Secret Santa is generally an awkward tradition that requires buying gifts for someone whom you barely speak to all year in the name of Christmas cheer. It usually results in random coffee table books or Starbucks gift cards — unless Bill Gates is your secret Santa.
Reddit user NY1227, who was participating in Reddit's annual online secret Santa gift exchange, posted a message to RedditGifts Wednesday that read "Spoiler alert: Bill Gates did not get you, because he got me."
Turns out, NY1227 received her present — a stuffed animal cow, a donation on her behalf to Heifer International and a National Geographic book — only to realize her random gift giver was the Microsoft founder himself.
"My new stuffed animal sitting in his peanuts!"
"Heifer International- go donate!"
"My incredibly beautiful new book, it's HUGE!"
"good thing I don't need a barn... I definitely don't have one of those."
"Bill holding my sign! AHH!"
"his book is extremely large and getting both me and the book in the picture was extremely difficult."
"before I realized it was THE Bill, just thought it was a friendly fellow named Bill."
She writes in her Reddit message: "I thought Bill sounded like a friendly fellow. In fact, I had this whole image of this poor guy named Bill trying to navigate my wishlist full of makeup, nail polish, glittery things to buy me. Quite frankly I felt bad for this "Bill" since I'm a self identified pain in the ass to shop for."
She goes on to say that the gifts were a perfect match for her based on her love of travel, charity and education.
"My god. Never in my entire life did I imagine, ever, ever, ever that Bill would get me. I am SO SO thankful for the time, thought and energy he put into my gift...I feel SO shocked and excited that not only did I receive a gift from Bill, but it was perfectly and EXACTLY tuned into my interests. My gosh, what a rush!!"
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation confirmed to Mashable that Gates did participate in Reddit's Secret Santa and the photo and letter appearing on Reddit are verified.
And the best part of the whole story? NY1227 had to include an apology to Gates in her Reddit message.
"Sorry for the Apple iPad on my wishlist, that was really awkward."
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Image: STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images