secret Santa

British

noun

1. a system whereby each member of a group chooses at random another member of the group for whom to buy a Christmas present at an agreed cost, so that each member buys one present and receives one present
2. a person chosen in this way to buy another person's Christmas present

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

But one thing seems sure: People are fed up with getting on screens for cocktail mixing or secret Santa exchanges.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 14, 2022

"We held a secret Santa ballot in October and drew one person each out of the hat."

From BBC • Nov. 1, 2022

"Aside from that I’ve been doing secret Santa at the local Walmart letting parents load up shopping carts worth of toys for their kids."

From Fox News • Dec. 25, 2021

The new left-back whose team-mates’ secret Santa gave him a brick at Christmas, Madrid have conceded only three goals in 1,421 minutes in which he has been on the pitch.

From The Guardian • Feb. 3, 2020

I want to think that the secret Santa is her, somehow jumping the wall that separates the real from the divine.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 28, 2018

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023