Angel Graves
Posts: 2,355
Fort Collins, Colorado, US
Satan Santa you know whatever lol
It's rapidly approaching that time of year again where we have the unique opportunity to get and receive gifts from all of our friends here on MM and perhaps get to know each other better! Unfortunately I could not be a part of this last year and I really missed celebrating Yule and the New Year in the hospital so I'm REALLY looking forward to this year's fall holidays!!
So, that being said. . . Who is interested in participating in Secret Santa this year? I am trying to remember the last one of these I coordinated I think we had like 26 or so of the HMS forum involved in it and was a great deal of fun shopping for little wishlist things and getting them off in time to arrive I am really excited to do this again ^^
For those of you who were not involved in the previous Secret Santa, here's the fast and dirty of it
I drew up a brief question sheet for your santa to get to know you, things like favorite colors and gifts you absolutely don't care for etc. When those were all received, I had some super helper input the names into a randomizing program to ensure that everything was fair with the names being chosen for each person and then the info they submitted along with their shipping info was given to their santa. Pretty easy peasy
We did make allowance tho for all of our friends in and out of the US to make sure that people were not paired up to someone with restricted countries or where they were absolutely not able to do international shipping for whatever reason and some very awesome volunteers took on more than one santa to ensure that everyone got to participate.
We all had great fun with the whole thing last time and it was wonderful to get to know everyone a bit better by reading their questionnaire answers! You'd be amazed at what you can learn from what a person would not want to receive as a gift for xmas lol! I do want to get this started earlier this time so that people involved with outside of their country partners can have plenty of time to get them there ahead of the holidays this time as last time we ran into a few shipping snafu's that delayed people's gifts arriving in time for the actual holiday but we all still got our gifts so it worked itself out in the end
After it's all done, a really great bunch of thank you's for the gifts received was posted and I completely enjoyed all the fun we had with it all the way into January!
Hope that answers your questions, please let me know if you have any others ^^
The SSSs I've participated in have been fun, but last time I never got an acknowledgement that my package was received. ( I never found out if it got there on time or at all.
I loved my gifts; my SS really took some time to come up with them! I'd enjoy doing it again.
Angel Graves
Posts: 2,355
Fort Collins, Colorado, US
The ideal is to allow participation in 1 big Santa for everyone regardless of their home country. That being said tho if you're in the UK, you must be ok with shipping to Tokyo or something if you got paired with someone out there or in the US etc.
As far as price caps, we stuck to $20 last time but with the tight restrictions and such we wound up at $25. That's not to say a great gift of creativity couldn't be less, just not to go over that amount This also did NOT include your shipping.
So, as long as everyone is ok with shipping to a foreign country (please MM me if it is an issue for you for some reason) and the group agrees to a $20-25 USD cap we should be ready to begin the active recruiting and rule setting. Making sure that if you live in a country that can't for example items in the shape of a firearm (Kiri and I had this issue last time) you make sure to share that info up front to help out someone who may not be familiar with international shipping
Angel Graves
Posts: 2,355
Fort Collins, Colorado, US
Based on a popular idea with people in the UK, we've decided to run a special UK based Secret Santa so the mass there can stick in country with their gift sending.
That's not to say those who would like to participate with an out of country Santa can't just that if you prefer to stay inside your own country there are enough of you in the UK that is certainly fesible for you
Angel Graves
Posts: 2,355
Fort Collins, Colorado, US
UK thread started and now just leaves us to decide when we're gonna call a close to joining the SS? I think we need to ship no later than the first week of Dec for in the US to get the USPS on our side but, how much time do we need to leave ourselves to shop? Thoughts?
Once I'm back on my laptop I'll dig out the previous SS questionnaire file so we can all get in agreement on questions.
Angel Graves
Posts: 2,355
Fort Collins, Colorado, US
Sungoddess Studios wrote: I don't remember this from last year. I am not participating because it wold be unfair. I would receive 8 gifts and my Secret Santa partner only 1
Thanks,
Philip LEVY
You don't remember it from last year because I was sick in the hospital and did not do it last year We did this in Xmas of 2010 most recently.
As far as you getting 8 gifts and only giving 1... I'm super confused on how this would happen but I respect your declaration to not participate in an HMS event and hope you still enjoy your holidays anyway
Angel Graves
Posts: 2,355
Fort Collins, Colorado, US
Yay Jennifer and Kendra! Now to find Em and the others who participated before! This was so much fun last time I seriously can't wait for the posts of thanks for the gifts! That was almost as much fun as shopping for things I could mail to NZ lol
Angel Graves
Posts: 2,355
Fort Collins, Colorado, US
From last time's questionnaire, a sample response
Industry Job Duty- MUA hair & wardrobe
Fave Colour- blues and greens
Fave Animal- dogs
Fave Accessory Item- scarves and hats
A thing you collect- nail polishes
Clothing Size- I like upcycling clothing so interesting things in many sizes
Things you would NOT want to receive- am not fussy, although home accesories are a bit of a waste as I have no space for it lol
your guilty pleasure fancy teas
Do you mind receiving well cared for used items? I love the idea!
Just some ideas of how we can use this again if the mass approves, let me know!
PWF Retouch
Posts: 280
Jacksonville, North Carolina, US
Angel Graves wrote: From last time's questionnaire, a sample response
Industry Job Duty- MUA hair & wardrobe
Fave Colour- blues and greens
Fave Animal- dogs
Fave Accessory Item- scarves and hats
A thing you collect- nail polishes
Clothing Size- I like upcycling clothing so interesting things in many sizes
Things you would NOT want to receive- am not fussy, although home accesories are a bit of a waste as I have no space for it lol
your guilty pleasure fancy teas
Do you mind receiving well cared for used items? I love the idea!
Just some ideas of how we can use this again if the mass approves, let me know!
Once you have enough people, how do we find out who we have? Will you just message us a name and their shipping info?
Angel Graves
Posts: 2,355
Fort Collins, Colorado, US
I went thru my old messages from the last swap and it was called Dear Santa, we had 12 participants and when we got the dates settled we all replied to the questionnaire to me in a DM that included the shipping info and any preference as to not shipping over seas.
From there Em helped me with the randomizing to get everyone's partner chosen fairly and I forwarded their partner's info on.
I wound up taking two partner's last time because Kiri Cook lived in NZ and we took eachother to save anyone else the shipping restrictions hassle that country has but I've shipped there before so it was not a big deal for me. Since we split off the UK Santa tho I don't see that being an issue at all this time so far but I don't mind doing it again
I am really excited to do this again ^^
( I never found out if it got there on time or at all.
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