HAUSER — On the 12 days of Christmas their Secret Santas gave to them pairs of shining boots, pages of encouraging notes, cells with freshly made beds — and dozens of friendly hugs.

Within the walls of Shutter Creek Correctional Institution, even the prisoners are keeping Christmas in their hearts.

Since Dec. 13, inmates in Shutter’s SUMMIT Program have given one another thoughtful gifts on the sly in the form of help and encouragement. One of the primary rules, though, is no gifts of property are allowed.

“It’s doing nice things for each other. It’s more of a leave ’em a nice note or pass on a message to them,” explained Julie Martin, a spokeswoman for the minimum-security state prison.

Participating inmates have been asked to log each gift they’ve given, as well as those they’ve received. On Christmas Day they will come together to unmask their Santas.

 SUMMIT, which stands for Success Using Motivation, Morale, Intensity and Treatment, is an alternative incarceration program that focuses on cognitive issues to confront and overcome criminal beliefs and thinking patterns, Martin said. Those who graduate can shorten their sentences up to 30 months. There are 160 men involved in the program in three separate communities denoted by the color of the hats they wear — green, red and gold.

Inside Shutter’s Freedom Hall, a handful of “gold hat” SUMMIT inmates stood in front of a tree decorated with colorful paper chains, cut-outs and other decorations hewn together with paper, popsicle sticks and glitter. The gold hats are in their last phase of the program. Come Dec. 30 they’ll graduate.

The three men — Shane Schuyler, 24; Charles Wimer, 29; and Thomas Pyatt, 45 — said it isn’t their first Christmas in prison, but it has been the most merry and hopefully their last in the clink.

“I’ve spent seven Christmases incarcerated. This is the first Christmas that I’ve actually celebrated and didn’t treat it like it was any other day,” Wimer said. “Through SUMMIT, I’ve been able to become close to people around me. I’m able to spend the holiday with the people I care about.”

Martin said the focus of the Secret Santa exercise is to get inmates to do something selfless, to lift each others’ spirits and to give without really expecting anything in return.

“If we give them something positive to do, they aren’t dwelling on things that might be negative and nonproductive,” she said.

Since Secret Santa began, the men said they’ve received some unexpected gifts from shined boots to cards on their beds. And the inmates have gotten pretty creative, giving gifts to a number of peers in hope of tricking their recipients. Others have had friends deliver messages in their place, while others have gotten up early in the morning to complete their Christmas chores.

While many of the men have done their best to surprise and delight their recipients, not everyone was so keen on becoming a Secret Santa. At first, Pyatt thought it was silly. But after he getting his first gifts, he realized by opting out he was preventing someone else from feeling special.

“It really did make me feel good. I wanted that person to feel what I did, too,” Pyatt said.

The men said in other penitentiaries, which they described as a training camp for criminals, this sense of festivity wouldn’t be possible.

“This place is the exact opposite,” Schuyler said. “All these people up here they treat us like people. Everybody cares. ... They want us to make it out there.”

A father of a young daughter, Schuyler said he does not want to waste his life behind bars and believes SUMMIT is his ticket to a normal life. He grew up in a rough household where drug use and crime were a normal part of life. Now that he’s in SUMMIT, he said he no longer thinks that way. He believes that if he continues to stay in prison, he’ll not only waste his life, statistics show it’s also more likely that his child could do time.

“That’s what scared me straight. I did not want to see myself sitting in prison at 55 years old and have nothing to show for it,” Schuyler said. “My family is my daughter and she needs somebody out there. I know what I gotta do.”

Christmas Day also will mean better food for inmates — with a lunch of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing — as well as marathon game playing for the general population, Christmas movies and a Catholic Mass.

Correctional Officer Doug Mansfield said the holidays are a difficult time for prisoners, so he cuts them a little slack.

“We have to be extra sensitive because we know what they are missing,” he said.

This year’s Secret Santa project seems to be bringing the men closer while teaching them positive behaviors for their lives after Shutter.

“It’s all about doing something to help their peers out. Something to make their days brighter,” Mansfield said. “They just feel good when they get and do good things for people.”