Secret Santa is a Change Agent

I don't know too much about Secret Santa, yet I do know how it changed me. Secret Santa is a change agent. Secret Santa revealed the humanity in an inhuman place.

For Christmas 2025 at Dillwyn Correctional Center, a Virginia Model Prison, we constructed a Christmas tree made out of card board, newspaper, and other miscellaneous items used for decoration ornaments. My housing unit consists of vital institutional workers like electrical, plumbing, kitchen and administrative clerks. This collected effort brought much attention, good and bad. Some guys enjoyed the craftsmanship, while others felt that guys were doing too much.

Actually, I was not surprised by the Scrooges, but more by the amount of guys willing to help.

A beautiful sight as I admired the guys' ingenuity, I noticed that the most important decorations were missing.

The gifts.

I stated to them we need gifts to complete that lovely tree.

I grabbed a sheet of paper to write everyone's name down, but first I had to walk around, incognito, and gather their names without raising suspicion. Once I gathered the names, I tore each name into a little sliver of paper. I folded it to hide its name, so that the person drawing the name would do it without picking the person they wanted. I collected 37 names, and then I submitted them to a name drawing box.

The only problem was how could I get people on board to support the cause. This feeling of giving was foreign to most of us. Bringing people together was a difficult task, but together under the banner of building a community was something I had to do. Allowing myself to be open-minded, and being in prison we have to be community-building focused. Destroying communities had been what lead me into prison. However, some people need a little hidden touch of love.

The joy of Secret Santa.

The joy of bringing Secret Santa motivated me.Leading by example reflected the best form of leadership. The duty of being a peer mentor, I am assigned to facilitate programs and help guys transition from criminal thinking to being pro-social. So I introduced Secret Santa. This way everyone could take part in this moment. I explained the concept and process.

Out of 37 guys, only one guy did not participate. At one point I was curious and thought about ways I could flush him out or expose him. I decided against those rash ideas. They would have been going against the essence of Secret Santa, giving love, not looking to ridicule.

I was not anticipating an exceptional turnout, but the amount of love I poured into it my peers matched.

There was one guy who I expressed this concern to, and he informed me that he wasn't feeling these guys in our building. He did not want any parts of it. So I told him that it's "all about love", quoting the title of bell hooks' book. Even if you don't believe in the Christmas spirit, at least do it for the sake of love, embracing a love ethic.

He drew a name.

Showed it to me, and said, "Can you believe this, it's the same guy I got in an argument with yesterday." I responded, "This makes it better. Challenge yourself." The guy grabbed the gift wrapping paper and within a few minutes later I seen the gift he wrapped placed under the tree, right next to my gifts.

Soon I noticed the other wrapped gifts piling underneath the tree. Not only the tree's appearance looked spectacular, but the guys' gift wrapping skills. As staff members and high ranking officials made their tours, they stopped to admire the tree and the gifts snuggled underneath it. The creativity in gift wrapping was exceptional. My last present I wrapped happened 30 years ago. I didn't lose my touch.

This entire experience brought back precious memories ranging from Christmas at my grandparents' house where laughter and arguing over the size of gifts, because my cousin and I had the same name; Christmas ornaments made in elementary school, cutting paper in snowflakes. All of these memories humanized me.

Why I could not create new memories despite where I'm at? Prison was not exactly the place one would imagine where men come together and open gifts with each other.

Dare to wonder.

It can be very rewarding. By guiding imagination into practice, we possess the power to change our circumstances. I heard guys say how this experience affected them. One person said that he never received a gift before from someone they did not know. We learned that giving a gift is a reward within itself.