Secret Santa and the Silver Space Orb

On Christmas Day our family participated in our first Secret Santa gift exchange. We celebrated Christmas with two other families so the twelve of us decided to draw names for gift giving. In October our friend Suzie was visiting so she was able to help us coordinate the draw to make sure no one got anyone from their own family and that who-got-whom remained a secret.

Our family drew Lisa, Steve and H. – our Canadian friends who live in Aix-en-Provence along with M. who lives outside London ON. And then the fun began!

Buying for M. and H. was a bit of a challenge because they are 11 and 13 year old girls so we wanted to find things they’d actually like. For M. we opted for an Aeropostale shirt because they aren’t easy to find where she lives in Ontario and she’s sporty in her taste. I drew H. and was delighted! H. is smart, creative and highly original so I wanted to find a gift that matched her personality.

If I were at home I would just head to one of my favourite local boutiques on Roncey (e.g. Scout, Frock, Mercantile, Fresh Collective) and find her just the right thing. But I’ve not yet discovered similar places to shop here in the South of France so I turned to Etsy. The Etsy world doesn’t seem as well developed over here but I found this bracelet for H. from an artist in Paris.

Chris drew Lisa and it took about 2 seconds to sort out what to get her. Our friend Saskia, from home, is a textile artist and makes fabulous purses and pins.  When ever I see Saskia’s work I am tempted to ask for one of everything! You can find her custom designed bags on the shoulders of many of our Roncesvalles friends at home. Chris chose a gorgeous blue felt flower pin with green leaves and beads.

The last person on our list was Steve and R. drew his name. All of us were very excited to have Steve as a recipient because he has a unique sense of humour giving us lots of creative latitude to exploit in choosing his gift.

When R. turned 9, Saskia came and did a hand sewing party with R. and her friends. It was a huge hit! Since that party R. sewed good-bye gifts for her 2 closest friends in Toronto and some Christmas ornaments for her grandparents and us. But her biggest project to date was her Secret Santa gift for Steve.

Steve loves to play ping pong so R. decided she was going to make him a tshirt with a ping pong crest on the front. The design was hers – “S” for Steve, two racquets and 2 balls. It’s all made out of felt and she hand-sewed it together. It was a real labour of love for her because it took about three weeks of stitching to make it but she was highly motivated and worked a bit on it day by day.

Part of her motivation was not wanting to mess up the Secret Santa by not being finished. The other motivation was that she needed to get the t-shirt done so we could ensure we entombed it in the giant paper mâché egg we were building as the wrapping for the present. It took a week of daily application of newspapers and glue to make the egg but we had to leave the bottom open so R. could insert the shirt. This meant we needed 2 more days time for covering up the bottom and letting it dry before the egg was ready to decorate.

When the egg’s structure was complete and dry we added all kinds of pasta including some messages in tiny letters and fish crackers to add texture. Once the decorations were dry we spray painted the entire thing silver and le voila, Steve’s über-tacky Fabergé-esque egg Secret Santa gift was ready.

R. was pleased as punch when we arrived on Christmas Day with the egg in tow. She didn’t put any identifying information on the egg so it sat for a while with people trying to guess whose gift it was. When it came her turn to give her gift she walked over to Steve and placed it on his lap. For a couple of seconds I think he thought the egg was the gift but then she reminded him that his real gift was inside. We designed the egg with no obvious way in but Steve quickly realized he could cut open the bottom to retrieve the gift without wrecking the egg. A few minutes later he was wearing his new shirt.

This Christmas morning Chris and I noticed that R. was as excited to give her gifts as she was to open them. She certainly had a lot of fun working on her Secret Santa present and all of us enjoyed the process of brainstorming for the gift exchange.

Any former student of mine has heard me say many, many times that the process by which we plan our cities matters as much as the planning outcomes we accomplish. In the case of Christmas this year for us, the process of getting ready for Christmas began early, was the topic of many conversations, included lots of things made by hands (e.g. gifts, gingerbread houses) and ended with a great celebration.

When planning our sabbatical we wondered if we should leave for Christmas and travel out of small concern there might be some homesickness at the holidays. Turns out staying put meant we could really dive in! We missed our friends and family but enjoyed the lovely packages, calls and messages we received so it was a day of celebration and happiness with lots of time zone mathematics (e.g. “are they up in Toronto yet??” and “it’s so weird that we’re having breakfast and Santa hasn’t even come yet at home”).

We’ve just started packing a box of “Christmas stuff” in anticipation of our return to Canada in July 2013. Next December when we unpack it we better leave some time to reminisce about our Christmas in Puyloubier.