HT Secret Santa or Holiday Card Exchange?

Do you want to participate in a HT gift or card exchange?

  • I want to do a GIFT exchange and can commit to sending one person a GIFT.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I'm not interested./Other.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    15
  • Poll closed .

SweetErika

Fingers Crossed
Joined
Apr 27, 2004
Posts
13,442
The Secret Santa Exchange is now closed, since we've already everyone who was on the list by last Saturday has already been given a recipient.

Please keep an eye out around Christmas if you're interested in seeing how it goes, and watch this forum for similar threads before holidays in the future.

Thanks for your interest, and we hope you'll jump in next time! :rose:


****************************
I've seen Secret Santa and Card Exchange threads on several of the other forums, like the AH and GB. How To'ers can be a pretty tight group, too, so I was wondering if anyone is interested in exchanging cards and/or small gifts (even homemade would be fabulous!) this year.

If you are interested in sending another HT'er a card and/or gift (see the details below on how it'll work), please vote in the poll, add your thoughts here, and send me your name, address and the answers to the questions below.

The clock is ticking, but it's still not too late to get in on the fun!


I don't think it'd take much to connect and make each others' holidays a little brighter.

Here's the plan, questions and list I have:
.

The plan:


1) Everyone who's on the master list (those who have committed to participating) sends their name, address and answers to the following questions to the me (the organizer), ASAP

Questions (these answers will help those who choose to send gifts send you something you're likely to enjoy!):

  • Allergies, including food and metal (think jewelery):
  • Do you have any dietary requirements aside from allergies (eg. vegetarian, vegan, halal, kosher etc.)?
  • Favorite color(s):
  • Shirt size:
  • Hobbies:
  • Favorite author/genre:
  • Music preferences:
  • Repulsive scents:
  • Level of Sexual Innuendo Allowed in your gift (none/some/XXX):
  • Can you send stuff overseas?
  • Is there someone on the list you're NOT comfortable sharing your name and address with?
  • Other (favorites, ideas, wants, hates etc):


2) The organizer assigns everyone on the list a number secretly.

3) Each participant chooses a different number, and posts the number so others know it's covered
(e.g., you might post, "I'll take #4," and upon seeing you've already chosen #4, I might post "I'll take #8")

4) The organizer gives the address and preferences that correspond to the chosen number to the person who picked it.


5) Everyone sends their card and/or gift to the address they've been given in time for it to arrive by a certain date. Because we're getting a later start, I think we should just make sure they'll arrive by Christmas Eve, so everyone has something to open on that day, Christmas, or a little later if they're out of town. Remember the volume of mail increases many times over around this time of the year, so you'll need to send your stuff extra early to ensure it gets there by December 24th.

6) Starting on a day after everyone's opened their gifts (e.g., Dec. 28th), the participants share their excitement and what they got on the board
(we'd do a separate thread for this, I think).

7)The Secret Santas can choose whether they want to reveal themselves to their recipient after everyone's opened their gifts. Whether you reveal, or not, is strictly up to you as the giver.


***Privacy Issues:
Only two people will get your address if you participate: the organizer, and your Secret Santa. Ideally, you need to give your name as well (in case there's a mistake in the address, or you don't live alone), but you could give your first initial and last name, or chance it with your first name and last initial.

There's always a risk with this kind of thing, but the other boards have done this successfully for years, and there's less of a risk because no one gets to choose who they want to send stuff to (remember, only the organizer knows who's associated with each number). If I organize this, I'm going to trust my instincts and I'm not going to give an address out to someone who doesn't appear to be legit or who I just have a bad feeling about. I doubt we'll get anyone like that, but it's something I want to have a plan for, just in case.

If there's someone on the master list YOU don't want your address going to, let me know via PM, and I'll make sure that person doesn't receive your address. I want everyone who wants to participate to feel as safe as possible doing so. :rose:

What will likely happen, is we'll end up with a list of people we know well from here and would probably give our addys to all of them, anyway. There are MANY people here I'd feel comfortable sharing my info with because we've shared a lot of our lives with each other over the years. HT tends attract higher quality people, IMO, and while that's no guarantee of safety, it does provide me with some measure of reassurance.

