Secret Santa Singapore Style

This is just a quickie, as it were, a wee observation on cultural differences. (I hope you're still waiting for the India post, with bated breath). As we are fast approaching Christmas, it struck me that we had not yet organised a team lunch for our office. Thrown into a panic, I got onto the web to see what was available for next Friday, the 14th. Well, the answer was, not a lot, but not because all the restaurants were already full of office parties, but because most places did not start serving Christmas lunch until the week after!

So I booked us a big table, and suggested to the team that we might do a "Secret Santa". It doesn't happen over here, so I explained the principles - pick a name out of a hat, buy a fun, inexpensive present for the person you have chosen which will be opened on the day of the lunch, ideally generating much hilarity, and we all guess who bought what for whom.

Well, I reckoned without the practical Singaporean mind! To be fair, the guys bought into the idea without a qualm, but my female colleagues wanted:

• to tell the person who had their name exactly what they wanted
• a "wish list" or
• the money instead - a sort of secret Santa red packet!

I can't wait to see how it will all turn out.......