Every December the present list gets a little longer, with a new partner, a cousin’s kids and the neighbours who always drop round a bottle.
Then someone at the family barbecue says what everyone’s been thinking. Why don’t we just do Secret Santa?
Plenty of households are watching the budget. In Westpac NZ’s summer spending survey of 1,087 of its customers in November 2025, 42% expected to spend less over the holiday season than the year before, and only 15% expected to spend more. The bank’s advice was to talk to friends and family before shopping about whether you’re doing presents at all, and whether to set a price limit.
Secret Santa settles both questions. Everyone draws one name and buys one present to an agreed limit. Nobody shops for 14 people.
Fewer presents, better presents
Economists have been poking at Christmas gifts for decades. In a 1993 paper in the American Economic Review, US economist Joel Waldfogel asked Yale students to put a cash value on presents they’d received and compare it with what the giver probably paid. He estimated that holiday gift-giving destroys between 10% and a third of the value of gifts.
Non-cash gifts from extended family did worst, losing about a third of their value. Presents from friends and partners came closest to the mark.
The finding is contested, though. A 1996 replication by US researchers Sara Solnick and David Hemenway, who surveyed adults rather than students, found people valued their gifts at more than twice what they thought the gifts had cost.
But the extended-family pattern is worth noticing. The relatives you see once a year are the hardest to buy for, and they’re usually why the list got long in the first place.
Swapping five guesses for one well-chosen present can be more generous than it sounds.
Setting it up so it works
Agree the rules early, before anyone has bought anything. Pick a cap everyone can manage, not the one the highest earner would choose. Say whether it’s a ceiling or a target, because a $30 limit means different things to different people.
Chris Schulz, a former investigative journalist at Consumer NZ, writes that his family started a Secret Santa about 10 years ago, with a $20 limit, and gave some of the money it saved to charity. Consumer NZ’s own staff Christmas party goes further, with a $0 limit and presents that must be second-hand or home-made.
A hat works for the draw if everyone’s in the room. If the family is spread from Invercargill to Kerikeri, a free online name-draw tool can do it remotely. Either way, redraw if anyone pulls their own partner, who’s getting a present from them regardless.
Then ask everyone for a wish list. One draw, one name and one present only works if the buyer has something to go on. A couple of specific ideas under the cap beat a vague “anything’s fine”, and they save the giver a week of guessing.
Stick to the list, too. A surprise feels thoughtful to the person buying it, but the person who asked for a particular book usually just wants the book.
Vouchers, regifts and the kids
If your Secret Santa asks for a voucher, buy the voucher. It isn’t lazy when it’s what they asked for.
It’s also a safer buy than it used to be. Under changes to the Fair Trading Act, most gift cards sold in New Zealand from 16 March 2026 must have an expiry date at least three years after the date of sale, shown prominently on the card, according to the Commerce Commission. There are a few exceptions, so check before you buy.
Regifting is fair game too, within reason.
In a 2012 study, Francis Flynn, a professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and two colleagues found people who pictured regifting a present thought the original giver would find it about as offensive as throwing the gift away. The givers were far less bothered, and saw a gift as belonging to whoever received it.
Just make sure the regift actually suits its new owner, not just the cupboard you’re clearing.
Kids are the usual sticking point. One answer is to keep children out of the adult draw and give each child a small present, or run a separate kids’ draw with a lower cap. A handy rule for children is want, need, wear, read, one of each.
In a Kiwi December of beaches and backyard cricket, a new pair of togs and a book cover two of those without trying. Then all that’s left is to keep a straight face until Christmas Day.
