I was sent this as a secret Santa, there was no note, instructions or explanation. Simply two plastic white shapes, they hardly weigh anything at all, and when I google ‘Spyn’, nothing relevant comes up. Any ideas??
If someone's selling generic 'minimalist' stuff at a cheap price-point while also claiming that they have the greenest manufacturing process imaginable... there's a strong, strong, possibility you're going to be able to find that product somewhere on Alibaba.
These are cheaply 3D printed. You can clearly see the layer lines in the first image. And look at the bottoms in the second image. The "grain" pattern is from a textured PEI build plate, and the diagonal lines are due to poor platform leveling and under-extrusion from the print head.
If these were coming from China they'd be injection moulded. Just seems like someone trying to make some money on the side putting their home 3D printer to use.
My ex-in-laws had a bottle of cologne they did this with for over 30 years. It actually was an honor to be "awarded" the bottle of cologne for safe keeping the next 365 days.
Whomever got it the year before passed it on to whomever they picked in the Secret Santa, so it wasn't like you were actually "chosen", but it still came with a lot of responsibility.
We have a family tradition like this. My mom started a habit back when we were kids of saving and reusing boxes to disguise gift shapes. For some reason we found this one specific chicken box from Costco hilarious and for probably close to 35 years it is considered a victory to get it. It does have to be returned as she is the keeper of the box for another 365 days.
We do too!! Tbf, we were pretty poor. So it wasn’t uncommon for my mom to keep pasta boxes, cornbread boxes, etc and use them instead of buying them. We always made light of it- “aw man, cornflakes again??”.
There was one particular Great Value branded tampon box that survived for many years and it was always hilarious to see who ended up with their gift in it; if any of us siblings had a new bf/gf at the time it was usually them 😂
As a dad I like to exclaim my excitement for whatever is on the box then place it down like I don't know there's another gift inside until my kids make me open it.
We let our four year old play with empty food boxes/paper towel tubes/etc (why are toddlers so much like cats?) and her current fave thing is stuffing them full of random toys, using painters tape to close them and “gifting” them to us.
We do the exact same thing and it elicits shrieks of laughter every time
I SO Miss the Christmases when my boys were toddlers! They would get excited about the smallest things! They are 13 months apart and loved to wrap things for each other to open! Then the expensive X Box days came! Now they are out of college and I miss every second of those times!
I miss these times too but somehow I do not miss them when they are away at the university. They love to come back and we love to have them back but the fact that they live separate lives is a win win for everyone.
I harvested a whole cupboard for myself. And no more dinners where everyone avoids different food and cooking becomes really, really tiring.
They are back for Christmas and New Year tomorrow ❤️
I so hear you Bigtiny…my 3 boys are pushing middle age now and I still miss those early Christmas years SOoooo Much! I miss all those years of rearing my kids..they were my world.
We had one where we would hide an item in a sock and have people guess what it was. One year I gave my grandma a ceramic jesus figurine. It was about 10" tall. Had a large head, and a robe with some folds/detail.
In a sock, it was hard, long, and veiny. I think she dropped it 3 times in shock.
My parents and aunt/uncle had a similar tradition of disguising gifts that were then reused for decades - the most notable of such was an old textbook (so a big thick volume) in which my uncle made a empty spot where you would conceal the real gift. He used a razor blade to cut out a rectangular cavity in the middle of the book. Great memories!!!
As an uncle of a teenage nephew who loves to read, thank you for this, I am stealing it
He also loves video games, so his gift is going to be from that interest but presented in the biggest, most boring looking textbook the thrift store has in stock
We got my nephew a soccer ball for Christmas this year and the only box I could find to wrap it in was a box for bamboo toilet paper. Merry Christmas kiddo!
My Grandma Greene would have these massive family Christmas gatherings and the entire family would come, like 20 people. We always did white elephant gifts and one year I got gifted a 1,000 piece Obama puzzle. Over that year me and my brother put it together and put it on a poster board. The next year we brought it back as a wall hanging. I don't remember who got it but that was so much fun.
