Bhubaneswar, Dec. 6: The legend of Santa Claus delivering gifts to “well-behaved” kids on Christmas may not excite grown-ups. But this time round, even they can expect some surprises.

With the Yuletide spirit enveloping the city, three 24-year-old techies have introduced the Western tradition of Secret Santa to spread the spirit of friendship and generosity.

The trio — Abhishek Bakshi, Samrat Mazumdar and Sourav Bhanja — have invited residents of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack aged above 18 to register themselves on bbsrsecretsanta.com to send and receive anonymous gifts.

“This is a popular Christmas game which originated in England,” said Abhishek.

Explaining the tradition, he said the basic idea of Secret Santa was that a large group of people, be it family members, friends or co-workers, writes down their respective names on paper chits and puts them in a box.

“You pick a random chit but don’t reveal the name of the person. Then you just buy a gift for them and while wrapping it, label it with only the recipient’s name. All gifts are placed at one place to be opened at a given time. Each person has to guess who gave them their present,” he said.

Gifts for all

Since the game would be played at a virtual level, the identities of the participants are expected to be better guarded. “Each Santa will be assigned a randomly-chosen Santee (recipients). They are supposed to gather information on the Santee to choose an appropriate gift to be sent on or around Christmas. It is highly unlikely that a single person will be both the Santa and the Santee because of the random allotment,” said Sourav.

According to rules, each gift should cost a minimum of Rs 300, and wrapping along with a card is encouraged.