Being a broke college student during the holidays makes buying gifts for your friends and family an anxiety-inducing experience, at least from my point of view. Gifts are expensive and finding the perfect gift for everyone you know is even more expensive. The best solution to this problem is having your friend group partake in Secret Santa rather than getting every person an individual gift.
Secret Santa primarily takes the pressure off of having to buy a gift for everyone in the group, including the people you might not be particularly close to. Even if you pull that person’s name out of the hat, it is okay that you’re not that close because they are the only person you need to shop for and you can just pick something from their wish list.
Wish lists are saviors during the holiday season because if you are someone like me (terrible at shopping for others), a wish list allows you to get someone something you know they want and will enjoy. Secret Santa makes it easy and practically requires group to set up a wish list system to make it easier when drawing names. Wish lists just ensure that everyone will be happy with their gift, especially if you shop from someone’s wish list.
Another problem I come across during the holiday season is not having time or money finding everyone their perfect gift, so I just get everyone the same basic gift. Secret Santa solves this issue because I only have to buy a gift for a single friend rather than all of them.
Secret Santa makes gift exchanging fun because you get to discover the mystery of who bought your gift. My friend group has to open the gift and then try to guess who gave it to them and this simple guessing game adds a layer of entertainment to the otherwise tedious gift-opening process.
When my friends and I partake in Secret Santa, some of my go-to gifts are chocolate (or candy depending on what your person likes) and socks because those are two things that everyone enjoys. I also think that hot chocolate kits that come with a mug are also very cute and not only provide your friend with a nice hot drink for the cold months, but also with a nice mug that they can use over and over again.
Besides Secret Santa, White Elephant is another wonderful gift-giving festivity that brings people together. In the case of White Elephant, each person brings a wrapped gift (a gag gift or real gift, that is up to the group to decide) and then everyone draws a number determining their order of choosing a random gift from the pile. This holiday game allows people to steal gifts from others or be surprised by opening up a new gift themselves. This is great for large groups as it is very exciting and entertaining to watch everyone open a new gift each round.
Whether you want to buy gifts for everyone you know or want the simplicity of being responsible for one person in your friend group, the holidays are for showing your love and appreciation for your loved ones. How you show this love is up to you and there is no wrong answer.