The gift needs to be able to come off as a genuine gift so there’s some plausible deniability…
Make a charitable donation in their name, and put it in a card. This is actually genuine as you spent actual money, but it’s also kind of an anti-gift. Sometimes the donation even gives you a free gift like a calendar or T shirt which you can pass along. Some people may be triggered by specific charities like The Satanic Temple, or Planned Parenthood. I would be quite upset if somebody gifted me a PeTa donation. But in that unlikely event, I would laugh and gift them back a Heifer International donation.
I think something that goes against their personality. Someone who hates the spotlight give an improv class, someone who’s afraid of heights a rock climbing class, for picky eaters a food tasting, I hate listening to instructions so I hate yoga so if you got me a yoga class. Even better if you go with them so they can’t back out. It’s easy to say I wanted to get you out of your shell and thought you would like it if you tried it.
Get them soap and instructions about maintaining proper hygiene.
a stick of deodorant wrapped in a bow, would say it all silently
Decades ago, my mother worked with a small group of women. Every day they spent a few hours together in the office before going out. There was one lady with lacking personal hygiene, quite whiffy and rather oblivious about that. It was about that time the stick deodorants became available in our post soviet country, I believe the Speedstick was the first brand to take the market. So for Christmas for secret santa they got her the deodorant. It was a passive aggressive move, the things could have gone really wrong. She was happy with the gift but the things didn’t improve much. The following year they got her another stick deodorant, hoping to get the message through. She unwrapped the gift and excitedly thanked them, saying that the previous one was almost finished. Bless her, she only used it as a perfume on special occasions…
One trick I heard is to get them a gift card towards a Las Vegas vacation. If they go to Vegas they are way more likely to lose money than win at the tables.
That doesn’t sound insulting, it just sounds like you’re giving them negative money.
The best way is the one where you know lots of (not so well-known) context and circumstances, and then it can work as an insult, but you can deny some of the knowledge and therefore you can appear innocent.
Birthdays: birthday cake flavored vodka (implies they are a drunk)
And peppermint schnapps for Christmas
Something utterly meaningless, like a bag of generic candy, from the closest corner store “wrapped” only in that store’s type of plastic bags, clearly purchased last-minute on your way over to them. As they unwrap it you slip an “oh, I forgot to take that” and snatch up the receipt that you’ve forgotten in the bag, but only after they’ve seen that the item was on sale for $0.99.
You could get them a bag of dicks
A gym membership. Implies overweight.
Makeover service. Implies not looking so good.
If you know a right-wing prepper, get them a subscription to Mother Earth News, a magazine that touts self-sufficiency and off-grid living with occasional ads that lean to conspiracy theories like “free energy”. It’s full of food saving and growing ideas. It’s also liberal AF.
Charitable donation in their name to an organization they likely oppose, but not “in your face”. Like if they’re republican, don’t donate to a blatantly liberal org, donate to one that teaches kids critical thinking skills and welcomes lgbtq or something like that. They get the tax writeoff, a real benefit, but would have to be visibly hateful of they rejected where the money went.
Gift tickets to a nice cultural event to someone that is anti-lgbtq. Local city playhouse has an Opera with lots of men in tights.
Any subscription or service that makes potential commentary on personal appearance or personal beliefs would be effective.
Donate to the human fund.
Money, for people.
Are you doing the importing or exporting? (Amazing username)
I know an arborist (he cuts down trees) and as a joke, each year I get him a charity donation certificate for trees planted in his name.
That’s a pretty funny joke.
Someone called it insulting once when I donated all my socks that didn’t have a second sock.
xs condom and a blow-up doll
“Oops I forgot” is a powerful weapon here: condoms for a buddy who’s trying for a baby, funny dog meme for a person whose dog just died, gift certificate to romantic restaurant for someone who just broke up with their partner, etc. They can’t prove you didn’t forget about their issue
What’s a romantic restaurant?
Hooters, if you ask my drunken uncle.
a restaurant that’s romantic
What makes a restaurant romantic? I’ve gone on dates at restaurants but never been to a romantic themed restaurant.
I’m guessing those dates went REALLY well
No offense but you sound like an incel. Can you stop avoiding the question and just answer what a romantic restaurant is?
Gift them a panda.
At one workplace secret Santa (which I always declined to participate in), one recipient got an empty spherical clamshell with cardboard retainer on which was printed the word “Nothing”, visible through the clamshell. The joke being that it was supposed to be “I didn’t know what to get you, so I got you nothing.”
This was not intended as an insult by the secret Santa, but was taken as one by the recipient who must have spent significantly more on whatever their recipient got.
Only you can judge how your recipient would take such a gift, but if this seems like a good idea to you you can probably find them on sale somewhere. (NB: I accept no responsibility if you choose this course of action.)
If I remember correctly, one of the recipients of a better gift thought it was funny so swapped their gift with it to cheer up the unhappy recipient. I am not sure if the swapper was their secret Santa or not.
There had been much offence, pouting and sulking… from a grown man.
I did a thing once where everyone brought a gift and some game was played and if you won your round you got to pick the gift you got, or something like that.
The person who picked before me got 2 crisp $100 bills, the person after me got airpods. I got… A painted rock, I was so excited. It was the only gift that someone put actual effort into and wasn’t just a quick buy.
Not that I would’ve been upset with $200 but I still have that rock sitting in my garden
Dang that’s crazy, someone put a lot of effort into earning $200 and giving it away as well.
