 2 big bars | Something to eat or drink | Shared round the office, gone by Friday. |
| Coffee from a local roaster | Something to eat or drink | The upgrade on what they drink at their desk every day. |
| A Field Notes 3-pack and a good pen | Something for the desk | Cheap enough to write in. Fits a pocket. |
| A snake plant or a ZZ plant | Something for the desk | Survives office lighting and the holiday shutdown. |
| Unscented hand cream | Something for the desk | Offices are dry in December. Used daily. |
| 365 Days of Zen · ours | A gift that lasts all year | A Zen teaching and a reflection a day, 2 minutes with the first coffee. ★4.6 across 76 Amazon ratings. |
| 365 Days of Tao · ours | A gift that lasts all year | A few lines of the Tao Te Ching a day, with a reflection. Our bestseller. ★4.7 across 222 Amazon ratings. |
| The Daily Stoic · Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman (2016) | A gift that lasts all year | The best-known desk book. Hardcover, so check it fits the limit. |
| Small Things Like These · Claire Keegan (2021) | A book they'll finish | About 115 pages, set before Christmas. Safe for anyone. |
| The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse · Charlie Mackesy (2019) | A book they'll finish | Ink drawings and a few kind lines a page. |
| Four Thousand Weeks · Oliver Burkeman (2021) | A book they'll finish | For the overbooked colleague. Calming, and useful at work. |
| A Very Short Introduction on their subject | A book they'll finish | Hundreds to choose from. Shows you listened. |
Still stuck?
A page-a-day book handed over in December doubles as a New Year's resolution that starts on time. Books for New Year's resolutions covers that angle, and Zen Buddhism for beginners explains the ideas behind 365 Days of Zen.
For everyone else on your list, the holiday book gift guide is sorted by person, and how to choose a book gift has the method.
Common questions
What is a good Secret Santa gift under $25?
Something they'll eat or use at their desk. Good chocolate or coffee, a Field Notes 3-pack, a snake plant, or a desk book such as 365 Days of Zen, which gives them 2 minutes of reading every workday from January 1.
What do you get a coworker you don't know well?
Food, or a short book that suits anyone. Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These is about 115 pages and set at Christmas. Leave out alcohol and joke gifts.
What is a good book for Secret Santa?
Small Things Like These for a colleague you barely know, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse for anyone having a hard year, or a page-a-day desk book such as 365 Days of Zen or 365 Days of Tao. Both paperbacks come in under $25 in the US.
What's a Secret Santa gift that won't get thrown away?
Something that gets used up or used daily: chocolate, coffee, a plant, a pocket notebook, or a page-a-day book with a reading for every date of the year.
Can I send a Secret Santa gift by email?
Yes, if it's a Kindle book. On the Amazon page for the Kindle edition, "Buy for others" lets you enter their email and a delivery date, which suits remote teams.