The Best 10 Secret Santa Ideas For Students This Christmas

Christmas is quickly approaching which means it’s also time for this year’s festive tradition of Secret Santa.

It’s a time for exchanging gifts with flatmates, course mates or even people within your student accommodation.

No matter who you’re buying for, it can be tricky to come up with present ideas.

Do you get them something serious, something funny or something creative?

It can be a difficult one for sure, especially if you don’t know much about them.

Here at Universal, we’re Santa’s little helpers and know the best 10 Secret Santa ideas for students for this Christmas – yippeeee.

There’s something to suit everyone’s tastes and budgets with this present guide, yule be sorry if you miss out!

1. Room Lighting

Lights are so popular for students as they can really transform a dull room and provide the ultimate chilled vibes.

If you’re searching for student Secret Santa ideas, a great gift is a set of fairy lights or LED lights.

There are other cool lighting displays too like salt lamps, neon signs, lava lamps and projectors, the list is endless.

Not only will they make any student room glow, but we’re sure the person you’re buying for will love this gift – we sure would.

After all, who likes relaxing with the big light on? No thanks!

The best part is, if you’re buying for your flatmate, you’ll have a relaxing space at home with great mood lighting.

Don’t worry, they’re not too expensive, prices do vary but you can get some cute lights for less than 20 quid – do stick to the set budget though.

If you know someone who’s into their Insta pics, you could even get them a Ring Light!

2. Academic Diary

First up for our list of Secret Santa ideas is an academic diary, if there’s one thing that a student will use, it’s this.

If you’ve got a small budget for your gift exchange and you’re not sure what to get, why not shop around for a cute academic diary and pen set?

We’ll admit, it’s not the most exciting idea, but no-one really wants to spend their own money on things like this, so it can be a useful present.

Especially if the person you’re buying for is a bit unorganised when it comes to planning and need’s something to help them out with uni work.

It’s pretty easy to find academic diary’s too, with a simple search on Waterstones or WHSmith you’ll find loads.

You could get them a personalised diary or notebook with their name on if you want to go all out!

3. Their Favourite Booze

Prosecc-ho-ho-ho!

Whilst alcohol is not the most creative of gifts for a Secret Santa exchange, it’s simple and something that a lot of students will love.

If you’re stuck with what to get someone if you don’t know them that well then why not get them their favourite bottle of booze?

Or even put some more effort in and get them a cocktail set, a flask or some nice drinking glasses depending on the budget.

After all, you’d rather get something for someone you know they’ll use!

If they don’t drink alcohol, you could get them a nice mocktail set instead.

It doesn’t have to be the only present you get, you could get them some other bits too, so you don’t look like you’ve put minimal effort into the present.

4. Room Décor

So, we mentioned room lighting earlier but another Secret Santa idea students will love is room décor.

If you’ve got a flatmate or housemate whose bedroom is particularly bare and you’ve got them for this year’s tradition, you could get them some nice decorations to make their space a little more homely.

There are loads of different items to choose from whether it’s a funky tapestry, a soft rug, a nice photo frame, a cute bedding set, a dreamcatcher or even some plants.

There’s even some other cute bits and bobs you could purchase like incense sticks, essential oils or candles.

We’re sure they’ll appreciate this gift idea as it’s a little more personal to their living experience.

5. Cosy Clothes

Next within our post to student secret Santa ideas for this Christmas is cosy clothes.

During the Winter months it’s absolutely freezing, so you really can’t have too many pairs of pyjamas or fluffy socks when you’re a student!

So, if you’re wondering what to get someone, why not get them something tailored to the holiday season?

You could even get the person you’re buying for an oodie hooded blanket (well the knock-off version at least) or a new pair of slippers – we’ll have one too please.

If you’ve got a relatively small budget for this year’s gift exchange, then a trip to Primark is a must.

After all, everyone needs to wrap up warm and put on extra layers during the colder months so, you can’t really go wrong with this present under the tree.

