Secret Santa Visits for Essent Christmas Party

We have an annual Christmas Party at Essent which includes a big lunch and the a gift exchange in the Secret Santa style.

For the uninitiated, Secret Santa is when everyone picks a co-worker's name at random from a hat and then gets that person a gift.

The gifts at Essent run the gamut from useful, to gags, to hard to explain. Sometimes (rarely) folks get something that really kind of knocks their socks off.

But the most typical gift by far is a nice little something that shows the giver pays enough attention to know what the receiver may like. (At their heart, aren't all gifts basically that?)

Without further adieu, here are some pics from the 2019 Essent Christmas Party.

 

Folks wrapping up the meal (and/or dessert) before Secret Santa. Please note that Spencer in the in Santa hat is not the Secret Santa because a big conspicuous Santa hat wouldn't be so secret, right?

Alan wore a Christmas sweater. Ron wore a Christmas-colored shirt. Chris wore Pokemon.

Bryan got a hover craft. On one hand, what are you really supposed to do with a hover craft? On the other, who wouldn't want a hover craft.

Barb smiled brighter than that candle will burn.

The bossman Eric. Inside the package, we kid you not, was a Star Wars light saber pizza cutter.

Nina checking out her new essential oils.

This is one that knocked the socks off a little. Someone perhaps exceeded the price cap, but Doug loved the bluetooth boombox.

Bonnie loves elephants – "They are so majestic and so big and so they hold a lot of love," she explained – which made this elephant scarf perfect. She also got a bottle of wine.

We have a group that likes to get together for card and board games over lunch. Alan is ready for the next game.

Chris Ebert tried out this new Nerf gun and, no kidding, it can really zip a dart. Like, literally all the way across the room on a straight line with tons of velocity. There are bigger Nerf guns that don't pack nearly as much punch. We were impressed.

Marjorie is the proud new owner of the most coveted of office supplies, the red Swingline stapler made well known in the "Office Space" movie. We basically phased out paper years ago and so there's nothing to staple here, but we won't let that diminish the gravitas of securing such a coveted prize.

Gonna have to say, not really sure what Matt got. That card in front of him, however, while not a gift, is from a game called "Exploding Kittens" which bills itself as "a game for people who love kittens and explosions." It's a staff favorite.

 

This one fell into the "can't be explained" category. The giver found out that Spencer is interested in juggling and so he bought him a shirt from a juggling website. Best we can tell, it's supposed to be some kind of juggling joke but no one's really sure what that joke is.

Tyler's one of the newest members of the team and so this was his first Secret Santa at Essent. He got candy.