Secret Santa

In April 2021, I was visiting my family and was at my sister’s house. While we were sitting in her living room someone came to her door and dropped something off. We went to check to see what it was, it was a gift basket type thing, but it had some wine and other stuff in it. I asked her what this was, and she told me that she is in a Facebook group that is local to her community. She said that they sign up and participate in gifting wine baskets to other participants. She told me it was fun and that she liked doing it because sometimes she will have a bad day and a gift will come and make her day better.

I had never heard of this before and decided to look in my community had a site like this. Sadly, there was nothing like that. My husband suggested that I create a group for our local area. However, our community is in the mountains, and we don’t all live that close to each other. I figured that I would try it, the worst that could happen is that no one is interested, and I don’t get anyone to sign up. The best that could happen is that we have people sign up.

So, I set off making this group, we call it Mountain Area Secret Booze Santa. Now I didn’t know many people in the area, so I had to post the group in other Facebook groups. The name kind of threw some people off until I explained what it was. It was a way to gift people some alcohol as well as other things.

See as a Secret Booze Santa there are some requirements for booze you can gift. For example, a bottle of wine or liquor must be a minimum of 750mL (a normal size bottle of wine), or a six pack of beer, or 4 pack of craft beer. Then if the participates wanted they could add some gifts. For example, I was a Santa, and I gave my person a bottle of wine, some dog treats for her dogs, a little gift for her daughter, a glass to drink the wine, and some stuff that she can pamper herself. Others have received candy, candles, and other stuff with their booze. It is an adult activity where people are able to meet others and make someone’s day a little better.

I can see that you are thinking of downfalls, and we have as well. One thing is that we make sure the participants are 21 or older. You cannot mail alcohol, so everything is dropped off at the porch, address are only given under the consent of the participants and only to their Santa. We have rules set up and the members of the room will not be added unless they answer all the questions that we ask for the group. There are other things as well that we keep an eye out for. One thing that we learned and had to adjust was if someone signed up but couldn’t participate. We’ve had to come up with back up plans for someone who couldn’t deliver a gift because something occurred in life that they had no control over. Every day is a learning experience.

This may not sound like much as a project or anything creative and that is fine if you don’t think it is. But to me I believe it is a project. We have had wonderful results with participation and the members love it. They’ve even shared the group and invited their friends. They love that our little mountain community is coming together in a way to bright people’s day. I love the way that everyone is so appreciative and are excited and encouraging for others.