Although, to buy someone clothes you kinda need to know what size they wear, so we’d avoid this idea if you don’t really know the person.

6. A Personalised Mug

We did say we’d include student Secret Santa ideas to suit every budget, didn’t we?

Well, if you’ve got a small budget for this year’s present exchange, we’re talking about under a tenner or even a fiver, then a mug is a great present.

Plenty of online stores offer personalised mugs where you can add custom photos or text like FunkyPigeon and Prinster.

Everyone loves a nice cuppa or a warm brew, especially students so you can be rest assured your prezzie will be well-used.

Plus, their custom mug will give the secret Santa recipient something to smile and laugh about every time they have their morning coffee.

If you don’t wanna get someone a mug, how about a water bottle?

For those all-important refreshment breaks at uni.

7. Kitchen Appliances

If there was a competition for the best Secret Santa, we reckon this this next gift idea would win by a longshot.

Kitchen appliances are the ultimate present which any student will make use of, like who doesn’t like making their time spent in the kitchen even easier?!

Plus, if you live with the person you’re buying for, and they keep using all your bits and bobs in the kitchen then grabbing them their own appliance can be helpful for you.

There are tons of small appliances to suit your spending limit, like toastie makers, coffee machines and blenders.

You can find lots of cheap kitchen appliances on Argos or Currys.

8. Party Games

What’s better than a good party game to whip out during pre’s? Nothing really!

For students who love gaming nights, this is a great Secret Santa idea.

There’s a huge variety of entertaining games and drinking games to purchase for your secret Santa giftee.

Whether it’s a beer pong set, cards against humanity, Uno, monopoly, the list goes on.

Some great places to shop for this type of present is MenKind or GAME.

You could even push the boat out and get them a karaoke set if they’re someone who loves a good sing-along.

The best part is, when if you’re exchanging gifts as a friend group you can all play the game together – woo.

9. Bath & Shower Sets

Listen, for all of you who say that a bath or shower set is a rubbish present idea for Secret Santa, we’re here to tell you they’re not.

Sure, you might get a lot of them for Christmas but that only means you’ll be able to make them last throughout alllll of the academic year.

We recommend buying someone a bath or shower set with products you’ll know the person will like, rather than just walking into Boots and grabbing the first one you see.

Such as, if you know one of your flatmates uses a lot of stuff from Lush or Sanctuary, then grab them a cute gift set.

Or, if one of your friends is particularly into their skincare, you could treat them to a little hamper full of their fave products!

Don’t feel like putting together a hamper? We don’t blame you, student life is busy.

Head over to Etsy and you’ll find sooo many bath and shower sets.

10. Gift Card

A lot of people frown upon gift cards for Secret Santa exchanges, however, we say they can still be a great present.

Whilst giving someone a gift card and nothing else is slightly boring, if you pair it along with another prezzie and get them a gift card tailored to them then it can still be a fab idea.

If you know that the person you’re buying for really loves Starbucks or Costa, you could get them a voucher with a set amount on.

Or, if one of your friends loves shopping on ASOS or Urban Outfitters for example, why not get them a voucher for there?

Getting someone a gift card for their fave brand means that this way, you’re giving someone the chance to shop for what they like.

Which a lot of people may prefer to do, there’s nothing worse than receiving a gift that you won’t use!

You can even get gift cards which allow the receiver to choose from numerous shopping destinations like One4all.

This is just a godsend if you’re really stuck on what to get someone, or super last minute.

There we have it, the end of our post on 10 Secret Santa gift ideas for students.

We hope this guide has given you some holiday inpso for this Christmas.

Whilst we haven’t included any funny Secret Santa presents in this guide, getting someone something cheeky is a great way to make them laugh.

Although, we’d recommend only doing this for people you know well.

Happy Santa Shopping everyone!

If you’re wondering where are the Best Christmas Markets In The UK, then take a read of our guide to see where you should visit this year.