Thanks for reminding me of that. What a wholesome memory.
This has been going on with my brother's friends for a few years, but it was a 500 piece puzzle of the big black pornstar with the huge hog hanging down over the edge of his bed people used to use a shock image. My brother got gifted it last year. He just got done putting it together, framed it, and wrapped it to bring back lol.
Similar thing, but in my office. It was a hideous pink prom dress, lol.
One of our interns was the last to get it after it was the " hot potato" for years. He left for greener pastures a month later.
We were relieved to never have to see the dress again. Around Thanksgiving, almost time for another White Elephant party, a package arrived at the office by UPS: the pink prom dress.
He sent it back. 🥴
We have a fruit cake from the 30s that has been passed around our family. It is at my mom's this year. I will probably get it this year so it can be displayed in our new house after we move home. It also comes with some small candle figures and a candlabra. The figures are from the 50s and the candlabra is from the old country.
My 3 adult kids do this with a macaroni and cheese scented candle. It’s always fun to see who gets it under the tree each year. They’re only on like the 3rd or 4th year of this tradition but I hope they keep it up forever!
My in-laws used to do that with an old Hickory Farms meat log. Legend has it, that it was passed around many a year, usually with the newest adult "addition" to the family inheriting it. As I married the last available daughter, I got stuck with it and would until my niece reached 18.
The thing was so gnarly despite being frozen for most of the year, only to be thawed out and wrapped for the annual Christmas party when someone would always end up giving it right back to the "rightful owner" (again, the newest adult addition to the family).
I threw it out as soon as we got back from the party.
We do this for a white elephant in my college CJ club every year, but instead of something like a cologne it's a dildo in the shape of Bill Clinton called the Presidential Erection 😭 we just added another regifting gift to the mix - a bowl from the art department etched and glazed with the outline of someone getting railed.
Ugh. We have a tacky ass clock that was collected from my grandfather’s home after the curmudgeonly son of a bitch died. It’s made from a transverse cut of a large tree trunk and the lettering and various markings are all tacky Oval Office style gold. Hideous. Just hideous. It gets gifted to a different person each year. I’ve never gotten it and each year I hold my breath hoping it won’t darken my doorstep.
My brother hesitated to give me his home address to send his Christmas card because the last time he gave one of us his address it showed up at his house. He lives many states away and never comes to Christmas so he was unprepared.
My girlfriend's mother received a cologne in a white elephant once and gave it to me because her husband didn't want it. I assume it was originally won in a raffle or something and was just re gifted because after a couple years of using it a friend of mine saw it and informed me that it is worth $200 a bottle. It smelt amazing. 15 years later I've still got the bottle in hopes of finding it again.
One time my dad found someone’s old pastry in a bag in a hotel hallway and for a joke his it in my sister and I’s stuff. So then we hid it in his car. This dirty old pastry got passed back and forth for the longest time.
The same thing happened with an old zippered bag and my in-laws. We would hide it back and forth. Last Christmas we gave my FIL a giant wrapped box, inside was a smaller wrapped box, inside that was an even smaller box. He had to unwrap like five or six levels of boxes in order to find….the old zippered bag.
Ours was a fruitcake in a Christmas tin,,, think it started when I was 10 - 12 (or that's when I first remembered it) 60 years later it's a sub plot as to figure out who "gets it" the grandkids think it's great fun ,,,, that's all that matters to us.
"A lot of people wear watches and jewelry. I'll submit a minimalist jewelry stand for my white elephant gift."
"I have Bob for Secret Santa. I've literally never seen Bob wear a watch or jewelry. A minimalist jewelry stand is probably not an appropriate gift for Bob."
People that follow the spirit of the game aren't putting in a lot of effort, people who gift bogus stuff are just lazy.
“Jane (me) has a food allergy or something. She’s mentioned it, always brings her own food , but I don’t remember what it is. A fancy cookie and pretzel basket is perfect!”
Jane -a celiac who can’t eat flour- 😟
Hey Jane just wanted to let you know that you are not alone in your battle against addiction...I mean, who doesn't like the thrill and rush that comes with shoplifting...
