In my kids' Waldorf school there is the custom of "Wichteln". Each student is assigned a benefactee (don't know how they do it, it may be a draw as you describe), and they are supposed to do them small niceties all through Advent, being their "Wichtel".

I didn't know that custom before. Now Waldorf schools are based on Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy, of course, and he's Austrian (Slovenian by contemporary borders, I believe), so there may be a link. I don't know if the custom is universal to the schools, though.