My questions for you:

What do you think is a reasonable deadline for the packages to arrive, given our later start? Should we make it Dec. 24th or 25th?

The AH has asked people to spend under $15 (excluding postage and packing) when they send gifts. That's not a hard limit, and no one HAS to buy anything, they just use it as a guide and ask people to stay in that ballpark. Would this be a good guideline for us, too?

We don't have much time, and I'll add to this post as I get more info, so please check back frequently.

Evolving List of Participants:
(If you don't have an "X" by your name, you need to send me your name, address and preferences right away!)
Cathleen X
VermilionSkye X
done_got_old X
Eilan X
Mazuri X
bobsgirl X
fire_breeze X
quoll X
 
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SweetErika,

I love the idea of Secret Santa, but can you explain how this is done while keeping our personal info. private. If I am sending a gift my identity will remain private, but the person on the receiving end must give an address.

Am I missing something? :eek:
 
I like the idea but I'm concerned about personal information being given out.
 
emptynester said:
SweetErika,

I love the idea of Secret Santa, but can you explain how this is done while keeping our personal info. private. If I am sending a gift my identity will remain private, but the person on the receiving end must give an address.

Am I missing something? :eek:
No, you're not missing anything. :) I wanted to get some feedback on the interest level and what people wanted to do before I did anything else, but since a few of us want to participate, I've detailed the plan in the original post.

Let me know if anything is unclear, or you have any questions.
 
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done_got_old said:
I like the idea but I'm concerned about personal information being given out.
I've addressed privacy issues in the above post, donegotold.

It's completely up to you, of course, but if you're still uncomfortable after you've read my last post, you may want to keep tabs on this thread and see who shows up on the list of participants.
a) If you feel good about most of them, you can jump in before the deadline (TBD; the majority of participants need to NOT wait until the last minute, however).

b) If there's a person you're concerned about, but you want to participate, you'd let me know via PM (again, use this judiciously; if many people exercise this option, organizing this will be very difficult).

c) If you don't feel good about enough of the participants, you can sit this year out and see how it goes, then maybe jump in next year, if we do this again.
 
Glad to have you, Eilan and d_g_o!

Cate, has BG been informed of this? I hear she makes some mean baked goods. :D Can everyone help spread the word, especially to those who may not be here a lot?

Apart from Mazuri, no one has a preference on whether we do cards vs. gifts? I suppose we could do cards as a minimum, and ask everyone who can send a small gift to do so. As unpopular as re-gifting and the like may be, we all probably have a little something around the house, or could make something, that someone else would likely really enjoy. This should be as fun and stress-free as possible; if that means not buying anything, so be it!
 
For anyone who already read our plan, I made a few changes after I re-read the AH thread. The major one is to have you send me the answers to the questions (in the first post) along with your name and address. I'll pass the pertinent info onto your Secret Santa, so they have an idea of what you might like.

Obviously, we want to give the Santas as much time as possible to get everything together, so I need your name, address and the answers to those questions as soon as you can get them to me.

Thanks! :kiss:
 
My only preference of cards over gifts is due to the (already high) expenses of my holiday shopping combined with end of year school costs ($300 band fees/yearbook).

I could do a gift as well as a card as long as we're not waiting too much longer on deciding to kick it off. :)
 
Mazuri said:
My only preference of cards over gifts is due to the (already high) expenses of my holiday shopping combined with end of year school costs ($300 band fees/yearbook).

I could do a gift as well as a card as long as we're not waiting too much longer on deciding to kick it off. :)
I absolutely get that, Mazuri (great AV, BTW!). No pressure - do what you want to, and can comfortably afford. :)
 
Yes, Yes, me!! I want in! I voted for only cards, but I want to do either.


Is it too late?
 
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bobsgirl said:
Yes, Yes, me!! I want in! I voted for only cards, but I want to do either.


Is it too late?
I knew this was right up your alley. :D

No, it's definitely not too late! I'm sure we'd make an exception for you, even if it was a bit late. Your name is now on the list with a nice little "X" next to it! :kiss:

I think our best bet is to make sending either a card OR a gift (just something) the minimum. Everyone on the list needs to send a card and/or gift, but no one's obligated to do a gift if they can only do a card, or send both. Send whatever you can, and think your receiver would like, whether that's a thoughtful card, homemade treat, cool picture, customized short story, or elaborate gift.

