Secret Santa gifts under $25 that feel picked for one person: crowd-pleasers for anyone, office picks for coworkers, and small treats for her and for him.
A name draw in a minute, free and with no sign-up: players join with a link and each sees only their own recipient.
Secret Santa gifts under $25 can be the ones people keep all year: a Tamagotchi straight out of 1997, a Bob Ross Chia Pet that grows an afro, gold huggie earrings, Bananagrams and a Top 100 Movies scratch-off poster.
Drawing a name out of the hat takes a second, and choosing the gift can take the rest of the week, so this shortlist sticks to things that still get talked about in January, from a waterproof speaker for the shower and Hanabi for game nights to a LEGO retro camera and Ghirardelli peppermint bark. All 15 cost under $25 on Amazon, which leaves at least a dollar for the ribbon.
The list follows the four kinds of people you are most likely to draw. Unisex picks for anyone in the group come first, then office Secret Santa gifts for coworkers, then ideas for her and for him. Every gift has a line on who it suits and, where there is one, a caveat: the Tamagotchi beeps when it wants attention, the nanoblock kit asks for steady hands, and the earrings are for pierced ears. Prices were checked in mid-October 2026.
Gifts that suit almost anyone whose name comes out of the hat: a word game for after the party, chocolate that gets passed around the room, a pocket pet from 1997 and a speaker that hangs in the shower.
$12
at AmazonA fast word game of 144 letter tiles that zips into a fabric banana: everyone races to build their own crossword grid, and no board is needed. For 1 to 8 players, ages 7 and up.
Best for: word-puzzle people
Why it fits: It works with whoever ends up at the table, from a teenage cousin to the boss, and the banana pouch fits in a coat pocket for the ride home. Anyone who does the daily word puzzle will be hooked by the second round.
$20
at AmazonThe virtual pet from 1997 with its original Gen 2 programming: hatch the egg, then feed it, play with it, clean up after it, give it medicine and discipline it, and the care you give decides which of 7 adult characters it grows into. There is a higher-or-lower number game, the CR2032 battery is inside, and the egg-shaped toy hangs on a ball chain; this one wears the Starry Shower shell, navy with gold stars.
Best for: a ’90s kid at heart
Why it fits: Half the room had one in the ’90s and the other half has seen them all over TikTok, so it gets passed around the table the moment the paper comes off. By Monday the whole office is asking how the pet is doing, and the chain clips it to a bag or a lanyard.
$16
at AmazonA 10.4-ounce bag of Ghirardelli peppermint bark squares on dark and milk chocolate, each one wrapped on its own. It comes from Ghirardelli’s limited holiday collection, and it tastes exactly like December.
Best for: someone you barely know
Why it fits: Chocolate is the safest Secret Santa gift for someone you barely know, and individually wrapped squares get shared around the office or rationed one a day through December.
$24
at AmazonA palm-sized Bluetooth speaker from Anker’s Soundcore line with 5 W of sound and up to 20 hours of play on a charge. It is IP67 waterproof and dustproof, floats, survives 30 minutes under 3.3 feet of water and hangs from a built-in strap, and two of them pair into stereo.
Best for: singing in the shower
Why it fits: Music in the shower is a small pleasure people rarely buy for themselves, and this one hangs from the showerhead by its strap. When the holidays are over it moves to the bike, the beach bag or the kitchen counter, anywhere a playlist beats holding a phone.
Neutral enough for someone you mostly know from meetings and fun to keep at work: a team card game, a tiny Pokémon build and a Bob Ross who grows an afro on the windowsill.
$13
at AmazonA cooperative card game for 2 to 5 players in which everyone holds their cards facing outward, so you see every hand except your own. A game takes 20 to 30 minutes, and the 60 cards and 12 tokens come in a small box. It won the Spiel des Jahres in 2013.
Best for: a team that lunches together
Why it fits: Made for a team that eats lunch together: the whole table wins or loses as one, so nobody scores points off a colleague. The small box lives in a desk drawer between games.
