Daycare secret santa

[jfulle5]

Do you think it's a good idea to do a secret santa for a daycare christmas party? by secret santa i mean basically have each parent pull a name of a child in the class. Typically they exchange presents anyway and this cuts down on cost....I'm the room mom so I wanted to get feedback here before I propose it to the families in my class.

[Cyndi]

That sounds like a cute idea

[lolane]

I don't really like this idea.

People can opt out of participating if they want to, I'm sure, but imagine how left out their children will feel, so most parents will participate even if they don't believe in Christmas or they don't really have the money to participate. I don't generally like this type of pressured participation.

[sammycat]

My son's daycare used to do a slightly different twist on the secret Santa theme.  They would have each parent buy a book for their child up to the value of $5. This would be wrapped by the parent and have the child's name put on it.  On the party day Santa would call each child up and they would be presented with the book that their parent had supplied.  I never saw a child miss out so I assume each parent did contribute or maybe the centre kept a few books on hand in case someone forgot.

[Brentwood]

To be honest, no, I don't think it's a good idea. I don't think a daycare gift exchange is necessary at all, though if you are having a holiday party, the parents could put together little goodie bags for the kids (simple stuff - dollar store bubbles, crayons, something like that), or have the focus of the party be making an ornament or other craft.

[jfulle5]

yeah I'm probably not going to do it now since I have received several emails from families that will be out of town. The daycare my daughter goes to if rather affluent and typically the money isn't the issue (well for no one else but me, somehow I'm the youngest parent in the room but no one else would take the responsibility of being the room mom...then I got an irate email from a mother (she had sent the email to everyone in the room!) saying that I was incompetent because I was so young and blah blah. I just wrote back that if she thought she could do better than have at it, I never heard another peep from her sorry for the rant)

[sammycat]

then I got an irate email from a mother (she had sent the email to everyone in the room!) saying that I was incompetent because I was so young and blah blah. I just wrote back that if she thought she could do better than have at it, I never heard another peep from her  sorry for the rant)

Good on you!

[Lisbeth]

In all honesty, no.

While a holiday party is fine, I think requiring the kids to give each other gifts isn't a good idea.  What are you going to do if some kids bring gifts and others don't for whatever reason?

[RegionMom]

I teach at a Christian preschool and I would even caution about a book exchange.  Some books turn out to be really odd, way too expensive or a dog-eared hand-me-down, not Christmas, or too babyish or too old...(my son once got a scary looking peek-a-boo Santa book that still creeps me out a bit.)
I like the idea of a Santa handing out the actual book AS PRE-CHOSEN by the parent. 
Or, you could scrap it all.

I  decided a few years ago to do a Christmas sock exchange.  I always buy a few extra just in case a parent cannot purchase.

I have the cutest photos of my preschoolers in their new Christmas socks, proudly showing off their new colorful and fun happy feet! 

(sorry, old style camera, cannot upload)

[Alida]

yeah I'm probably not going to do it now since I have received several emails from families that will be out of town. The daycare my daughter goes to if rather affluent and typically the money isn't the issue (well for no one else but me, somehow I'm the youngest parent in the room but no one else would take the responsibility of being the room mom...then I got an irate email from a mother (she had sent the email to everyone in the room!) saying that I was incompetent because I was so young and blah blah. I just wrote back that if she thought she could do better than have at it, I never heard another peep from her sorry for the rant)

Go, Mondrian!  What in the world possessed her to do such a thing?

I like Sammycat's idea - each parent have a book wrapped for their own child (and yeah, a couple on the side would be a good idea, just in case Mom or Dad forgets).

[jfulle5]

yeah I'm probably not going to do it now since I have received several emails from families that will be out of town. The daycare my daughter goes to if rather affluent and typically the money isn't the issue (well for no one else but me, somehow I'm the youngest parent in the room but no one else would take the responsibility of being the room mom...then I got an irate email from a mother (she had sent the email to everyone in the room!) saying that I was incompetent because I was so young and blah blah. I just wrote back that if she thought she could do better than have at it, I never heard another peep from her sorry for the rant)

Go, Mondrian!  What in the world possessed her to do such a thing?

She is just one of those kinds of people. Like I said this is an exclusive daycare and she had the nerve to call social services because her boy was bite by another child and she demanded the child be thrown out of the school and the school wouldn't do it. The "biter" only bite her boy once and never bite anyone else. Her boy on the other hand has severe behavioral problems including raring back to punch other children and yelling mean words to the other children...but hey I guess it all starts at home...
She felt that I was too young to be the room mom and I wasn't doing enough to plead her "case" to the director..I reminded her I wasn't paid to do this and I was only volunteering for the class.

[Balletmom]

Too young to be a Room Mom? Is there an age requirement, like that for buying liquor or cigarettes? 

How insane. I pity her child's teachers in the future, especially since he's a wild child already.

That said, I'm not for any kind of gift exchange. I'm not even crazy about book exchanges at school, but they seem to be a part of holiday traditions around here, like fruitcake. And as a teacher, I always had extra books.

Last year, I had a student throw a fit about the book he received, and no, he didn't bring one either.