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.
If you have never done a Secret Santa before, then this is how it works:
Begin by asking your family members or friends if they want to participate. Typically people are excited about this idea once you bring it up, so response will generally be positive. You may have to go “back and forth” a bit to set all of your rules – for example what type of dollar amount you all will set for gifts.
The next step is to set a dollar limit for gifts. This amount is the highest that people can spend on a gift. When you doing this as a family, select a dollar amount that is comfortable for everyone – but also high enough that gifters can select items that people will enjoy. Christmas is often a time when there are lots of sales, so there is a chance to get a great deal on the items that the person really wants. Sometimes setting a lower dollar amount also inspires creativity, and that can be fun too. But if you have a family that wants items that tend to be more expensive – such as electronics, then you will want to set the dollar amount higher.
Collect all of the names for your Secret Santa. Some people also like to collect gift ideas from participants, to further avoid wasting money. Getting the top three gift ideas is a great idea, or even gift areas – such as “Three Stooges movie DVDs” or “Elvis memorabilia. This is especially helpful if someone winds up getting a name that they are not as familiar with what the person likes – something that can happen in a very large family, or group of friends or co-workers.
Take a paper bag and put all of the names on little slips of paper. Write down all of the names on another sheet of paper. Now pull out a name for every name on your sheet of paper. Then contact each name and tell them who they have for the Secret Santa gift exchange.
Or if you want to do the Secret Santa exchange in a high-tech fashion, there are several websites now that will do the name picking for you. They then send out e-mails to each person to let them know who they have in the Secret Santa exchange. This is easy and convenient, and perfect for a large group that is all over the place, or a group of coworkers or a group of friends.
Visit http://secretsanta.com/ to plan your Secret Santa online.
A Secret Santa can be lots of fun, it can help everyone save time and money and it can be a great way for a large group of people to celebrate the holidays. Sounds like a win-win situation!
