Hi! I’m not sure if im the ass hole here?! but I work in the care industry and I am f20 did a secret Santa for the first time at work where the maximum was £10. However we didn’t get any names we just wrapped the gift up and picked out a bag so it was slightly odd and we didn’t all do it together everyone just grabbed something when they were in so a week later I see the gift I got someone opened, (fancy bottle of bubble bath) on the side with a note on it saying they are rejecting it cause it was only £5? I didn’t know the gift absolutely had to be £10 and I still thought the gift looks nice and pretty and now I feel pretty embarrassed that it’s just been left on the side for everyone to see, I didn’t know people took this so seriously? I didn’t see that I had left a price so they might have looked it up ? I’m not sure what to do or if I should say it’s mine and just take it back ? 🙁 I would up load a photo but I can’t on this subreddit
Little edit 🙂 I just wanted to say that I would understand that if she didn’t have a bathtub I could totally understand why she would be upset about the gift and I would take it back and get her something else. i think cause no one got names I was nervous about not getting chocolate or alcohol or mugs cause I know people can be specific on those things.
NTA because you followed the rules and the other person didn’t.
But for the future, in gift exchanges like this there is sort of an unwritten social rule that what is given as the price limit is really the target price. If you need to go over a little to get something that is close to the limit, you do. So for a $10 limit, you are trying to get a gift that is about $10 and you can go over a little, but you shouldn’t go much under. Sort of like a speed limit isn’t *really* the maximum speed on a road, it’s like the unofficial target speed.
For example, if you’re going to do bubble bath for $5, add in a $5 candle or candy or something. The total will end up a little over $10 with tax, but that’s better than ending up a couple of dollars below the limit.
NTA and no, don’t bother saying it’s yours. They’re the ungrateful AH. Let them cry it out on their own.
NTA. You followed the rules for.thw secret Santa. Clearly the recipient is too entitled to appreciate what it is supposed to be. That is their problem, not yours. And for them to do so I such a public way, trying to shame people, they are TA, not you.