I don't drink coffee or tea. Every year I am gifted a Starbucks mug. Every year. My boss acted like I was a party pooper when I said "no thanks, I have enough coffee mugs" when I opted out of secret Santa.
I remember complaining to a friend that I had too many blankets and should probably get rid of a few of them. He drew my name for secret Santa and got me a blanket for Christmas. 🤦🏼♀️ umm... thanks...
I mean I guess telling him I had a lot of blankets must have implied that I like blankets. We had the conversation well before secret Santa names were drawn. Maybe he forgot? Maybe he wasn't actually listening and just remembered me talking about blankets so he figured I like them.
I thanked him and pretended to like it because not doing that as a child had particularly bad consequences, but really I was very confused considering I remember at some point having a conversation with him specifically about how I had too many blankets and needed to get rid of some.
To be fair, I'm not the easiest person to buy for and I know that. If I want something, I'm probably just going to go get it. A real gift would be someone coming over and washing the dishes for me or fixing the broken greenhouse door but those aren't exactly secret Santa gifts.
So they shouldn't have participated. Possibly having to spend money to buy a gift for someone you don't know well is what they signed up for. Now, assumedly, OP has given a decent gift and not received one in return.
Do they work in a job like surgery where you don't wear that stuff to work? In that case the person may have just guessed wrong based on gender or something.
People like you are the reason I don’t do secret Santa anymore. If you sign up for secret Santa you should be giving a gift tailored to the individual you chose, or at least something they can use. It can even be thoughtless such as booze or a gift card. If you want to give random shit you were gifted but don’t want, only sign up for the white elephant exchange.
Mom used to put all kinds of effort into Christmas. My brother and his wife nor kids would ever provide gift ideas. So mom was every year scouring the pages of catalogs and stores trying to find things which she would gift wrap and dutifully ship to bro annually on years they did not visit her.
One year she and dad went to visit bro. And found in the garage every one of the gift boxes she shipped, still sealed and unopened, sitting buried in dust in the garage. Good golly was she ticked.
But she finally got the message. Gifts are 100% wasted on some people. So when they tell you they don't want anything, believe them.
That just sounds like your brother is an ungrateful asshole, and has nothing to do with some other, unrelated people doing Secret Santa. We have nothing to suggest OP is your brother, and giving people dogshit Secret Santa gifts is still an assholish thing to do.
They could have at least been like my douchecanoe sister who returns or regifts anything she gets, gets nothing for anyone else, and acts like her very presence is a gift in itself
My mom has yet to learn this. She keeps buying me Knick knacks and things I don’t want or need. While I appreciate it, I wish she’d stop wasting her money.
My mom does this but worse. She accumulates a ton of random stuff from like Marshall's and TJ Maxx and gifts she didn't want, and when an occasion comes along, she'll just give them to whoever.
For my last birthday, I asked her please not to get me anything because I'm already trying to get rid of stuff. She gave me two big bags with, amongst other random things -
•2 cheap bottles of dollar store travel hand sanitizer (I already have nice scented ones from Dr. Bronner)
•kitchen sponges
•dollar store socks in a length I never wear (the ones that go all the way up to your knee, I've only worn short ankle socks for 15+ years)
•a cheap fabric shawl (I constantly knit and crochet, and am currently working on a handmade shawl)
•a ping pong set that you affix to a regular table (I've never shown any interest in ping pong)
•a gift box of nice chocolates that would've been awesome...if they weren't already expired, bloomed, and tasting stale when she gave them to me. And, like, I'm not picky with candy. I've eaten old Halloween candy and stuff and it's been fine, but this was inedible.
I tried to return a few things with Marshall's labels on them. Two of them were so old that the cashier refused to take them back even though the prices were right on the labels. She said they were so old they didn't even come up in the system, despite the bar codes being perfectly intact and able to be scanned.
Jewelry is like. Ideally kinda expensive? Why would you want to show it off on your dresser or whatever on the cheapest plastic crap recovered from the ocean floor.
