Secret Santa, also known as Secret Snowflake, has been an annual tradition for many years at Newtown High School.
Staff members, non certificated and certified, are welcomed to join, via a school wide email sent by NHS English teacher Jacqui Kaplan.
“It's a fun thing to do and get to know some of your colleagues you otherwise wouldn't get to know. You get a little treat out of it and get to give a little treat,” NHS Administrative AssistantCarrie Bennett said.
This tradition predates Kaplan’s time at NHS, with former NHS English teacher Kathy Swift starting the activity over twenty years ago.
“MissSwift decided it was too much for her, so she stopped doing it. And I love Secret Santa so I picked it back up and we just call it whatever, Secret Santa, Secret Snowflake or whatever,” Kaplan said.
This year there are thirty staff members partaking, among them are Jacqui Kaplan, Abi Marks, Carrie Bennett, Joanna Closs, Wendy LaBarge, Catharine Kimberly, Theresa Talluto and more.
“It's a nice little thing to do, you know you don't get to do this stuff as an adult very often unless you're doing it for kids in your family lets say. So any chance we get to be like kids, why not?” NHS History teacher Jason Edwards said.
Using a website called Drawnames.com, Kaplan enters the names of participants and they directly receive who they are responsible for giving a gift to.
“To get somebody random and have to be clever and sneaky, learn about them. I like to do little gifts throughout the season instead of one big one. I also love once I figure out who they are, breaking it down and making it something meaningful to them. I think that it is a great way to talk to people that you don't necessarily talk to,” NHS Math and Computer Science teacher Kelly Murphy said.
Staff members will exchange gifts on December 16th, and the gifts must stay in the set $30 limit. It was raised from twenty to thirty dollars this year due to how expensive gifts have become.
Other departments participate in their own Secret Santa such as the World Language and Math Departments.
“We do our own little secret santa on December 19th, during lunch time. We all give gifts, there is a money limit of $20. Some are gag gifts because those are usually the best and some are real nice gifts, it just depends on your personality,” NHS Math teacher Debrea Pickering said.
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