How to Organize a Secret Santa Gift Exchange

A Secret Santa gift exchange is a great way to bring the Christmas spirit into a workplace, school, or group of friends. With some careful planning, you can organize a successful Secret Santa gift exchange.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Define the group that will be participating. It does not need to be an even number. The larger the group, the harder it will be to guess the identity of your Secret Santa.

2. Set the rules for the Secret Santa gift exchange. You will need to set the duration of the gift exchange, the number of gifts to be given, and a spending limit.

3. Consider using a theme for your Secret Santa gift exchange. The participants then buy Secret Santa gifts around that theme.

4. Draw names to determine who gives gifts to whom. A traditional drawing of names from a hat always works. You can also choose to randomly assign names yourself if it is more convenient for your situation.

5. Provide tips for how to exchange gifts to the Secret Santa gift exchange participants. You can suggest they leave gifts where the recipient will find it, mail the gifts, have a friend deliver the gifts, or any other method that makes sense for your group.

Tips & Warnings

• If the participants of your Secret Santa gift exchange do not know each other well, ask each member to write three sentences about themselves prior to assigning Secret Santas. When you pick names, pass the information along to help the participants select appropriate gifts.
• Secret Santa gift exchanges are especially fun when they lead up to something, like a Holiday party. At the end event, the Secret Santas can give their final gift and reveal themselves.
• Consider using an online Secret Santa gift exchange organizer (see the Resources section below for direct links).

Resources

• Elfster - Online Secret Santa Organizer
• SecretSanta.com - Online Secret Santa Organizer

[thesquirrelymom]

on 11/25/2008 Fun!