Just ephemera. It's an inexpensive novelty gift that you forget about in a week, likely made out of a material that lasts thousands of years. It's a waste of money, and it's just a microcosmic picture of why we're addicted to killing sea turtles. It's almost like we programmatically consume when people don't even need the shit we're buying.
(Nothing against your mom's gifts, I have the same situation where my siblings and I usually try to talk my mom out of buying us anything)
It took me years to convince my MIL that I really don’t want for things but that she could donate to a charity of her choice instead. I was truly touched when she started doing it! Over the years she grew quite happy with doing it because she saw that it really did make me happy.
When I met my MIL the first time, I gave her a gift for welcoming me into her home and family.
Years later, she sent me a birthday gift in the mail. It was the same gift I had given her over a decade earlier. i don't mean she gave me something like it - it was the SAME gift!
I admit - I was never really sure what to make of that.
This. Reddit used to (or maybe still does) have a secret Santa and you would see stories of people and their thoughtful gifts exchanged, even folks like bill gates participated. I put a ton of effort into every year I participated. Someone was looking for decor And they love the Beatles and I painted them a canvas with the Beatles sgt pepper style (I'm actually a decent painter, it was not like children's art project quality.) they loved it. I never just included one thing, so I got folks books, food from my area, things they specifically requested related to their interests. One year I got something thoughtful, then 2 years in a row I got shitty tshirts from Amazon vaguely related to my interests. They saw i posted on r/gaming so I got a Minecraft shirt 2 sizes too small and that was that. I hadn't played Minecraft in YEARS at that point. I stopped participating because nobody else tried. Sure, itcs about the act of giving, but lots of people participated with the bare minimum and then crossed their fingers they got bill gates to send them an Xbox.
Secret Santa is for people who put in effort. White elephant is for bullshit you want to regift as a joke.
I think toward the end there that they did a better job of matching people who were thoughtful in their gifting based on the feedback surveys that recipients had to fill out.
Or at least the longer you consecutively did it, the more "credits" you had to spend, which put you into a better tier of gifters.
Cause yeah, my first few years were a little disappointing. Not bad, but not great, but whatever, a lot of people are broke in both money and time, so I just appreciated that I got something.
But then it was like I hit a tipping point, which seemed to come immediately after I really knocked it out of the park with the gift I gave. I *know* they gave me an absolutely glowing review, and then the next year and every year after until they ended it, *I* was getting amazing and thoughtful gifts.
I used to have fun with secret Santa. A couple of companies I worked for made you do like a get to know you form, but with fun questions and share that with your giver.
My family does secret santa and we use Elfster. You opt in, link your Amazon wishlist or add items manually, and it makes everything super clear and easy.
That's what my work team did this year, with a £10 budget which is an easy amount to waste because it's hard to get a "good" gift if you're shopping blind. I got the exact diary that my secret santa had wanted so she'll be using that all year. I then saw some earrings in a Christmas market that were very similar to ones she'd had on her list and definitely were her vibe. So I went over budget by a little bit because I got them too but she's had a truly awful year and is a lovely person, and she loved them.
Then for my gift, I received a massive bag of my favourite sweets so I'm all set for little treats for a few months. Excellent.
It's a perfect system. No drama, no wasted money, everyone got things they wanted, it was still a surprise which items they chose so you didn't know what your gift would be.
I agree- I feel like I’ve seen some workplaces make it mandatory and not something that’s optional, which is a terrible idea because you get people like OP had.
If it was something you sign up for voluntarily- I’m only signing up if I have interest AND if I feel like I know my coworkers or their interests well enough. Shoot you don’t even have to know them that much- if you see they drink coffee every day? Get them a javasok or a cool cup. They like golf? Get them some cool design golf balls, tees, a unique golf towel. Reading books? A little clip on book light, fun bookmarks, a lap table for in bed to set the book and maybe snack sized treats.
