Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas; I love opening gifts and I love getting gifts on Christmas morning, but one of my least favorite things is doing a Secret Santa. I’m not the greatest at gift-giving to begin with, and if you are doing Secret Santa with a group of people -some who you aren’t too terribly close with – it’s hard to get them a gift because you aren’t sure of what they like.

     So, if you pick a name of someone you don’t know well (and you most likely will, because fate isn’t always in our favor… At all), the gift you get them isn’t going to be thoughtful or good. It’s going to be a waste of money, and why would you want to do that? Why would you spend your hard earned money that you’ve worked for on something that’s a waste, like a box of Bob Ross mints or a pair of socks (although fun, cute socks are an amazing gift)?

     It’s not about laziness or carelessness or anything along those lines, it is simply just a waste of money to buy something meaningless for someone. It’s probably going to be given away or regifted anyways. Also, not to bring up the fact that it will bring “fun” amounts of stress.

     If you really wanted to get someone a gift, then go ahead and buy it for them; you don’t need to do a Secret Santa to have an excuse to buy someone a gift, and while you’re buying that said gift, at least you’re doing it for someone you actually want to buy it for and spending your hard-earned money on someone of your own choice.

     That sounds mean, but really, think about it; would you rather buy something for someone that you want to buy for, or buy something for someone that you aren’t close with and get a meaningless gift for them?

     Not to mention the fact that it’s also awkward opening a gift from someone anonymously, because who are you going to thank? No one, because you don’t know who got you it. It is painfully awkward to receive a gift and sit there and be like, “OMG, I love it, thanks!” when that’s a complete lie. You don’t love it; it’s a pointless gift and it’s just dumb.

     It would be great if there were a step-by-step article explaining how to actually seem like you like a horrible gift that you receive from someone. You have to put on your best fake face for Secret Santa, and some people really aren’t good at that.