Donate Your Secret Santa To Help Children This Christmas
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This year the UK Money Bloggers have teamed up with charity KidsOut to encourage people to donate cash instead of buying a Secret Santa gift. Read on to find out how you can help and why we should ditch low-budget Secret Santa in favour of donating to this fantastic children’s charity.
Organising a Secret Santa with friends, family members or colleagues can be a great way to spend less money at Christmas.
How Does Secret Santa Work?
With Secret Santa participants usually buy for one person rather than several and stick to a pre-agreed budget.
Everyone’s names are placed into a hat, and then each person pulls out a name until everyone has one person to buy for. You can do this in person or use an online Secret Santa generator such as Elfster.
This can work especially well in large families where, for example, instead of spending £10 each on six adults you all buy one person a gift for say £30. You spend less overall, can buy a nicer gift with a slightly bigger budget and have fewer people to shop for – sounds like everyone wins.
Now, I might sound like a bit of a Scrooge here, but there are times when Secret Santa doesn’t work quite so well.
For example, in a workplace full of people who don’t know each other well and with a small budget of £5.
While you can get some lovely gifts for a fiver, people often end up buying random presents that might not end up getting used and are thrown away come the new year.
There is also the fear of pulling out the name of someone you don’t get on with or have no idea what to buy for. Some people also feel uncomfortable opening their gifts in front of others.
Workplace Secret Santa By Numbers
According to research by Smart Money People, while £167 million is spent on workplace Secret Santa each year, £60 million of that is on gifts that end up being thrown away.
That money could make a huge difference to charities many of which have already seen a drop in donations thanks to the pandemic and cost of living crisis.
#GiveOrGift – Donate Your Secret Santa Budget To Charity
This type of pointless giving is what this campaign is looking to avoid and wants to encourage people to donate that £5 (or whatever the budget is!) to a worthy cause instead.
UK Money Bloggers are collectively encouraging people to donate to KidsOut via this Just Giving Link.
KidsOut was chosen for the amazing work they do with young people.
From their website:
“Mission: Through our life-changing work, KidsOut gives disadvantaged children positive experiences to support them becoming future members of our society and workforce.
Each year more than 20,000 children flee domestic abuse to seek sanctuary in refuge. Typically leaving home with only the clothes on their back, these children have experienced physical, emotional, and even sexual abuse and arrive at refuge with nothing. In collaboration with Women’s Aid, partner charities and corporate supporters, KidsOut works to remind these children and thousands of others living with disadvantages what it is like to be children and just have fun.”
How Does #GiveOrGift Work?
So, how does #GiveOrGift work in practical terms?
Well, you can start by speaking to everyone in your Secret Santa and see what they would prefer to do. Some people might still prefer to have a gift and that’s okay.
This #GiveOrGift pack enables you to collect everyone’s details and ask whether they’d like to receive a gift or have the money donated on their behalf by their Santa. Donations can be made using this link: Kids Out Just Giving Page.
There is a gift certificate that can be printed out so you have something physical to give on the actual gift-swapping day too.
Donating to charity not only means you’ll be helping disadvantaged children have a better Christmas, but you’ll also be helping the environment by limiting the number of unwanted gifts in circulation.
Will you be suggesting #GiveOrGift in your workplace this Christmas? If you are, I’d love to hear about how it goes in the comments!
Other Helpful Christmas Resources
What To Do When You Have No Money For Christmas
8 Things To Do Instead of Exchanging Gifts At Christmas
How To Reduce The Cost Of Cooking Christmas Dinner
10 Christmas Gifts That Will Save The Recipient Money
