--- title: Bill Gates Reddit Secret Santa Gifts PHOTOS description: The tech mogul and Reddit hero sent one lucky woman a thoughtful, personalized collection of gifts for the annual Secret Santa exchange. canonical: https://time.com/4607853/bill-gates-secret-santa-photos/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-20T17:22:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:39:39.369Z og:title: Bill Gates Sent a Redditor the Perfect Secret Santa Haul og:description: The surprised recipient of the gift exchange was overjoyed with his choices. og:url: https://time.com/4607853/bill-gates-secret-santa-photos/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bill Gates Sent a Redditor the Perfect Secret Santa Haul twitter:description: The surprised recipient of the gift exchange was overjoyed with his choices. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # See How Bill Gates Went Above and Beyond With His Secret Santa Gifts for This Lucky Woman > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Dec 20, 2016 5:22 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Dec 20, 2016 5:22 PM UTC Bill Gates—[billionaire tech mogul](http://time.com/3963266/weekend-success-elon-musk-bill-gates/?iid=sr-link8), philanthropist, F. Scott Fitzgerald enthusiast—is also, it turns out, a truly over-the-top gift-giver. The Microsoft founder [and thoughtful friend](http://time.com/4396513/read-bill-gates-touching-essay-about-his-best-friend-forever-warren-buffett/?iid=sr-link7) regularly [participates in online forum](http://time.com/4153766/bill-gates-reddit-secret-santa/?iid=sr-link1) Reddit’s [massive annual Secret Santa](https://www.redditgifts.com/exchanges/manage/#/exchange/secret-santa-2016/) gift exchange, which in past years has involved nearly 60,000 people. And this year, he again went above and beyond to make one woman’s Christmas experience truly unforgettable, as [IGN confirms](http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/12/17/reddit-user-gets-bill-gates-for-secret-santa). Surprised (and delighted) Redditor Aerrix Laurel shared the contents of her stuffed gift package on Tuesday, gushing over the thoughtfulness of each of the gifts. From a brand-new XBox One console (“I love my XBox, and thought you might like one too,” Gates explained in a handwritten sticky note) to the coveted NES Classic console, a slew of DVDs and video games, and Harry Potter-themed socks (selected in a Ravenclaw pattern since “I won’t be able to consult with the Sorting Hat but I can tell that you are quite clever,” he explained in an enclosed letter), Gates made sure to stock the substantial haul with items that were specific to Laurel’s interests. The finishing touch: a framed Photoshopped picture of Laurel and her partner—and a thoughtful donation to code.org, to help others learn to code. “I’m just blown away by his generosity,” Laurel wrote. Check out the full haul, including Gates’s personal note, or [read Laurel’s story here](https://www.redditgifts.com/gallery/gift/won-secret-santabill-gates-was-my-santa/): ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4607853/bill-gates-secret-santa-photos/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4607853/bill-gates-secret-santa-photos/"},"headline":"See How Bill Gates Went Above and Beyond With His Secret Santa Gifts for This Lucky Woman","datePublished":"2016-12-20T17:22:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:39:39.369Z","description":"He could tell she belonged to the Harry Potter house Ravenclaw","url":"https://time.com/4607853/bill-gates-secret-santa-photos/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","Holidays"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4607853/bill-gates-secret-santa-photos/","name":"See How Bill Gates Went Above and Beyond With His Secret Santa Gifts for This Lucky Woman"}}]}] ```