The plan was to pick a teammate, get them a small gift, keep it a secret, and we would do the exchange in the locker room on the 21st before we all went home. On a team of 14 girls there aren’t many secrets, we hate keeping things to ourselves so we didn’t think that the secret part was going to work, but everyone was so excited about our new holiday tradition and lips were sealed!
I was driving back to campus from Target when we got back from the tournament and I don’t know what came over me but I decided if we were going to have gifts in the locker room we had to have a tree to put them under so I took a sharp U-Turn to the tree lot I had just passed. The man was nice enough to make a little stand for the mini-tree I got out of a stump. It was the best purchase of the year, it brought a little holiday spirit to the locker room and that tree is still green after a month and I am pretty sure no one ever watered it!
The gifts started to appear under the tree as the 21st was approaching but there were shipping dilemmas that required we push the exchange until the 26th when we were back from our short break. Despite the wait on the 26th the team gathered around the tree to open presents, and I can easily say that this was my favorite ever team activity!
I won’t share what everyone got each other or anything like that, mostly because I cannot remember, but it was so exciting to see how happy people were when they opened these small gifts.
It was amazing how perfect people’s gifts suited them! Usually at a gift giving event people give and receive random stuff but our gift exchange was so special because it was so THOUGHTFUL! Gifts were really varied, from clothing to tea kettles, but each one had such a story behind it… something someone had mentioned in the locker room one day, something that had a saying on it that the teammate always says, or just a fun gift.
The gift exchange was so much fun for our team and definitely a tradition that is here to stay!
Happy New Years Everyone,
Kailee Johnson
Thanks for sharing, such a nice start for a tradition for the team.
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