Secret Santa
Entry in proress—B.P.
Wikipedia: Secret Santa
Secret Santa is a Western Christmas tradition in which members of a group or community are randomly assigned a person to whom they anonymously give a gift.
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 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” in Germany. “Wichteln” is what a “Wichtel”, a wight, does, a good deed. In Poland, the tradition is celebrated on the day of 6 December (Mikołajki). All of these names derive from traditional Christmas gift-bringers: the American custom is named after Santa Claus, or St Nicholas (Poland), while Chris Kindle and Kris Kringle are both corruptions of the original name of the Austrian gift-bringer Christkindl, which means the “Christ Child”. Exceptions are the UK (where the traditional gift-bringer is Father Christmas) and the Philippines (which has the Three Kings). Most places in Latin America use amigo secreto (secret friend) or amigo invisible (invisible friend). In Israel, this game is called גמד וענק (A Dwarf and a Giant) and is mostly played during Purim.
The term Pollyanna is used in Southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey.
(Oxford English Dictionary)
Secret Santa n. (also with lower-case initial(s)) orig. U.S. a person who gives a Christmas present anonymously, now usually by means of a type of gift exchange among a group of colleagues, friends, etc., whereby each participant is assigned (at random) another person for whom to provide a gift; (also) a gift exchange of this type.
1933 Bee (Danville, Va.) 22 Dec. 2/4 (headline) Plays secret santa, then kills self.
1969 Chicago Tribune 25 Dec. b12/1 Presents for the needy from a secret Santa.
1989 M. Moffatt Coming of Age in New Jersey ii. 32 ‘Secret Santa’, a favorite student festivity in the Rutgers dorms in the early 1980s.
OCLC WorldCat record
Nancy Drew Notebooks #3: The secret Santa.
Author: Carolyn Keene; Illustrated by Anthony Accardo.
Publisher: New York : Pocket Books, 1994.
Edition/Format: Print book : English
OCLC WorldCat record
Secret Santa
Author: Laura E Williams; George Ulrich; Copyright Paperback Collection (Library of Congress)
Publisher: New York : Scholastic, ©1997.
Series: Let’s have a party, no. 7
Edition/Format: Print book : Fiction : English
OCLC WorldCat record
The Secret Santa problem
Author: K M McGuire; G Mackiw; C H Morrell
Edition/Format: Article Article : English
Publication: MATHEMATICAL GAZETTE, 83, no. 498, (1999): 467-471
Database: British Library Serials
Other Databases: ArticleFirst