From then on, Larry Dean Stewart, born in 1948, would go out in the streets and hand out $100 bills to people in need each December, subsequently making him an American folk figure and the original Secret Santa.
He began to give people gifts anonymously at Christmas. This started as giving underprivileged people in Kansas city money in 1979 and continued for many years. After the 9/11 attack in New York, Stewart donated over $200,000 dollars in cash to people in the city anonymously.
Deriving 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 ...
The concept of Secret Santa started off when a philanthropist decided to bring up the idea of anonymously gifting others during Christmas.
The Story of The Original Secret Santa . . .
During this time, he kept his identity a secret. In 2006, prior to his death, he revealed his identity. His name was Larry Dean Stewart.
The Secret Santa tradition goes a long way back, but a famous origin story ties it to Larry Dean Stewart, an American philanthropist and business-owner who gave anonymous gifts during Christmas.
Santa Claus is based on Saint Nicholas. Nicholas was a real person who lived in the ad 300s. People loved him because of his many acts of kindness. Because of the many stories about his kindness Saint Nicholas became associated with gift giving.
If the name “Secret Santa” is what is offending you, then it is a good idea to suggest any other common name for the exchange that doesn't relate to a specific tradition. If you just feel strongly about not exchanging fun, modest gifts with colleagues regardless, then you can politely decline.
We're not sure where the name "Dirty Santa" originated, but it's meant to refer to game participants, the "Santas," stealing desirable gifts from each other. As opposed to Secret Santa, where participants are trying to guess who their personalized gifts are from, Dirty Santa adds a fun, competitive twist.
Secret Santa is a Christmas gift giving game wherein members of a group are allocated a present recipient at random. The identity of the gift giver is to remain a secret until revealed at the end.
It is called dirty because game participants steal gifts from each other in the attempt to end up with the best possible gift. Gifts for Dirty Santa are typically something fun, new, unique, and in good taste. Unlike the White Elephant gift exchange, Dirty Santa gifts are usually items the recipients will want and use.
Pollyanna is a somewhat general term, and is used for both Secret Santas and white elephant style exchanges and also exchanges where who gets what gift is decided after all the gifts are bought and wrapped.
If you've played Secret Santa before, you know the drill: A group of people are assigned to buy a gift for another person anonymously. The game is named like so because the gift receivers have no idea who their "secret Santa" is.
what is the world record for this? The largest game of Secret Santa consists of 1,463 participants and was achieved by Lexington Catholic High School and area middle schools in Lexington, Kentucky, USA!
Nicholas: The Real Santa Claus. The legend of Santa Claus can be traced back hundreds of years to a monk named St. Nicholas. It is believed that Nicholas was born sometime around A.D. 280 in Patara, near Myra in modern-day Turkey.
In fact, many people are surprised to learn that prior to 1931, Santa was depicted as everything from a tall gaunt man to a spooky-looking elf. He has donned a bishop's robe and a Norse huntsman's animal skin.
Kris Kringle (or K.K.) starts by putting the names of all employees in a hat. Each person draws out the name of a colleague and that is the person that they need to buy a gift for. K.K. is also referred to as “Secret Santa” and the idea is to not tell anyone whose name they have drawn.
Don't: Get gifts that are personal.
Avoid personal items such as perfume that can be considered romantic, especially if given from a male to female colleague. "Anything you would buy for your significant other should be avoided," says Oldham. Although it's Christmas, Oldham says to stay away from religious items.
'Bad Santa' Kris Kringle
Whoever gets number one gets to pick a present and unwrap it, and so on. The catch is that anyone who unwraps a present can steal a gift from the person before them. If family member number two decides they don't like the present they've unwrapped, they can swap it for yours instead!
"It's not an overnight shift in thinking," says Laura Lamminen, Ph. D., a pediatric psychologist at Children's Health℠, "and there's no set age where children should know the truth about Santa Claus." Dr. Lamminen says each family and each child within that family will be ready to talk about Santa at different ages.
Besides, Secret Santa usually has a price cap of about $10 to $15 per gift. So plan for that in your Christmas budget, and you'll be golden.
While there are many benefits to protecting children's belief in Santa, it's not OK to lie to children about his existence. Discovering the truth about Santa is part of growing up and a sign that the child is developing critical thinking skills.
"There is no such thing as being too old to believe in Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy," Kelman tells Yahoo Life. "Letting kids figure it out on their own is preferable to parents breaking the news to them.
Most Americans (67%) stopped expecting Santa to shimmy down their chimney by the time they entered seventh grade. Half (49%) of Americans say they stopped believing in Santa before the age of 10 – with a quarter (23%) reporting that they lost sight of him between the ages of seven (10%) and eight (13%).
Nicholas was the 4th-century Greek Bishop of Myra (in present-day Turkey). Under the Roman emperor Diocletian, who persecuted Christians, Nicholas spent some five years in prison—and according to some accounts, in solitary confinement.