$13
at AmazonA Japanese micro building kit of 150 pieces, with bricks as small as 4 x 5 mm, that builds Gengar, the ghost Pokémon, as a figure about 2 inches tall. The bricks are much smaller than LEGO, so the build asks for patience and steady hands.
Best for: the Pokémon fan at the next desk
Why it fits: The coworker with a Pokémon sticker on the laptop gets a desk figure built with their own hands, and 150 tiny bricks make a good lunch-break project. The nanoblock Pokémon series has other figures too, so pick one of those if their favorite Pokémon is someone else.
$23
at AmazonA terracotta planter in the shape of Bob Ross, the painter from The Joy of Painting. Spread wet chia seeds over his head, and in one to two weeks he grows a thick green afro. A drip tray and seeds for three plantings are in the box, and the planter can be replanted again and again.
Best for: the office windowsill
Why it fits: It gets the loudest laugh of the exchange and then moves to a sunny office windowsill, where the whole team checks on the afro every morning. With three seed packets, Bob gets a fresh haircut in February and again in spring.
Small pleasures for her evenings and her mornings: a night of sticker art, gold huggie earrings, a tumbler for wine or coffee and a trio of face mists.
$8
at AmazonAn activity book of 12 famous paintings, from Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring and the Mona Lisa to Hokusai’s Great Wave and Monet’s Houses of Parliament, recreated from numbered stickers. There is no paint or mess, and the perforated card-stock pages come out for framing.
Best for: a museum lover
Why it fits: It suits the friend who loves a museum day and insists she can’t draw, and a finished Great Wave looks surprisingly good in a frame. It is the cheapest gift here, so there is room to add something sweet.
$14
at AmazonSmall hoop earrings plated in 14K yellow gold that sit close to the earlobe, less than half an inch across. They are hypoallergenic and nickel-safe and come in a gift box ready to wrap; this pair is the 12 mm size.
Best for: a little gold for her
Why it fits: Gold huggies go with jeans, a work blazer and a party dress, so she can wear them the very next morning. At under $15 there is room for a bar of chocolate on top; just make sure her ears are pierced, which one glance at the party photos will tell you.
$20
at AmazonA 12-ounce stainless steel tumbler with triple insulation that keeps drinks cold for 6 hours and hot for 3, with a sliding lid and a non-slip base. Shaped like a stemless wine glass, it looks as right on a dinner table as it does in a picnic basket.
Best for: her evening glass of wine
Why it fits: Wine on the balcony, mulled wine at the holiday market, coffee on the school run: the slider lid keeps all of them in the cup. It is a small treat she will reach for long after the party.
$24
at AmazonThree Mario Badescu facial mists in 4-ounce (118 ml) bottles: aloe, cucumber and green tea; aloe, herbs and rosewater; aloe, chamomile and lavender. A spritz refreshes and hydrates the skin before moisturizer or over makeup.
Best for: a little luxury for her
Why it fits: It is the kind of small luxury she would pick up in a store and put back. Face mist gets used up, so it never adds clutter, and the three scents cover the whole day: cucumber in the morning, rose at the desk, lavender before bed.
Things for his evenings: a hundred films to scratch off, a LEGO build for the shelf, earbuds for the gym and a pump that saves the rest of the bottle.
$22
at AmazonA 16.5 x 23.4-inch poster with 100 top-rated films, from classics to modern blockbusters and award-winning animation. Each film hides under a scratch-off square with an original illustration underneath, so you scratch it after the credits roll. It fits a standard A2 frame.
Best for: a movie-night regular
Why it fits: For the guy who quotes films at lunch, it turns the next year into a hundred movie nights with a scoreboard on the wall. Friends who come over start counting the squares still left and suggesting what to watch next.
$16
at AmazonLEGO Creator 3in1 set 31147: a film camera with a moving lens, a strap and film that loads in the back, which rebuilds into a video camera or a retro TV with an antenna. It has 261 pieces, for ages 8 and up.
Best for: a retro-tech fan
Why it fits: For the friend who shoots film or collects old tech, it ends up on the shelf as a little retro souvenir. Three models in one box mean he can rebuild it whenever the shelf needs a change.