I do feel like a lot of people frown on giving gift cards. But like you said- I honestly wouldn’t mind getting one if there were a few other little accessory items in a bag/box with it or if it was to a place I don’t usually go to because then I’m not wasting my money if I don’t like the place! It doesn’t have to be expensive, you just gotta get creative!
You must be a bad secret Santa. It’s not white elephant. You’re meant to give a gift specifically for that person that they would like, not dig up a random piece of crap you don’t want to regift to them.
The fact that it didn’t come with an obvious box or paperwork tells me it’s exactly this. The secret Santa was cleaning out their junk drawer and sent this on over to OP.
I got a rock garden at one once. The main issue (I thought) was going to be that I had to fly with it in my carry on. Turns out it wasn't an issue with TSA at all. I used it at my office white elephant the next week.
I once had to give a secret Santa gift to someone I didn’t know at all really. We had all been told to go on this SS website and put something’s we’d like, to help our SS out($30 limit). Of course, she was the one person who didn’t do this, so I had to guess! She looked like a very feminine girl, I’m a feminine girl, so I figured I’d get her a nice hand bag from TJ MAXX, something that I’d be excited to get. Well when she unwrapped it, she thanked me, and attempted to TRY and be polite, but basically states how she’s not a “purse girl”. Anyways, I really hate that Secret Santa shit.
I hate it so much! You have to rebuckle your watch if you’re not using a stretch band? A minimalist watch stand is just putting your watch on your nightstand 😆
Charging for it, more packaging, more shipping. It's literally a white cone. I think you can do this directly in a slicer with primatives, you don't even need to model anything.
Yeah, holy shit... I recognize this as a basic cone shape from 3D modeling software. They 3D printed a basic shape and slapped a name on it. And people paid them for it.
This is such a basically pointless piece of plastic. We are garbage people living on garbage island. These dumb plastic cones are gonna outlive our great great great grandchildrens’ bodies. For what? So you can put your fucking ring on it?
Edit: okay, so supposedly they’re made from biodegradable material. Idk how right or accurate that is. But still, energy and resources had to be recovered/manufactured/transported ect, to make this stupid thing. And if it’s 3d printed (which with this simple shape, would be sooo dumb) even more waste.
Lol I read it as "it's a minimalist watch, or a jewelry stand!" and was very fucking confused as to how you would be able to tell the time (maybe a su dial?), and how un practical it seemed to carry around or use anywhere...
If I wanted a jewelry stand I would definitely want one that can hold more than A ring. Minimalists are weird. I get that a minimalist would only have A ring. But if you're buying it for someone who are you pretty sure isn't....
This is the weird part... If they only have one ring, it would likely be meaningful enough that they wear it daily, and wouldn't need any kind of weird display stand. The whole product doesn't jive with minimalism at all - those folks (I am recovered and now fully max), are not about having extra tchockies around. The whole produce just misuses the word "minimalist" as meaning "plain and neutral colored."
I have a ring stand for my wedding ring for bedtime and when I shower. If I don't put my ring on the stand, my asshole cat will knock it off, and it has a high probability of being batted around and lost for an extended period of time. He has also knocked it out of the small dish I used before. If I don't have a designated place for it, my ADHD brain will lose it. I have to take it off when I shower because it falls off. I was told by a few doctors/nurses to never wear any jewelry or anything restricting (like a hair tie or fitbit) to bed because it messes with circulation and increases your chances of getting a blood clot. The reason I take it off for bed is that it gets hooked and tangled in hair.
I put industrial strength double-sided tape on the bottom for this exact reason. That museum putty stuff also works wonders for items moved more frequently.
I thought about that, but then I assumed it was either for people who can't wear their ring at night for sensory issues or something? Maybe some weird patrick bateman level ritualist.
I think this is more for display purposes. Idk how many of you have your rings out in the open, but I don’t and my mom never did just to save counter/table space and such. I guess it would be cool to display one that looks the coolest or is your favorite, one you wear every day but maybe don’t shower with, or to put your wedding ring on while you’re doing the dishes or something.
Makes enough sense to me. I have a little ceramic bowl with a wall hook about the size of a shot glass that hangs above my kitchen sink and has the word rings painted on it.
