December starts the infamous gift giving season; groups of friends cluster in an attempt to give each and every person their own special gift. Some gifts,although thoughtful, can be very expensive, making the holiday season stress and anxiety filled for many while trying to work up the money to please all of your peers. To keep the magic of the holidays alive while also keeping the credit card balance in check, many students resort to a fun and spirited gift giving game of Secret Santa.
Secret Santa is when in a group of people, each person secretly picks a name out of a hat, and then has to give them a present. This way each person gets a present, saving money, and also adding the element of surprise.
“I honestly refer Secret Santa to just exchanging gifts with all of my friends,” senior Caroline Kennon said. “It’s more fun anyways because you have to guess who has you.”
Secret Santa can not only be festive, but can stir up enormous laughter when there are gag gifts. Gag gifts are presents that are supposed to be so bad that they are funny, like a Whoopie cushion. These presents can be personalized when a person is getting a gag gift for their friends that might have a certain sense of humour, or a gift that can humorously reflects their personality.
“I love getting my friends gag gifts because it’s really funny to see what their reaction is. I also really like getting gag gifts because I think it’s funnier than getting a real gift instead,” sophomore Stina Drill said.
There are other alternatives to gift giving besides secret santa though, such as white elephant. This one has a couple more rules to the game, but has the same sort of concept as secret santa. The only difference is that you don’t get a specific person a present, but you only buy one present, and the participants can trade their gift with others, along with more rules and regulations.
“White elephant is my favorite because you can try to get the best present by trading with someone else,” senior Seth Bangser said.
Traditional gift giving can cause a larger loss of money than is really needed, and there are many other alternatives to celebrate the holidays! Instead of getting each of your friends a gift, it may be easier or end up being more fun to try a different way to achieve the same goal.
