Every year my family comes together during the holidays especially Christmas Eve. We do something called Secret Santa which is a pretty common tradition for people. I personally love giving people gifts it gets me excited when they open something that I took time to look for.  Giving people something requires consideration and can be stressful at times but its entertaining.

A month before we write the names of those who are going to participate it mostly just my cousins and family friends that play. We cut little pieces of paper and write things we like. Then they’re placed in a hat and everyone chooses a name. The last time we hosted a Secret Santa was in 2018 but it was the most exciting to me. The name I pulled out was my cousin Veronica she was 11 at the time but it was difficult to think of something to get a preteen. Our budget was $50 max which is good in my opinion.

My family and I went to the mall and picked something out for the secret santa’s my sister and I had. We searched for hours in numerous stores around the area. Finding an eleven year old was mildly difficult because they’re in the age where toys aren’t fun to them anymore and they aren’t allowed to wear any makeup.

After a month of looking for something perfect to give my secret Santa, I think the gift was decent enough. The night of Christmas eve everyone came in with their gifts and we were all really curious to know who got who. My sister, one of our cousins (totally not our favorite cousin haha) and me were telling each other who we got in the bathroom. We kept it a secret from the rest of our cousins.

When it was twelve o’clock everyone in the party came together and sat in the living room to see us open the gifts. The youngest went first and whoever they got, the same person gives their gift etc. After several people went it was my turn to give my cousin her gift and it was a big red box with a red bow on top of it. She opened her gift and was really thankful. We ended up giving her matching sweatpants and a sweater, body mist, lotion and lip balm. I thought it would be a good idea to get comfortable clothes and smell good at the same time.

Being anonymous for a whole month makes everything way more exciting. It builds up emotion and exhileration until you expose yourself.