During a secret Santa gift exchange, it can sometimes be challenging to find a gift the person you’re shopping for will like.

That’s why, in today’s story, one family solves that problem by having everyone write down what they would like to get.

One person just wanted cash, but the person who drew his name thought that was too easy and lazy, so the gift he got was both exactly what he asked for and completely unexpected.

Let’s see what he got.

You just want cash for Secret Santa? Hope you like coins!!

Every year our family does Secret Santa between our extended family to save on costs.

It’s an AUD $50 limit but we like to wrap things up all nice, and get really meaningful gifts.

We use an online portal and everyone enters their preferences so you can buy something good.

Unfortunately my brother in law didn’t really take it seriously this year (not for the first time) and literally just wrote “cash” in his gift preferences.

They didn’t want to just give him cash.

My wife drew him for Secret Santa so we put our heads together to think of a creative way to maliciously comply with his request.

• We purchased a 1ft tall Christmas Tree
• We went to the bank and got $50 in assorted coins.
• We then wrapped small bundles of 1-3 coins in bright wrapping paper. Then taped them so they were impregnable safe and secure.
• We twisted paperclips (gold ones, super festive!) and taped them to the bundles to they could be hung on the tree as decorations.
• We covered the tree in wrapped coins. In all there were 38 bundles.

The brother-in-law didn’t understand the gift at first.

Fast forward to opening the presents: my brother in law looked confused as he received a small Christmas tree wrapped in clear plastic.

The card had a picture of a little money tree on it but we still had to explain that he needed to unwrap the tree and check the decorations.

He soon realized the scale of the task that was in front of him and he press-ganged the 6 children present into opening the wrapped money.

We all had a laugh about it and the kids had a heap of fun opening all the little money parcels!

That’s funny, and a lot of work!

I probably would’ve taken the lazy way out and gotten him a gift card or something, but this is much more creative and entertaining!

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person defends asking for cash.

Another person doesn’t see a problem with cash as a gift.

This person doesn’t understand why they had to make the brother-in-law’s gift so difficult.

This person ignored a request for cash at a secret Santa gift exchange at work.

It really would’ve been so much easier just to give cash.

But not as amusing.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.