Pollyanna

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>Why, particularly in Pennsylvania, is a type of gift exchange by
>drawing lots - another name for which, I have just learned, is
>"secret Santa" - called a Pollyanna (in full, "Pollyanna gift
>exchange")? Could it possibly be derived from Eleanor Hodgman
>Porter's character?

Yes, I think it likely, although I don't know that it's certain.

DARE has a good entry for this word.

Without making a full search, I find (e.g.) in the Danville VA _Bee_, 12
Dec. 1932 (p. 4): <<All members are urged to attend and not forget their
Pollyannas.>> ("Pollyannas" = "Pollyanna gifts" I suppose).

In the novel _Pollyanna_ there was an instance of Pollyanna conveying a
gift whose donor had explicitly disavowed it: perhaps "anonymous gift" was
originally the idea. Another incident in the book had Pollyanna receiving a
useless gift and being told to be glad for it by her positive-thinking
father. Alternatively, the "Pollyanna gift exchange" might have been named
after some "Pollyanna Society" or so which had such an event: there were
apparently clubs or groups with this name pre-1930, named after the
Pollyanna in the novel. Pollyanna was of course a naive saccharine
irrationally optimistic little girl, now 'immortalized' in the noun
"Pollyanna" = "blindly optimistic or irritatingly cheerful person".

-- Doug Wilson