Secret Santa is a very popular game.
In a typical Secret Santa game, the participants draw slips of papers with the names of the other participants (the results of the draws are kept secret). This sets up a system where each participant is the "Secret Santa" of another participant and will be responsible for getting a present for that person.
Typically a maximum budget is agreed upon for the gift; there could be additional stipulations on the types of gifts allowed/encouraged/disallowed/discouraged. A deadline is set up.
In advance of the deadline, all of the gifts (with name tags for the recipiants but without the Secret Santas revealed) are placed together. On Secret Santa Day (usually around or on Christmas Eve), the participants get together. The gifts are read off and handed out. Sometimes, the recipients get X attempts to guess who the Secret Santa was. If they guess correctly, the Secret Santa will reveal themselves. If they fail to guess, it may never be revealed.
Do you like Secret Santa? Do you think it makes sense? Does it add up?
I personally do not like Secret Santa and I don't think it adds up.
It results in sub-optimal economic outcomes. Far more often than not, each and every person best knows themselves and what they themselves want. Instead of spending X dollars to try and guess what another person wants and receiving a likely less than ideal present themselves worth X or not, they could have instead treated themselves to X dollars worth of what they want the most. A better game would be where everyone says to each other, "we're all going to buy ourselves something worth X or less and then on Y day we will gather and take turns and do a show and tell on what we bought. We can also try and guess what we think other people in the party are going to buy in advance and make a record to be revealed. (In fact, this is the way "Secret Santa" is played in my NS nation)"
Now you can say, "there's an economic/utility value in the surprise factor too." Yes, but not enough to overcome the inherent economic inefficiency of the distribution system.
And that's not even to mention that in really really large groups, the probability that you'll know the other person well enough to know the types of things they would want is fairly low. And while some Secret Santas may take the extra steps and efforts to find out, most won't or can't, furthering the inequality of the efforts and rewards.
Everytime I hear people say "Let's play Secret Santa. Let's say the budget is X" I end up thinking... "My my my... why not just buy yourself something worth X and not worry about it? Do you really think someone else better knows what you would personally want?"
I want to hear your thoughts on the matter.
A poll is provided.
