THE ONLY BLACK GUY IN THE OFFICE
Why Secret Santa Is Always a Ho-Ho-Horrorshow
Trading gifts with co-workers makes for some laughable moments
Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.
I can’t front: The holidays are my favorite time of the year. It’s a chance to kick it with family. You get multiple weeks off from work (thank God!). And it offers the perfect excuse to revisit jolly Christmas albums, from the soulful and iconic (Jackson 5) to the thugged-out and ironic (A Dipset Xmas). Nothing says the most wonderful time of the year quite like Gucci Mane singing about assault rifles to the melody of “Jingle Bells.”
Of course, Christmas has been degraded to a commercialized holiday that entirely contradicts the principles of the religious figure it’s said to celebrate, but I’ll still indulge every year. Whether shopping for relatives or the homies, my type-A professional habits come out like candy canes and door wreaths do the day after Thanksgiving. I’ll start taking mental notes as early as Labor Day so I can have all of my gifts purchased before lunchtime hits on Cyber Monday. Still, there’s one workplace phenomenon that throws me off my gifting game yearly: Secret Santa.
