Be a Secret Angel by Playing a Good Samaritan this Holiday

A secret angel is someone who does anonymous acts of kindness for another person. You can't imagine how fun it is to bring joy and light into someone's life in secret until you've tried and the holiday season is the perfect time to start!

The rules are simple, do things to make your chosen recipient happy and make sure they can't find out who did it. You can be a serial angel or just a one-time one. If you want to do dozens of little things for someone, go ahead, but it is also fine to do just one thing to make their life better and then move on. Some people enjoy spreading their acts of kindness around their town, doing things for those who seem most in need.

While you can certainly do something simple like leave a basket of goodies on someone's doorstep, it helps if you do a bit of research. Find out what the person's likes and dislikes are and what they need, what their problems are. Then figure out a way to fix things. You may be a friend of this person or you might need to enlist the secret help of some people who are closer to them.

Angel acts can be small or big and anything in between. For example, you might try getting to work early and dropping off a donut or another breakfast item on a co-worker's desk before she arrives, or perhaps slip an envelope with some extra cash for Christmas gifts into someone's mailbox. Those are little things.

On the other end of the scale, we have While You Were Out type acts. Let's say you have a friend who is down on his luck and doesn't have the cash to fix up his home. You know he's going to visit family for the weekend, so you might organize some friends and family (all sworn to secrecy, of course) to strip and repaint the outside of his house while he is gone. Other large acts of kindness might include buying a bike for a child whose parents can't afford it and leaving it in front of the house, or washing someone's car while they are at work.

As you can imagine, there is plenty of potential for a secret angel. And if a job seems too big to you, don't worry, you can enlist fellow angels! Most people are more than willing to lend a hand when they hear what you are up to.