For several years now, we’ve had a neat little community gift exchange during the holidays, for folks who wanted to participate. I’ve sent and received a Secret Santa gift in the past, and it’s been really fun (see here
and here
for some threads from the last couple of years!). Now it looks like I get to arrange, instead of participating (Oh how the tables have turned, @Krystle
)
If you’re not familiar with how a Secret Santa exchange works, here’s the deal: Each person who signs up is assigned another participant to get a gift for. Generally, you do not know who has sent you your gift, unless they choose to reveal themselves. The end result is that everyone participating gives one gift to someone, and gets one gift from someone else (their “Secret Santa”). And lots of wikiLove is spread in the process
A note for the under-18s: We don’t include minors in the traditional Secret Santa arrangement, because lots of parents feel pretty iffy about their kids getting gifts from strangers they’ve only met online. We’re not here to make anyone feel uncomfortable or unsafe! So the Secret Santa Exchange is, for the most part, 18+ only. That being said, in the past, a couple of younger wikiHowians have elected to participate in “send only” mode, meaning that they would only send a gift (to an over-18 participant who has agreed to get an extra gift), but not receive one. If you’re interested in this, shoot me an email at anna@wikihow.com
so we can confirm that sending a gift is okay by your parents, and go from there.
A few more details:
- For this year, let’s put a spending cap on the gift of $15 USD (it’s totally okay if you spend less than that, too). You can also make a gift, or re-gift something you already own.
- If you participate, you do need to pay for shipping, but I will try to match you up with someone who is in your country if possible, to minimize that cost.
- In order to participate, you obviously need to be willing to give your address to one wikiHow contributor, without knowing who that person is. That person does not have to know who you are, if you wish to remain anonymous.
- If you do decide to participate, I just ask that you get your gift ready and send it out so that it arrives by Dec 31. That’ll keep everyone sending/receiving in more or less the same window of time.
Okay, for those who are interested, here is the form you can fill out! If you sign up, you’re committing to doing it, so please fill it out only if you’re sure you can send a gift. Feel free to comment here, too, so that folks will know if lots of people are planning on participating :)
https://goo.gl/forms/p2v9iVAoRJs06qsA2
I’ll keep this form open until the end of November, but may start matching people up before then, depending on how many participants we get. If you have any questions, of course ask away! Or feel free to email me at anna@wikihow.com
.
The holidays are without a doubt my favorite time of year… so for me this tradition marks the start of lots of good celebrations! Hoping some of y’all are as nerdily holiday-enthusiastic as I am
Tagging a few past participants who might be into being Secret Santas again: @Loiswade42
@Byankno1
@Jordan
@Dvortygirl
@Ttrimm
@Elocina
@Maluniu
@Illneedasaviour
@JackHerrick
@SarahB
@Lutherus-Shyrilser
@Mariachiang
@ShrUtiable
@Elocina
@Lojjik
@Danielbauwens
@Krystle
