This year, Beth, one of my TLT yahoo group friends, mentioned a fun idea where one's family plays the part of a secret Santa, dropping off small gifts on the porch of a friend's house each of twelve nights until the last night when the Santa Family reveals themselves. Usually, it's done for the benefit of children; however, I thought this would be a marvelous idea for an elderly neighbor of ours who lives alone. I got many ideas and poems from this website, but decided I needed to modify it a bit to fit our older friend. I thought I'd share my ideas in case the reader would like to do something similar next year. :)
The very first thing I would suggest doing is creating a note to go with the first night's gift. Elderly neighbors tend to freak out when tall 12-year old boys bundled up...and unrecognizable...for cold weather appear on their porch unexpectedly, just as the neighbor looks out her window! (We set that straight in a hurry with a phone call from a mutual friend so the game wasn't given away right in the beginning.)
Here's the poem to be left on the first night:
This glad Christmas season is so full of fun,
We're happy to share this with you, then run.
How grateful we are that you're playing our game,
You'll now find that Christmas won't be the same.
The song that we sing twelve days in a row
Won't get tiresome with treats from friends you know.
But to keep up the mystery and the fun,
You won't know who we are until we're all done!
Each night we'll bring something special for you,
And leave it on your doorstep - Don't catch us too soon!
So please do not watch for us; it'll spoil the fun,
We promise we'll reveal ourselves on the last nightly run!
Next, I printed out some blank tags so I could write my own notes on them as follows. I bought some Christmas gift bags that look like lunch bags, put the gift inside, folded the top over and punched a hole in it through which I could thread a piece of ribbon to attach the tag with my note. Usually, we left the parcels late enough that they were found in the morning. Following are the notes I left.
On the FIRST day of Christmas, your crazy friends gave to you, a partridge in a pear tree...
Sorry, but I couldn't find a partridge so I'm giving you some pears from the tree. (Leave a can of pears in the bag with the note attached.)
On the SECOND day of Christmas, your crazy friends gave to you, two turtle doves...
Unfortunately, I don't have any turtle doves. Will a Dove candy bar and some Turtle candy do? (Tie the Dove candy bar and two Turtle candies together with a ribbon and leave it with the note.)
On the THIRD day of Christmas, your crazy friends gave to you, three French hens...
The French hens were not available, so we're leaving you French fries, courtesy of the French hens. (Leave a small bag of frozen French fries with the note.)
On the FOURTH day of Christmas, your crazy friends gave to you, four calling birds...
More birds! How about some thistle and suet so you can call those birds to your house. (I found ready-to-hang thistle in a bag and some suet to leave with the note.)
On the FIFTH day of Christmas, your crazy friends gave to you, five golden rings...
Sorry, we can't afford golden rings, but how about some golden pineapple rings? (Leave a can of pineapple rings with the note.)
On the SIXTH day of Christmas, your crazy friends gave to you, six geese a laying...
You really don't want messy geese all over your yard. Instead, here are six lovely blue eggs they left behind. (We have an Araucana hen who lays blue eggs. You can be creative with this one. Don't forget the note. By the way, we did a 'ring and run' with this one. Frozen eggs aren't much good.)
On the SEVENTH day of Christmas, your crazy friends gave to you, seven swans a swimming... The swans have all flown south for the winter, but a Loon swimming on your tree seemed appropriate from crazy friends. (I found a lovely Loon ornament in our local Maine Made store, which I left with the note.)
On the EIGHTH day of Christmas, your crazy friends gave to you, eight maids a milking...
I didn't think you really wanted a cow...or a goat... but how about some garlic herbed cheese and crackers? (We have goats, so I make goat cheese. We left that with a nice box of crackers and the note. You can certainly find a nice cheese in the grocery store.)
On the NINTH day of Christmas, your crazy friends gave to you, nine ladies dancing...
Here are some socks the ladies would have loved to have for their cold, tired feet. (My daughter whipped up a wonderful pair of wool socks, which we left with the note.)
On the TENTH day of Christmas, your crazy friends gave to you, ten lords a leaping...
That's a lot of guys leaping around your house. Perhaps you would prefer to watch the leaping flame of a Christmas candle instead. (I found a lovely small Christmasy tea light candle surrounded by berries at Pier 1 to put in with the note.)
On the ELEVENTH day of Christmas, your crazy friends gave to you, eleven pipers piping...
How about eleven pipes of chocolate instead of all that noise? (I left a can of Pirouline cookies with the note. I considered a Christmas cd, but didn't know if she had a cd player, so I nixed that.)
On the TWELFTH day of Christmas, your crazy friends gave to you, twelve drummers drumming... No drummers, we promise. :) We thought you'd like a special treat to enjoy the quiet of this night. "For unto us, a child is born..." (I found a lovely Christmas mug and some hot chocolate which we delivered with the note.)
Realizing that the twelve days of Christmas traditionally are counted starting on Christmas evening, we chose, instead, to start this twelve days before Christmas, culminating on Christmas eve. This way, we could take the last gift with us when we went Christmas caroling on Christmas Eve, and thus reveal ourselves to our neighbor and wish her a very Merry Christmas.
I have heard from another neighbor that this friend enjoyed the secret Santa immensely, and looked forward to it each day. I know we were just as blessed in sharing the joy with her as she was in receiving it.
We plan to find another victim to bless next year. It was just too much fun.
What a wonderful idea !!
ReplyDeleteWishing you a belated Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.
Getting bitter cold here -- and perhaps a chance of snow showers. Yahooooooo !!
Tammy