The history of Secret Santa by Jack Walters

Secret Santa is a traditional part of the Christmas festivities. Business premises, schools and colleges across the UK exchange anonymous cheap Christmas gifts – a fun, low cost way to kick off the festive season and showing others how much you care.



No one is really sure when or where Secret Santa originated in its present form, but it is thought the original Secret Santa was an American philanthropist, Larry Dean Stewart (1948 – 2007). He coined the name and spent 20 years doing random acts of kindness for people throughout the year. People soon cottoned on to the Secret Santa idea, seeing it as a way of exchanging cheap Christmas gifts anonymously. By the time of Larry Stewart’s death Secret Santa was as part a tradition of Christmas as the day itself.



Today, Larry’s legacy lives on with the charitable Secret Santa groups in the US, who help the unfortunate throughout the year. However, most people know Secret Santa as a voluntary activity in which people randomly allocate cheap Christmas gifts to their colleagues.



Secret Santa is about fun and inventiveness, and there are numerous cheap Christmas gifts that offer this opportunity. However, it’s important the person receiving the gift “gets the joke” and that those doing the giving ensure their Christmas gifts are not hiding an insult where none was intended.



Some of the best cheap Christmas gifts are those where the fun can be shared by everyone. A good laugh among friends is the best way to reinforce the true Secret Santa message.


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