$23
at AmazonTrue wireless earbuds with 10 mm drivers tuned for bass, 10 hours of play per charge and 30 hours with the case. Water-resistant, with Bluetooth 5.3, two mics for calls and 22 EQ presets in the soundcore app.
Best for: his gym bag
Why it fits: Even a man who owns AirPods needs a spare pair for the gym bag or the car, where losing one would hurt less. With 30 hours of play in the case, they get through a week of workouts between charges.
$24
at AmazonA hand vacuum pump with 4 reusable stoppers that draws the air out of an opened bottle, so the wine keeps for up to 10 days. A click from the stopper tells you the vacuum is set.
Best for: a weeknight wine drinker
Why it fits: For the guy who opens a good bottle on a Tuesday and wants the rest on Saturday. Vacu Vin comes from the Netherlands, and four stoppers cover several open bottles at once.
Pick things that stay neutral and are fun to keep at work: Hanabi, a cooperative card game for team lunches; the Bob Ross Chia Pet, which grows a green afro on the office windowsill; and the nanoblock Pokémon Gengar for a desk. Ghirardelli peppermint bark works for anyone on the team, and the Tamagotchi Original turns into a running office joke once colleagues start asking whether the pet has been fed.
PAVOI gold huggie earrings are a little piece of jewelry she can wear every day, if her ears are pierced. The Mario Badescu facial spray trio, three 4-ounce mists, is a small luxury she will use up, the Corkcicle stemless wine tumbler keeps wine cold for 6 hours and coffee hot for 3, and Paint by Sticker Masterpieces turns Vermeer, Hokusai and the Mona Lisa into an evening of sticker art.
The Top 100 Movies scratch-off poster for a film fan, Soundcore by Anker P20i earbuds for the gym bag, the LEGO Creator 3in1 Retro Camera for an evening build, or the Vacu Vin wine saver for the man who opens a bottle midweek. For a coworker, the Bob Ross Chia Pet gets a laugh from anyone on the team.
Playful gifts that stay around: the Bob Ross Chia Pet grows a green afro in one to two weeks, the Tamagotchi Original beeps for food and attention just as it did in 1997, the nanoblock Pokémon Gengar grins from a desk once it is built, and Bananagrams turns the end of the evening into a word race. Each one gets a laugh when unwrapped and still has a place at home or at work in January.
Things people rarely buy for themselves: the LEGO Creator 3in1 Retro Camera, which rebuilds into a video camera or a retro TV; the Top 100 Movies scratch-off poster; Paint by Sticker Masterpieces; and the Soundcore Select 4 Go, a waterproof speaker that floats and hangs from the showerhead.
Use the whole budget on one item or pair two smaller ones. Single gifts just under $25: the Soundcore shower speaker, the Mario Badescu sprays, the Vacu Vin wine saver, Soundcore P20i earbuds, the Bob Ross Chia Pet and the Top 100 Movies poster. A pair: Paint by Sticker with Ghirardelli peppermint bark for a friend, or Bananagrams with Hanabi for a game night right at the limit.
A paper bag with tissue or a box tied with ribbon is plenty; take off the price sticker before wrapping. On the tag, write their name and a one-line hint about why you chose it, like “For the person who wins every lunch game” on Hanabi or “Your next hundred movie nights” on the scratch-off poster, and sign it “Your Secret Santa” to keep the mystery.
Choose something that gets eaten, played or used every day: Ghirardelli peppermint bark, Bananagrams or the Soundcore shower speaker suit almost anyone. If the organizer can pass on one answer, ask “coffee or wine?”, which settles it between the Corkcicle tumbler and the Vacu Vin pump.
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Every guide is put together by the GIFTbase editorial team by hand. We check that each item is in stock, that the link leads to a real store and that the price is current on the update date. Nothing here is a paid placement: a product gets in only if we would give it ourselves. Some links are affiliate links, which means the store pays us a small commission at no extra cost to you.
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