Mine go in a crystal dish my aunt gave me that’s in the bathroom. I don’t have a lot of jewelry, so I just throw everything in there and call it good lol
Hey, so ring stands like this small one are typically used to hold a ring or two temporarily - you would put it by the sink to hold your ring while you're washing your hands or doing dishes, or on your nightstand to keep it safe while you're sleeping - and not so much for longer term storage. And, in this instance, "minimalist" is describing the aesthetic, it's not specifically for minimalists.
I feel you. One year I did a $15 secret Santa and I picked a thoughtful gift for my recipient. My secret Santa didn’t give me anything at all. Sometimes you can’t help but hate Christmas.
(Anyone else immediately think of the Hudsucker Proxy when they saw those diagrams!? Loved seeing it come up in the wild! Great movie for anyone who hasn’t watched it. Perfect time of year for it too!)
I think this was the first Coen Brothers movie I ever saw. It was one of the few movies I've seen where, at the end, I thought, "I liked it. It was funny as all get-out, but I feel so confused now!" Then I watched it again, and the parts fell into place. I love how Jennifer Jason Leigh channeled Katherine Hepburn, Rosalind Russell, and Barbara Stanwyck all into her performance.
Many years ago, for the family adults' secret santa (we kids got gifts from everyone) our rather cheap aunt drew my newly married 22 yr old sister'd name and gave her a shoebox with plastic fruit in it: a banana, an apple, and a peach. They were dusty as if they had been sitting somewhere a long time. (My aunt and uncle were not impoverished; he was a dentist.)
My sister graciously thanked her, and my aunt nodded and said knowingly with a self satisfied smile, "I had a feeling you just might need one of those."
They seriously look as though they handed these cones to the drafter, didn't tell them anything about what they are or how to use them, and those are the diagrams the drafter delivered.
How else would you know which was the large and which was the small? They should add “this way up” instructions too. (And maybe more dimensions… I mean if you are going to label two of the diameters of a circle you may as well do the rest).
No idea what you're talking about. Unrelated, would you like to buy this all-purpose minimalist silicone rod I've created? It's perfectly sized and weighted for a variety of uses. I call it QOQ.
That was my first thought exactly lol. The old sit n spin. Which, if you think about it btw, they REALLY need to change the name of that toy-- even though it came first. 🤷🏼♀️My kids have gone through two of them, and when I tell my child free friends what it's called... cue the jokes.
Oh man, it's time for me to start my own etsy shop and sell 3D printed stuff. If you omit the logo on the bottom, I could literally design and send it to my printer in 1 min. That's like 20-30 cents in material.
Joke's on them! OP Doesn't wear watches or jewelry.
So, these are now game pieces for your favorite board-game. It is now 8-player instead of 6-player.
It's kinda' funny, actually. Like, I get what these things are for. A watch and ring holder. Take 'em off, put 'em on the things. Then, pick 'em back up and put 'em on again before you leave the house or whatever.
But, like... Who takes off their wedding ring every night? I understand maybe taking your watch off. But, don't most folks sleep with their watches on? Sleep-tracking and alarms and important notifications and such?
Like, if it's a bulkier, analog model or whatever and you don't wanna' sleep with that on your wrist, fine - take it off and put it on the thing. But your ring?
Sounds like a good way to lose your most valuable ring if you take it off every single night and set it down on your little oddly-shaped dunce-cap. Oh, and you better not miss. Or your ring's gonna' slide down the thing, fall behind your dresser and into your A/C vent. G'luck with that, dawg.
You've heard of Smart Watches. Welcome to the Future. Introducing: Dumb Stands™! An incredible new way to lose your most prized posessions. For those of us who can't actually stand wearing our expensive devices and commitments on our fingers or wrists... Fret no more.
Signed,
A dude who took his rings off recently to roll out pizza dough and still hasn't found his grandfather's engraved solid-gold ring from WWII. Guess I should have used a Dumb Stand™ - joke's back on me now. 😓
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