For Christmas, Secret Santa keeps the spirit of giving alive

Growing up, Santa Claus was an old man from the North Pole with a white beard and an extravagant sledge. As December comes around, it is time for Secret Santa, a gift giving tradition where a group of people draws names anonymously, and then secretly purchases gifts for their assigned person. Shreya V, a Master’s student from Hyderabad who conducts Secret Santa with her friends every year, says that to her this tradition helps them stay in touch with each other: “Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Udaipur, Dehradun, we are all far off in different cities and yet we have made sure that the tradition of Secret Santa continues”. “This tradition of Christmas letters has become a cherished part of our college culture — an opportunity to express gratitude, appreciation, and love,” says Abhijay Gaur, co-organiser of Secret Santa letters at Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune. Another unconventional form of Secret Santa, the Book Secret Santa on X is a country-wide digital Secret Santa wherein participants are randomly allotted another individual across the country with their reading preferences following which they have to exchange books with their “Santy.” Co-Founder Aamna Khan started this with fellow reading enthusiasts Suhas Motwani and Sowmya Rao six years ago because they were in search of a space like this for themselves.