Secret Santa!

Secret Santa! Secret Santa is a fun way to give gifts to friends and family, mostly because it allows you to give and receive one general gift instead of having to spend a small fortune on buying one gift for everyone at the party. It is a cost-effective way to be generous and have a little fun in “secret” shopping. Typically, everyone involved in a Secret Santa drawing writes their name on a slip of paper. All of the slips are then shuffled into a hat and everyone picks one name at random. Sometimes there is an uneven number of people, so often there is person willing to draw two names.

The key is to not telling anyone whose name you picked; thus the “secret” part of Secret Santa! One of the mail rules is that there is a predetermined amount of money to spend on each gift. This can be anywhere from one dollar to fifty, or even more, depending on how close everyone is to each other (for instance: you might spend more on a family member than a coworker or classmate). This keeps the game fair because it allows everyone to take part no matter their financial status. Secret Santa is a fun game to play for holidays, especially for families who can plan to draw names on Thanksgiving; that way they have a month to buy the gift for Christmas.

If it’s for an office party, it’s best to draw names at least two weeks in advance, because chances are everyone has a busy schedule and two weeks is plenty of time to buy a gift. Really, a Secret Santa is a great way to get to know someone. If you pick a name of someone from your office, for example, who you don’t really know much about–it’s a fun way to think of a gift they might enjoy, and then once they open the gift, you’ll likely spark a fun conversation about the gift, thus possibly making a new friend through giving. The most important thing to do is to have fun with it.