If you thought your office Secret Santa was complicated, try imagining how far-fetched it can get in the world of football.
Peter Crouch has been discussing the tradition and how past team-mates have gone all out to surprise their lucky recipient in previous years.
One of those stories included World Cup winner and legendary Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso.
The two played together at Liverpool from 2005-2008 under Rafa Benitez and it is fair to say Alonso's beneficiary will not have known what to do with his present.
The former England forward, now retired, explained on the Peter Crouch Podcast in 2018: "Xabi Alonso once bought someone an actual bird – a canary!
"He brought it in a cage, all covered [up] and no one knew it was there. On the little card it said ‘I’ve bought you this bird because no-one’s ever seen you with one’."
Crouch also revealed how a risky Secret Santa gift he bought went down far better than expected.
The 38-year-old, capped 42 times by England, added: "I drew my boss at Secret Santa once and it was Rafa Benitez at Liverpool.
"He started changing his image a little bit and started wearing a leather jacket, so I got him a new leather and Jose Mourinho’s book on how to win the league.
"I thought it wasn’t going to go down well, but he opened it up, had a look at it and was genuinely interested, said he will read it.
"It was anonymous so he didn’t know [it was from me]. The leather was funny but the Mourinho book was a dream."
On another Secret Santa, Crouch said: "One lad was partial to a sun bed so he got a year’s supply of sun cream. It was getting delivered to his house on a monthly basis.
"There was no limit [on Secret Santa] so we went all in, there was some absolute crackers."
If only we thought of a canary.
