Start a Secret Santa This Year

For many people, buying all of those gifts can be overwhelming. Many times we run around buying gifts that people really do not need or use very much during the year. A great way to celebrate the season and still give everyone a wonderful gift is to do a Secret Santa.

One of my friends comes from a family of seven children. They are all grown now. His mother has thirteen brothers and sisters (that’s a lot of uncles and aunts). Each of the adult children has children of their own. So do the brothers and sisters. Christmas was causing a lot of tension in the family, which was getting to be a real shame. Until one of the adult children proposed doing a Secret Santa. Some of the family members were reluctant at first, they weren’t sure that it would “really feel like Christmas”. But they decided to try it for just one year. They set a dollar limit of one hundred dollars to shop for a person, and they asked each person to submit five gift ideas of what they would especially like for Christmas. Names were given out at Thanksgiving.

It was probably the easiest Christmas they had in a long time! Everyone had a nice time and everyone got a gift that they enjoyed. The children were not overloaded with presents that they put aside over New Year’s Eve weekend and never looked at again in the coming year. Everyone actually remembered what they got for Christmas. It was official: they were going to be a Secret Santa family forevermore.

A Secret Santa is also a great choice for an office setting. Instead of buying each co-worker a gift, you then are responsible for buying one gift. It takes a lot of the pressure off of the holidays. Most offices that I have been in that have done a Secret Santa tend to set the dollar amount at about twenty five dollars. This is a great amount because you can find lots of gifts that are sure to please many people. A great gift to get is gift certificates to the movies, because most of us like to go to the movies at least a couple of times a year. A gift card to a large department store or discount store can also be a nice gift, because many people like to go to those after Christmas sales.

A Secret Santa gift exchange saves time shopping, money and gives you less holiday stress!

Credit: T. Al Nakib

Copyright: T. Al Nakib