I left my present buying to the last minute again. Usually we share Christmas wish lists but this year we didn't. I was stuck for present ideas and the prospect of browsing around the shops for inspiration was filling me with dread. So this year I crowdsourced ideas for presents from my team mates.
As a bit of fun at our last stand up meeting of the year, I said I was blocked on present ideas; today I was running a Christmas workshop and all fellow hopelessly organised people could join to get some ideas together. Phil whacked on the Christmas tunes, Sarah got the coffee pot and off we went to a white wall.
People with presents still to buy put the name of their gift-less recipient, age, relationship, a budget and a list of 'likes' on a big yellow post-it and stuck them on the wall. It was great fun and you learn loads of funny stories about your team mates' families.
Next, everyone had 5 mins to jot down ideas for other peoples' gift-less friends and family and stick them on the wall. Within minutes we had loads of great ideas that we'd individually not thought about. Like, BRILLIANT STUFF!
Next year I will try and do it sooner than the last Friday before Christmas. And I'm banking on Dad not reading this before Christmas or else it will ruin the the surprise of his Dad Rock inspired present.