By Dagen Gilbreath, Graphics Editor
Some people truly enjoy exchanging gifts with strangers, but for others the mere thought of it is stressful. Secret Santa is a common classroom activity in which classmates are paired at random to give each other gifts, assuming that a group of surly teenagers who only really know each other through school will happily put down money and effort for one another.
This is only true for a minority of Christmas fanatics, those who will do anything to fill the gaping hole of childhood Christmas nostalgia that eats at them once a year.
To clear the air, these remarks do not reflect on Secret Santa as a whole, but are just in reference to the classroom brand of Secret Santa. When performed by a friend group or family, it is a fun twist on conventional holiday celebration. Classroom Secret Santa, however, is a different story.
Classroom Secret Santa is fundamentally flawed in that it assumes that the patrons have an established connection that will allow them to genuinely meet each other’s wishes. The anxiety incurred by this presumption leads to participants asking for simple gifts that don’t reflect their real wishes or desires. Partners are selected at random for Secret Santa, and most of the time they have no real shared friendship to be in a position to give or receive gifts to one another in a satisfying manner.
Gifts are an intimate reflection of a relationship between friends or family – they are to loved ones from loved ones. Gifts are unique to both the recipient and the giver. Whether it be the content of the gift or the context it fits, gifts are sacred. In a classroom setting, Secret Santa violates the sanctity of gift-giving as a whole.
The tradition of giving presents to loved friends and family is turned into a mere gesture that mimics the aforementioned holiday. It’s nothing more than a hollow husk of an activity, a feigned gesture with no more meaning to it than the passively wished for presents it incurs. It is cruel and impersonal, a mockery on the students it is supposed to benefit.
Of course, this entire argument implies that Secret Santa is a serious thing, which is false. Secret Santa holds about as much importance as you let it; however, being coerced into participating is, on its own, enough to discourage the success of it as a whole.
Like many other things, creating a forced structure around a fun activity essentially dooms it to become a less genuine shadow of what it represents. Much like mandatory Valentine’s Day cards, Secret Santa is a compulsory gesture that makes nobody feel particularly great. The only way a person can come out of Secret Santa and feel some pang of satisfaction is by lowering expectations to a minimum, and expecting name-brand candy at best.
Senior Dagen Gilbreath can be reached at gilbreathda0518@daretolearn.org.
