Each person also puts in a specific amount of money into a pot. In this version, each person buys a gift for specific amount, not for anyone specifically. Each receiver must guess who made the gift. This letter may or may not have hints on who the giver might be, depending on the rules participants have established. In this version, each participant brings a gift for their assigned person, with a letter. This game is more commonly known as the white elephant gift exchange, or Yankee Swap. Players take turns and can either open a new gift or steal a previously opened gift. Ideally, the provider of each gift should not be disclosed when setting up the game. The gifts should be wrapped in such a way as to disguise their nature. In this version, participants (players) bring one gift each which is potentially suitable or interesting to any of the other participants. Main article: White elephant gift exchange
In Israel, this game is called גמד וענק (A Dwarf and a Giant) and is mostly played during Purim. It is also called amic invisible (invisible friend) in Catalonia. Spain, Portugal and most places in Latin America use amigo secreto (secret friend), amigo invisible/invisível (invisible friend), and also amigo oculto (hidden friend) in parts of Brazil.
Exceptions are the UK (where the traditional gift-bringer is Father Christmas) and the Philippines (which has the Three Kings). All of these names derive from traditional Christmas gift-bringers: the American custom is named after Santa Claus, or St Nicholas (Poland and Ukraine), while Chris Kindle and Kris Kringle are both corruptions of the original name of the Austrian gift-bringer Christkindl, which means the "Christ Child". In Poland, the tradition is celebrated on the day of 6 December (Mikołajki), in Belgium and the Netherlands on December 5 (Sinterklaas), in Ukraine-on December, 19th (Mykolay). "Wichteln" is what a "Wichtel", a wight, does, a good deed. The identity of the gift giver is to remain a secret and should not be revealed.ĭeriving from the Christian tradition, the ritual is known as Secret Santa in the United States and the United Kingdom as Kris Kringel or Kris Kindle ( Christkindl) in Ireland as Wichteln, Secret Santa, Kris Kringle, Chris Kindle ( Christkindl) or Engerl-Bengerl in parts of Austria as Secret Santa or Kris Kringle in Canada and Australia as Secret Santa, Kris Kringle, or Monito-Monita in the Philippines as Angelito in the Dominican Republic and as "Wichteln" or "Julklapp" in Germany. Secret Santa is a Western Christmas tradition in which members of a group or community are randomly assigned a person to whom they give a gift. College students choose names for Secret Santa and exchange gifts