Since this was so well-received last year and the people involved had a great time, let’s do it again. Here’s how it works:
READ THE RULES!
The cutoff for sending me a PM with your contact information is November 3rd. Please make sure you have sent me a PM with the required information before that date.
Here’s how it will work:
Anyone interested in being a Secret Santa (and thus also a Santee) posts in this thread with an “I’m in” or something to the same effect.
You can provide for potential Santas to gift things to you either by providing me with your mailing information where you can receive a gift, or by providing me with a URL to an Amazon or Funagain or other such wishlist. This can be done by PM, so only myself (as coordinator) and your Santa will have this information. The wishlist option exists so that the exchange of personal information will NOT be necessary to participate in the exchange.
I will not disclose personal information to anyone other than your Santee unless you expressly tell me it’s OK. Last year, there were some forumers who were asking for other people’s addresses to surprise them with gifts. Please understand that in order to protect people’s privacy I simply can’t do this.
Wishlists can be either private (only your Santa will see the URL), or public (people here might wish to give gifts to more than one person), at the Santee’s discretion. Plus, we learn cool things about you if you post it publicly.
We’ll keep track of who is in at the top of the thread, just to keep things neat and orderly. You have until October 15th to declare your participation. You then have until the end of October to send me your contact and shipping information. You can send it early if you want.
After the cut-off, I will PM each person with the information needed to gift something to their Santee. Each participant will be responsible for their gift to another. No freeloaders! If you don’t give a gift, we’ll know.
There is a $20 minimum gift value; no maximum.
You can subtly or not-so-subtly talk about things you’d like to get in this thread, although that in no way means you’ll get what you ask for.
When you receive your gift, PM Ryan so he knows you have something, just to make sure.
On Sunday, December 21st, open your gifts. Have a camera ready so you can snap a picture and get it in the thread!
OK, everyone is in and now this becomes the list. I will begin marking “gifts received” here once a good number of people have received something, just to further keep identities a bit secret before the 21st.
I know this sounds silly, but the no maximum concerns me slightly. It’s not an issue I would press at all, but I don’t make as much money as many of you do, and I feel like whoever I get might be disappointed that I can’t spend hundreds of dollars on a secret santa gift. Or am I just overthinking here? I mean I could certainly afford to send people a video game or something (even a brand new 360 or PS3 game).
I don’t think that’s probably a big deal… there’s no set maximum, but I doubt there’ll be too many people getting a set of car keys in the mail as a result of this thread.
By the way, for anybody who did this last year, we should probably tell you who our Santas and Santees were so that nobody ends up randomly having the same one.
I know this sounds silly, but the no maximum concerns me slightly. It’s not an issue I would press at all, but I don’t make as much money as many of you do, and I feel like whoever I get might be disappointed that I can’t spend hundreds of dollars on a secret santa gift. Or am I just overthinking here? I mean I could certainly afford to send people a video game or something (even a brand new 360 or PS3 game).
I reckon you’re overthinking :) No-one’s expecting a $500 secret santa gift and I think a lot of last year’s participants were possibly more impressed with the amount of thought that went into choosing a gift for them than worrying about $5 here or there.
I will read their posts. I will visit their blog. I will scour their webpage. I will do google searches for their name. I will run a credit check. I will speak with their relatives. I will interview their friends and coworkers. I will watch them from afar and keep notes in my diary.
Then I will buy them the cheapest thing on their amazon wishlist.
