Secret Santa. Previously mentioned here, a year ago. "Got your own Web site? Got an Amazon wishlist? If the answer to both of these is yes, and you like the idea of giving and receiving, you should definitely sign up." Well, it's that time of year again.
posted by crunchland on Nov 15, 2002 - 14 comments

Holiday season comes to all, including those without an Amazon wishlist. New York Cares has a Secret Santa program where volunteers pick up letter(s) from [a] child(ren) from homeless shelter(s) and buys them gifts requested in the letter(s). There is a similar program in Charlotte, N.C. The Chicago Bar Association co-ordinates one such program in Chicago with the USPS. Salvation Army runs the effort in Annapolis. While not quite giving toys, Canada Post organizes a letter from Santa program. I am sure there is something similar near where you live.

[As G-d/Allah would have it, this year both the eighth night of Chanukah and Eid-ul-Fitr, the feast celebrating the end of fasting during the month of Ramadan, will fall on December 16^th. An $18.00 gift can feed "a month's worth of nutritious lunches for an Ethiopian child in Israel." There are also other Israeli/Jewish charities. There are various Muslim charities and organizations that help the poor and war-torn Muslim women, children and orphans around the world.]
posted by tamim on Nov 30, 2001 - 17 comments

Secret Santa. Got your own Web site? Got an Amazon wishlist? If the answer to both of these is yes, and you like the idea of giving and receiving, you should definitely sign up.
posted by nico on Nov 22, 2001 - 6 comments

Kansas City's Secret Santa has been handing out cash in hundred-dollar bills to needy individuals and random people during the Christmas season for the past twenty-one years. He's completely anonymous, preferring to give joy without getting any credit. He tries to find people with specific needs and surprises them in their homes or at their jobs with the cash they need. He gives out well over ten thousand dollars every year.
posted by daveadams on Dec 22, 2000 - 11 comments