Showing posts with label Santa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Santa. Show all posts

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Revolving Secret Santa gifts

The other night my wife's workplace had their Christmas meal together, and during the course of the evening (which was held at the home of one of the senior staff) we played a form of Secret Santa which apparently was originated on the TV series, The Office. It's rather complicated to explain but basically the first person whose name is drawn out of a hat goes to the pile of little gifts, picks one, and then draws the next name. 

If the person who's drawn second thinks he or she would like the first person's gift, they're entitled to take it off them (!), or they can go and get a new present from the pile. And then the third person comes into the game, and again can choose someone else's gift or get a new one. It's gets quite complicated once a number of gifts have been opened, because things start to move around the room quite rapidly, especially if they have appeal to more than one person. 

The gift I got didn't have appeal to anyone else, so I wound up with it, and couldn't snaffle anyone else's gift. My wife, on the other hand, managed to get something she wanted from someone else, lost it, got it again and finished up losing it completely before winding up with a jar of tamarillo chutney.

My gift was a box of three little scented candles. Maybe we'll find a use for them sometime, or else we'll put them in someone else's Secret Santa parcel if the occasion arises...

Unlike these Diptyque candles shown in the picture, mine were modest little fellers. The left hand one of the three in the picture is called Feu de Bois or firewood, the one on the right, Figuier, means fig tree. The middle one doesn't appear to have a translation. While the site where these candles are advertised talks about how the company came into existence, it doesn't give any indication as to how the name came about, with its curious spelling, easily mispronounced. However, good old Wikipedia tells us that the word is related to the Greek diptykos, and relates to a painting or sculpture composed of two panels or parts. I'm not sure how that connects to the candles, but I'm sure there's someone out there who'll know.



Saturday, September 21, 2013

Christmas ornaments

I don't even want to talk about Christmas yet, but some shops are already advertising Christmas items.  The opening date for Christmas gets earlier each year. 

I happened across some Christmas items from Christopher Radko ornaments, today.  Of course Santa is there in all his confusing glory - I always ask myself how does Santa manage to look like so many different people each year?  But some of the other ornaments on display have got me a bit flummoxed as to their relevance to Christmas.  There's the Thick Pink Nick Breast Cancer Awareness Santa ornament, for instance, or the Important Piece Autism Awareness Santa.  These are collectables, I guess, so you can put them on your shelf (they only cost around US$50 a throw) and remind all your friends about breast cancer and autism as they go ooh and aah at each item.

There's Papa Plumage (he's a pretty-looking fellow, but his relevance to Christmas escapes me) and Claus for a Cure - HIV AIDs Awareness.  Plainly we can't just have Christmas, we have to be reminded of something else at the same time.  Admittedly there is a Nativity scene in the range, called Holy Reflections.  Jesus, Mary and Joseph all feature in it.  But since this appears to be the only one of its kind in the design catalogue, it tells us a good deal about what people think Christmas is actually about.

Though with items like the Jolly Jockey, the Gift Giving Emperor Penguin, Mr Mcbroom, Vest of All it may not be surprising people can't remember.