Secret Santa for summer camps and group holidays

Fourteen teenagers on a two-week camp, or eight friends in a rented house in Portugal, and someone says "shall we do a Secret Santa?". It works in July as well as in December, as long as the budget is small, the deadline is clear and the gifts fit in a rucksack.

A draw suits a group that is already living together

A camp or a group holiday already has the thing a Secret Santa needs most: people who see each other every day and have a week to spy on what the other one likes. The draw gives the quiet kid and the loud one the same job, and it gives the group a shared evening at the end.

Keep the gifts small. A cheap gift bought in the village on day four beats an expensive one hauled from home, and nobody has to explain to a parent why they need money for presents in July. The guessing at the reveal, who had who, is the part people talk about afterwards; the gift itself is secondary.

Gifts for summer camp

Camp gifts get carried, shared and slept on, so light and packable wins. Things that work:

• A small power bank (an Anker 10,000 mAh is inexpensive), because the shared socket in the dormitory is always taken
• A card game the whole tent can play: Uno, Dobble or Exploding Kittens
• A head torch, so both hands stay free for the tent zip
• A pair of loud socks or a cheap bucket hat with a joke on it
• A bag of sweets from home or a jar of the local speciality, to be shared the same evening
• A carabiner, a bandana or a waterproof phone pouch for the lake

Check the camp rules before the draw. Many camps ban phones or sweets in tents, and a gift that gets confiscated on arrival is a poor start. Skip the fleece blankets: they are lovely and they do not fit in anyone's bag on the way home.

Gifts for a group holiday

Adults on a trip have the same problem with luggage plus a return flight with a weight limit. Pick something the group uses during the week or something that lives in a jacket pocket:

• A small speaker (the JBL Go is affordable) for the terrace, if nobody brought one
• Packing cubes, a luggage tag or a passport cover for the person who lost theirs last year
• An instant camera film pack, if someone has the camera, or a disposable camera if nobody does
• A bottle of the local wine, olive oil or hot sauce, opened at the last dinner
• A good eye mask and earplugs for the person sharing a room with the snorer
• A deck of cards or a travel-size Yahtzee for the rainy afternoon

Match the gift to the trip. Sunscreen and a snorkel for a beach week, a blister kit and a map for a hiking week. The guidebook is only worth it if you buy it before departure; on day three, everyone has already found the good restaurant.

Set the exchange up before you leave

Agree the budget first, in a number: 10 to 15 for a camp, 15 to 25 for a holiday. Anything above that and the gift starts to matter more than the game.

Do the draw a week before departure, so people can buy at home or plan to buy on the spot. If you draw names online, everyone gets their name by email with the budget attached, and nobody can peek at the hat. Ask each person to create a wishlist with three or four small things on it. Even with a budget of 10, it is the difference between the right card game and a keyring.

One person owns the dates: the draw, the list deadline and the exchange evening. With a mixed-age group, make that person an adult who is going on the trip.

The reveal

Put the exchange on the last night, at the campfire or after the last dinner, when everyone is already in one place. Let each person unwrap, then guess who drew them. One guess each, then the giver owns up. Hints during the week (a note on a pillow, a sweet in a shoe) make the guessing better.

Take a photo of the whole group with their gifts before people start drifting off to pack.

Set it up the evening before you send the packing list round. You can organise a Secret Santa in a few minutes, and the budget and the deadline do the rest of the work for you.