Christmas gifts for co-worker's spouse?

Question

My co-workers are married guys. Their respective wives baked some nice home-made goodies and these were given to me at work by the men. I want to give a christamas/holiday gift to my colleagues. I wanted to give something that they could use at work like a pen-set etc. But now, considering that their spouses worked hard to give me my gift - should I give something the spouse can use too?

FYI - I am single female and not good at baking, cooking etc. I am also somewhat new to the practice of exchanging gifts at christmas.

Answer 1

You can give them something useful. I got something unique on the following website. They have a kind of bamboo covered porcelains, tie dye tablecloth, coconut handbags, ethnic silver earrings and bracelets... All those things are perfect for the house wives.

Answer 2

First off I would like to start off by saying I wish more people baked in our office! Secondly, how well do you know your co-workers and their spouse? You can never go wrong with a gift certificate. Whether it's Home Depot or even Linen's - N - Things. Or maybe they like to do couple things together so a GC to the movie theatre is also a nice gesture. Although some people think that GC's arent very thoughtful - just remember its better to give a gift you know they can use instead of one that they will not enjoy. Plus you can always decorate your gift card by putting it in a picture frame or coffee mug set - cheesy I know but trust me it works!!

Answer 3

That was such a lovely gesture. They must certainly respect your work if they went to so much trouble to give you something so very sweet. If I were you, I would just buy each of them a gift certificate and put it in a Christmas card addressing it to your collegues, but also making a personal note, saying how much you appreciated the goodies their wives cooked and thanking them very much. It is personal, but also the gift certificate can be spent on the both of them....the husband probably would give it to the wife to spend anyway.

Merry Christmas.

Answer 4

I believe in a situation like this, a nice hand-written thank you note will mean just as much. Chances are, the wives baked for several people at one time, so your gift did not require so much extra effort to require that you make or buy something especially for them. If you feel totally compelled, $5 gift cards to a generic shop like The Body Shop is sufficient to stick in your note. But the thank you note is required none-the-less. Congrats on working with guys with such nice wives!

Answer 5

It sounds like a lot of the gifts were food? (I always like to take a cue from what was given to me.)

Go to an inexpensive store and get cute Christmas coffee cups (or baskets if you want) fill them with candies/chocolates and wrap with plastic wrap. You can get these things inexpensively at a place like Cost Plus (I LOVE that store!) and it looks nice and the men can either share with their wives - or not. :-)

Hope that helps!

(I don't cook either!)

Answer 6

A bottle of wine, or a box of microwave popcorn with gift certificate from the movie rental place.

Answer 7

We just got movie tickets .. and I LOVED that gift .. two one for the spouse and one for the colleague.

Answer 8

WIne and cheese gift basket. or maybe one of the Harry and David baskets

Answer 9

Check out: http://christmasgifts2006.blogspot.com They have good information and ideas on last minute christmas shopping.

http://christmasgifts2006.blogspot.com

Answer 10

Is it wrong to give my coworkers spouse a bra and panty set for christmas?