We have enough people to go forward now (provided I get everyone's info), but I'm hoping everyone will take this opportunity to PM/email their friends in the next couple of days, in case they want to get in on this!
 
SweetErika said:
I knew this was right up your alley. :D

No, it's definitely not too late! I'm sure we'd make an exception for you, even if it was a bit late. Your name is now on the list with a nice little "X" next to it! :kiss:

I think our best bet is to make sending either a card OR a gift (just something) the minimum. Everyone on the list needs to send a card and/or gift, but no one's obligated to do a gift if they can only do a card, or send both. Send whatever you can, and think your receiver would like, whether that's a thoughtful card, homemade treat, cool picture, customized short story, or elaborate gift.

We have enough people to go forward now (provided I get everyone's info), but I'm hoping everyone will take this opportunity to PM/email their friends in the next couple of days, in case they want to get in on this!
Oh, so it's not too late? If it isn't then count me in!
 
Skye and Mazuri, could you send me your info and answers to the questions, please?

We're going to pick numbers Sunday/Monday, so if you (and anyone else who wants to join) could get them to me before then, that'd be great. :kiss:
 
Sent! And sorry for the delay. Hurrah prepping for Black Friday :rolleyes:
 
I'm in, I voted for cards only, not that I think the $15 limit is too high but by the time you pay postage to my fair land I suspect you will be well over quota, and that's without mentiong some fairly severe quarantine laws, and, yeah, well it's not really worth getting carried away, besides I would be more than happy to receive a card.
 
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SweetErika said:
Skye and Mazuri, could you send me your info and answers to the questions, please?

We're going to pick numbers Sunday/Monday, so if you (and anyone else who wants to join) could get them to me before then, that'd be great. :kiss:
Done!
 
Quoll said:
I'm in, I voted for cards only, not that I think the $15 limit is too high but by the time you pay postage to my fair land I suspect you will be well over quota, and that's without mentiong some fairly severe quarantine laws, and, yeah, well it's not really worth getting carried away, besides I would be more than happy to recieve a card.
Umm I still need your addy, My Quili.
 
A bump and update for anyone who still wants to join. If you do, PM me your name, address and answers by Saturday, please. A BIG thank you to everyone who's already on the list for sending me their info before now!

On Saturday, I will make any final additions to the list, assign everyone a number secretly and announce the numbers available for picking. At that point, I'll need you to choose a number and post your choice here quickly.

My goal is to send you your recipient's info sometime Sunday. If I don't get your number choices in time to do that, I'll pick someone out of a hat for you, but I hope everyone will do their best to be here at some point Saturday afternoon or evening so they can choose a number for themselves because I think it'll be more fun that way.

Another update: It will be YOUR choice as a giver as to whether or not you reveal yourself to your recipient. This is how the AH does it, and I think it's a good idea to make it a personal decision, as some people may want to keep it a mystery.


Finally, as the organizer, I will not be including myself on the list because I don't want to take anyone's desire to send something anonymously away from them. However, because you've all trusted me with your personal info, I think it's only fair to make mine available to you. So, just ask, and ye shall receive.

Apart from this stuff and saying I'm really excited to see how this works out, I think that's about it, I think that's about it until Saturday! :)
 
I was informed that in these cases the organiser does not participate unless invited, therefore I move that the Sweet Organiser be invited.
Seconded?
 
Quoll said:
I was informed that in these cases the organiser does not participate unless invited, therefore I move that the Sweet Organiser be invited.
Seconded?
Seconded...
Motion approved! :D
 
It's that time!

The list we have now is final, and everyone has a number.

I need everyone who's on it to post a different number between 1 and 9 as soon as possible.
I'm hoping to get you your recipient's info by tomorrow night.

I've been included in the numbering/list as quoll and fire suggested. With such a small group, I figured it might be easier that way. Obviously, I will know who I give my info to, so if the "Secret" part of this is important to you, say so when you post the number you've chosen, so I can make sure it's not me. :) I don't recall who has what number w/o looking at the list (Hubby actually assigned them), but I'll take the number that's chosen last so it's more random.
 
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