Participating in a Secret Santa gift exchange is fun. You buy
gifts for someone you do not know based on their wish list. Someone else buys
you presents based on your wish list.
The Guinness Book of World Records largest holiday gift exchange
record was achieved in 2012 by a website, Reddit. They set out to break their
own record this year. There
were more than 120,000 Secret Santas that participated which was three times as
many as 2012.
Rachel, a Reddit user participating in this year's online Secret
Santa gift giving, got the surprise of her life when she received her packages.
She posted a list of gifts she hoped to get from her Reddit Secret Santa—makeup,
nail polish, "glittery things" and an iPad.
Her Secret Santa was a guy named Bill. "I thought Bill
sounded like a friendly fellow," she said. "In fact, I had this whole
image of this poor guy named Bill trying to navigate my wish list full of
makeup, nail polish, glittery things to buy me. Quite frankly, I felt bad for
this Bill."
Rachel explained that a package showed up at her house with a
card addressed "To Rachel, From Bill." It contained a stuffed cow, a
note saying a donation had been made in her name to Heifer International and a
large National Geographic book about world travel. She was delighted.
She said, “I quickly opened the gift, which was an amazing and
beautiful travel book, Journeys of a
Lifetime. I went on and on in my likes and dislikes for my love of travel
and seeing the world, and I cannot WAIT to read this. Not only that, but I love
pictures and reading up on new places. This gift was perfect!"
“I quickly flipped through it, missing the inscription, message
and signature from Bill on the first page and headed to the final part of my
gift. I opened this and it's a man holding a sign. Oh, wait," Rachel
wrote, describing the moment she realized the identity of her gifter.
"And then it finally hit me. All the presents I just tore
open, the charity, then everything was from Bill GATES.” Rachel said she went
back through the gifts and read the inscriptions again, noting that all of the
gifts were perfectly tailored to her interests. She found a picture Gates had
taken of himself with the stuffed cow and the card made out to her.
Rachel made sure to add a sly apology for asking for an Apple
iPad: "PS: Sorry for the Apple Ipad on my wish list, that was really
awkward," she wrote.
Although I didn’t know about the Secret Santa program I decided
to create one of my own that was a gift for someone whom I heard may need
money. He has just begun working at a new job making low wages. I heard he was
very generous with all of his new co-workers. He bought each of them a
thoughtful gift with his hard earned money. I was touched by the story and
wanted to give him a gift.
Today’s gift was to give this man some money in an envelope and
a card telling him that his kindness is noticed and appreciated. He doesn’t
know me so I really will be his “secret” Santa.
In Giving,
Robin
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