it's 'activities' on tuesdays for december holiday challenge
in the old country we liked to play 'kris kringle'. in offices this is a preferred way of exchanging gifts. names of the staff are written on a piece of paper, folded, and thrown in a hat or box and each one would draw a name. the name you draw was your kris kringle and you would have to play secret santa. on a designated day, usually the office potluck party, you bring a gift for your kris kringle and that's when it's revealed who's playing santa with you. sometimes there's another format that was followed whereby you buy two gifts, one for the person whose name you have picked and another gift for the person who picked your name. another format was to give small treats or gifts everyday to your kris kringle and let them try to guess who the treats were from.
when i started working, i initiated a kris kringle tradition with the neighbourhood children. everyone would wish that they'd get my name or that i'd get their names because they know the gift from me would be something special. sometimes the young ones would cheat telling each other the names they picked and that would give them a clue as to who my kris kringle would be. of course, i still give everyone a special gift, but they know my kris kringle always got a more "substantial" gift. after the gift giving, it was time to partake of the goodies that my father would have prepared or something i would have picked up at the grocery. even more special to them was the large ice cream cake an admirer sent every year. those children are all grown up now with children of their own and they still remember our by-gone tradition. they even dream of a reunion someday.
thank you for your views and comments and putting my flatiron photo on the popular page briefly today.
That is such a wonderful way to do things! These days large gifts or even smallish ones given to everybody has become a tad expensive! Since all of my friends are dog owners I make up a large batch of dog cookies and hand those out as gifts! For the few that are not lucky enough to be blessed with an animal, they get normal cookies or chocolates :-)
@salza - i know what you mean, sally. this is a time for children and to make their wishes come true but their wishes are now mostly in the $300 range!! :-D when we were children we were happy to get a dollar or two or a book or a blouse. i love handmade gifts or food gifts. thank you, sally.
nice shot