For anyone who may be unaware, Secret Santa is a term that was coined to refer to a gift exchange among a group of people. Essentially, you’re given the name of a person to purchase a gift for without revealing to that person you have their name. Some folks pull names out of a hap, and others use websites to formulate the draw for them; regardless of its origins, Secret Santa is a concept that a lot of folks use at Christmastime.
My cousins on my mom’s side of my family and I have been doing a Secret Santa gift exchange for a few years now, and we love it. We figure rather than buying gifts for all of us, and spending a lot more money, if we have one person to buy for, we can invest a little more in their present, both emotionally and financially. By emotionally I mean we can focus our attention on one gift and make it more personal as opposed to buying several and losing the sentimentality aspect.
My sister had a great idea for our gift exchange this year. We are still drawing names, but instead of purchasing something materialistic for the person we get, we are going to donate an agreed-upon monetary value to a charity on behalf of the person we ended up getting. So, for example, if I were to get Blaine’s name, I would be donating to a charity of his choosing.
We had a vote and agreed to pursue the charity theme for this year’s Secret Santa, and I encourage you to contemplate doing the same if you also participate in a Secret Santa of any sort. It’s a wonderful way to give back, and instead of getting someone something they really don’t even need, you can give back to someone who truly needs it.
Photo by Andy Holmes on Unsplash
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