Secret santa

Part 1

This is a memory from something that happened about 23 years ago, so factual errors are included....

In my family we had a yearly tradition to celebrate Christmas with our aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. We would host each year in turn. This years festivities would be at our (me (13F), my sister (15F) and parents) place.

We each had a secret Santa for whom we would make something using arts and crafts, buy a present and make a little poem about things that happened during the last year. The family was kind of close and we'd also would give out pointers about important events and wishes for presents so everyone could buy something the receiver would like. It was also ok that the poem and/or the arts and crafts could contain a little impoliteness, as long as you kept it polite.... (aka laughing with the receiver, not at the receiver). When everyone had gotten their present from their secret santa, we would guess who our secret santa was (about half of the people would be right, the other half wrong). This guessing made it part of the fun.

When I had gotten my present, I scanned through the poem to read it aloud (common practice). Immediately I noticed I didn't want to read it aloud because it was plain rude. It was poking fun of my personal hygiene at the time... both in the poem and the arts and crafts part. (present was hidden in liquid soap (I thought the soap alone was my present), poem stating I smelled bad etc.) Being very conscious about my personal hygiene, I felt tears swelling up and everyones eyes staring at me. I gave my my present to my mum, saying I didn't want to read it and ran up to my room. My mom ran after me, completely agreeing with me.

My mom had shown the poem to my dad and they asked who my secret santa was. It turned out to be my uncle (45) who did it as a joke, not realizing I could take it in any other way than as a joke...

The rest of the night I stayed in my room, I heard the rest of the family having fun downstairs. I felt to hurt and embarrassed to join them. When my sister brought me a plate of food, she told me by running off I had killed the mood of the secret santa and they didn't open the rest of the presents. The rest of the family not knowing why I had run of, seemingly without a reason.

AITA for ruining this secret santa?

​

Part 2: The revenge

This story takes place the year after the events of part 1.

By stroke of luck I was my uncle's secret santa that year. I was still fuming about the events of part 1 so I made the concious decision I would get revenge. I still would give him a gift, but I would leave him sweating for a couple of hours. Exactly how I would do that was a more difficult matter. This year our celebrations were held at another uncles house, so I couldn't plan a big event. After the opening of the presents, we would have dinner with the entire family, which gave me an idea. With the gifts I would place an envelope with a note from Santa stating that my uncle had been naughty that year and he therefore would not be receiving a gift at all. During dinner I would sneak out, place my present on the doorstep, ring the doorbell and sneak back in through the kitchen helping my aunt make up the dishes for the next course. On the outside of my present I would make it look like the postman had just delivered it.

When my uncle received the envelope, reading the letter I could see his eyes widen. It was clear he was embarrassed about just receiving that simple note. We continued with the other presents and I could see my uncle getting more uncomfortable at every present opened. After about four or five more people I thought my uncle had gotten the message and I started to look for a way to get my present at the front door. With a little bit of luck, my sister had planned a scavenger hunt through the house for one of my cousins. The entire family would be in chaos and no one would exactly know where others were. I took this opportunity to ring the doorbell and sneak back in without being detected. My aunt opened the door, saw the present addressed to my uncle and when my sisters scavenger hunt was over she gave it to him. I had put a note in there saying Santa had changed his mind about not giving him a present.

At the end of the day, I was exited. My plan for revenge had worked, just seeing my uncle sweat for a bit made the pain I had been carrying for a year a bit better.

My parents said I had gone too far in my revenge, but even after over twenty years, I never agreed. Did I go to far or did I not go far enough?