Secret Santa is a

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, ...

tradition in which members of a group or community are randomly assigned a person to whom they give a gift. The identity of the gift giver is to remain a secret and should not be revealed. Deriving from the Christian tradition, the ritual is known as ''Secret Santa'' in the United States and the United Kingdom; as ''Kris Kringel'' or ''Kris Kindle'' (''Christkindl'') in Ireland; as ''Wichteln, Secret Santa'', ''Kris Kringle'', ''Chris Kindle'' (''Christkindl'') or Engerl-Bengerl in parts of

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous c ...

; as ''Secret Santa'' or ''Kris Kringle'' in Canada and Australia; as ''Secret Santa'', ''Kris Kringle'', or ''Monito-Monita'' in the Philippines; as ''Angelito'' in the Dominican Republic; and as ''Wichteln'' or ''Julklapp'' in Germany. ''Wichteln'' is what a ''Wichtel'', a wight, does, a good deed. In Poland, the tradition is celebrated on the day of 6 December (Mikołajki), in Belgium and the Netherlands on 5 December (Sinterklaas), in Ukraine on 19 December (Mykolay). All of these names derive from traditional Christmas gift-bringers: the American custom is named after

Santa Claus Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnigh ...

, or St Nicholas (Poland and Ukraine), while ''Chris Kindle'' and ''Kris Kringle'' are both corruptions of the original name of the Austrian gift-bringer ''

Christkindl The Christkind (; ), also called ''Christkindl'', is the traditional Christmas gift-bringer in Austria, Switzerland, southern and western Germany, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the eastern part of Belgium, Portugal, Slo ...

'', which means the "Christ Child". Exceptions are the UK (where the traditional gift-bringer is

Father Christmas Father Christmas is the traditional English name for the personification of Christmas. Although now known as a Christmas gift-bringer, and typically considered to be synonymous with Santa Claus, he was originally part of a much older and unrela ...

) and the Philippines (which has the

Three Kings The biblical Magi from Middle Persian ''moɣ''(''mard'') from Old Persian ''magu-'' 'Zoroastrian clergyman' ( or ; singular: ), also referred to as the (Three) Wise Men or (Three) Kings, also the Three Magi were distinguished foreigners in the ...

). Spain, Portugal and most places in Latin America use ''amigo secreto'' ("secret friend"), ''amigo invisible/invisível'' ("invisible friend"), and also ''amigo oculto'' ("hidden friend") in parts of Brazil. In Israel, this game is called ("a dwarf and a giant") and is mostly played during Purim.

Related games

Thieving Secret Santa/Stealing Secret Santa/White Elephant/Yankee Swap/Grab Bag

In this completely different game, participants (players) bring one gift each which is potentially suitable or interesting to any of the other participants. The gifts should be wrapped in such a way as to disguise their nature. Ideally, the provider of each gift should not be disclosed when setting up the game. Players take turns and can either open a new gift or steal a previously opened gift. This game is more commonly known as the

white elephant gift exchange A white elephant gift exchange, Yankee swap or Dirty Santa is a party game where amusing and impractical gifts are exchanged during festivities. The goal of a white elephant gift exchange is to entertain party-goers rather than to gain a ge ...

, or Yankee Swap.

Guessing

In this version, each participant brings a gift for their assigned person, with a letter. This letter may or may not have hints on who the giver might be, depending on the rules participants have established. Each receiver must guess who made the gift.

Secret Casino Santa

In this version, each person buys a gift for specific amount, not for anyone specifically. Each person also puts in a specific amount of money into a pot. Who goes first in gift selection can be determined by random selection. The options are: *Option A: Choose a gift *Option B: Do not choose a gift, and go for Money. *Option C: Put your name in to win all the unwanted gifts by those who went for Option B. At the end, the gifts that were chosen are opened and the winner of the money and leftover gifts are drawn.

Conspiracy Santa

In this version, participants engage in a "conspiracy" where all participants work together to select a gift for a single participant without that participant's direct involvement or knowledge. Many such individual "conspiracies" run concurrently, one for each participant. Email threads or web apps are commonly used to manage each "conspiracy" until a consensus is made, wherein the gift is purchased by a decided upon participant and given at a later date. A common theme of Conspiracy Santa is collectively learning about participants, making it popular for workplaces and schools.

Secret Santa online

The tradition of Secret Santa is becoming increasingly popular in online communities. There are several ''Secret Santa Generators'' that tell every participant in a group for whom to buy a gift. This is especially useful for groups who can't meet in person to draw the names from a hat or bowl before the Secret Santa event.

References

{{Christmas Christmas traditions Giving Articles containing video clips Santa Claus