Secret Santa Gifts for Your Boss: Ideas Under £15

Secret Santa gifts for your boss

Drawing your manager is the one everybody dreads. The trick is to aim for thoughtful and neutral rather than funny or flattering — nothing that looks like you are buying favour, and nothing that comments on how they run the team.

Everything below sits inside a normal UK Secret Santa budget of £10 to £15, so nothing here makes anyone else's gift look small. The ideas are grouped by what usually works, what to steer clear of and how to handle the opening itself.

If you are still setting the draw up, the Secret Santa rules guide covers budgets, deadlines and drawing names, and our free name picker does the draw for you.

Secret Santa gifts under £15

Pin badges, candles, coasters and prints designed in house and posted from the UK — all comfortably inside a Secret Santa budget.

A typographic music print featuring Taylor Swift Bejewelled lyrics on high-quality paper, unframed. Best Believe I'm Still Bejewelled By Taylor Swift Music Lyrics Print £8.00 Unframed wall art print featuring the text 'In A World Of Grey, Be A Flamingo' in colourful, vibrant lettering. In A World Of Grey, Be A Flamingo Print (A4 & A3) £8.00 A colourful typographic wall art print with the quote 'I work hard so that my dog can live a better life' in A4 or A3. I Work Hard So That My Dog Can Live A Better Life Print (A4 & A3) £8.00 A colourful fitness wall print illustrating the HYROX competition race format with running and functional workout steps. Hyrox Competition Race Format Print (A4 & A3) £8.00 Enamel pin badge shaped like a red cowboy boot with the text What Would Dolly Do. What Would Dolly Do? Pin Badge £4.49 Small enamel pin badge with a funny "Chicken Nugget Club" design, perfect as a humorous novelty gift. Chicken Nugget Club Pin Badge (Small) £4.00

Shop Secret Santa gifts

Secret Santa gift ideas for your boss

  1. A good desk coaster. It gets used every single day, costs a few pounds and says nothing about them personally, which is exactly what you want here.
  2. A pin badge with a neutral joke on it. Work-wide humour like Mondays or meetings lands; anything aimed at them as a person does not.
  3. A proper notebook. Managers get through them faster than anyone else in the building and rarely buy themselves a nice one.
  4. A hand-poured candle. Safe, quietly generous and it leaves the office at the end of the day rather than sitting on a desk as evidence.
  5. Decent coffee or a small tea selection. Consumable means no clutter and no obligation to display it.
  6. A print for the office wall. Choose typography over anything personal so it works whether they hang it at home or at work.
  7. A card with something specific and sincere written inside. Most managers get thanked in appraisals and never in handwriting.
  8. A small plant or seed kit. Low cost, low stakes, and it survives the Christmas shutdown if someone waters it.

What to avoid

  • Anything that jokes about their management style, however affectionately you mean it.
  • Anything that goes over the budget. Outspending the group reads as currying favour.
  • Alcohol, unless you know for certain they drink and the group allows it.
  • Anything that references a conversation only the two of you had.

Budget and etiquette

  • Stick to the exact budget, to the pound.
  • Wrap it as neatly as everyone else's, not better.
  • Keep the card sincere and short rather than effusive.
  • If you are revealed, say one line and move on.

Shop Secret Santa gifts

Pin badges under a tenner

Small enough to post, funny enough to survive being opened in front of everyone.

Enamel pin badge shaped like a red cowboy boot with the text What Would Dolly Do. What Would Dolly Do? Pin Badge £4.49 Small enamel pin badge with a funny "Chicken Nugget Club" design, perfect as a humorous novelty gift. Chicken Nugget Club Pin Badge (Small) £4.00 Small, cute enamel pin badge in the shape of a daisy flower. Cute Small Daisy Pin Badge £4.00 Cute Cat With Pearl Ball Pin Badge Cute Cat With Pearl Ball Pin Badge £4.00 All Panic, No Disco Pin Badge For Emos All Panic, No Disco Pin Badge For Emos £4.00 Small Heart Notification Pin Badge Small Heart Notification Pin Badge £4.00 What Would Dolly Do? Small Pin Badge What Would Dolly Do? Small Pin Badge £4.49 Cute Duck In Pink Cowboy Hat And Boots Pin Badge Cute Duck In Pink Cowboy Hat And Boots Pin Badge £4.00

Christmas cards to go with it

A card turns a small gift into a proper present. Printed and posted in the UK.

'tis the season to drink Guinness Christmas Card 'tis the season to drink Guinness Christmas Card £3.87 Let's drink (Guinness) and be Merry Christmas Card With Tree Let's drink (Guinness) and be Merry Christmas Card With Tree £3.87 Let's drink (Guinness) and be merry Christmas Card Let's drink (Guinness) and be merry Christmas Card £3.87 Wishing you an Electrifying Christmas Greeting Card Wishing you an Electrifying Christmas Greeting Card £3.87 Merry Christmas Nanny (Christmas Card For Nan) Merry Christmas Nanny (Christmas Card For Nan) £3.87 Merry Christmas Mummy (Christmas Card For Mum) Merry Christmas Mummy (Christmas Card For Mum) £3.87 Merry Christmas Brother (Christmas Card For Brothers) Merry Christmas Brother (Christmas Card For Brothers) £3.87 Merry Christmas Daddy (Christmas Card For Dad) Merry Christmas Daddy (Christmas Card For Dad) £3.87

How to write it so it lands

  • Neutral beats funny when you report to the person opening it.
  • Useful beats novelty — it will be on their desk in February.
  • Keep the receipt out of the bag.

Where to shop next

Frequently asked questions

What should you buy your boss for Secret Santa?

Something useful and impersonal inside the budget: a coaster, a notebook, a candle, good coffee or a neutral pin badge. Thoughtful and unremarkable is the goal.

Is it awkward to draw your manager?

Only if you treat it differently. Buy at the same budget as everyone else, keep the humour general rather than personal, and it passes without comment.

Should you spend more on your boss?

No. Spending over the budget is the one thing that makes a Secret Santa gift for a manager look like something else entirely.

How much should you spend on Secret Santa in the UK?

£10 to £15 at work and £15 to £20 in families. Agree one number rather than a range, and say up front whether the card and postage count towards it.

Back to blog