META: Boardie Non-Denominational Secret Gift Exchange Spectacular 2014

A very kind boardies donation of a Pavement LP to the Julian For Moderator Super-PAC has me thinking what fun it would be to do a non-denominational gift giving with each other completely independent of any holiday. Some people call this a "Secret Santa" but I don't want to exclude anyone who thought Santa's obesity was a poor example for children or has some other issue with Santa, so we won't use that term officially.

I have graciously agreed to do all of the leg work as far as randomly drawing names out of a hat and getting everyone the addresses of whomever they select.

Pretty typical rules/instructions: PM me by May 31st if you want in (EDIT: with a mailing address but NOT your name) and I'll send out that day PMs to everyone of whom you drew to give a gift to. (That same person will likely not be purchasing for you as well so don't ruin the surprise.) If you have any difficulties in coming up with a gift idea, PM me again and I'll send your person a request for potential gift dos and donts. Please mail your gift by June 21st, 2014 or face horrible derision from our community. I think we can all live with a $1000 limit on the gifts.

Sound like fun? Of course it does. Of anyone has any questions/suggestions to make this better, please let me know.

Can you guarantee I'll pick myself?  I do love buying myself presents…

grateful wrote:
Can you guarantee I'll pick myself?  I do love buying myself presents…

I can guarantee you will not pick yourself. Anyone I draw for who gets themselves will be re-done.

Do we think it would be easier for everyone who signs up to give their likes and dislikes in this thread as opposed to waiting for someone to ask and me facilitating the acquisition of that information? Or is that less fun?

Hmmm… so Julian gets an inventory of all of our names and addresses? No thanks!

Should gifts be small enough to fit through a mail slot, or will you be handling distribution for us?

And what of perishable gifts?  Or gifts of service?

Yada wrote:
Hmmm… so Julian gets an inventory of all of our names and addresses? No thanks!

I will swear, under punishment of banishment, that I will not use the addresses for anything other then this gift exchange and will destroy all records of them immediately after it's over. Also, there is no reason for anyone to give me their real name. Gifts can be sent to the board name.

And what about thank you notes?

Will we be required to post selfies with said gifts, thus revealing our appearance?

grateful wrote:
Should gifts be small enough to fit through a mail slot, or will you be handling distribution for us?

Not necessarily. Anything you can package the US Postal Service (or a competitor) will ship, in my experience. When we did this on hfstival.com back in the day, people got cardboard models of Ronald Reagen, a guitar, and other large items.

I will not be handling distribution. Please factor shipping costs into your budget when shopping.

grateful wrote:
And what of perishable gifts?  Or gifts of service?

I'm not going to make any hard and fast rules on this unless there's some overwhelming consensus demanding it. As a general suggestion as someone who has done these before, use your best discretion.

If it's illegal to mail _____, maybe it's not the best idea to purchase ______ unless you plan to hand deliver it. Donations to charities are much more appreciated if you know that charity is near and dear to the "gift recipient" not yourself. If it's a "gift of service" (I'm assuming you mean, for example, a masseuse giving someone a certificate for a free massage as a gift?) I'd make sure the person lives close enough that taking you up on it isn't an inconvenience for them and you have a good-faith belief they will actually enjoy the service. Unless you are really good friends with someone outside of the board and know they will share your sense of humor, joke gifts are probably a bad idea (e.g. sending a known Nationals fan Orioles merchandise or vice versa).

We are all adults who have ostensibly given gifts many times before, just think it through before you commit.

grateful wrote:
And what about thank you notes?

grateful wrote:
Will we be required to post selfies with said gifts, thus revealing our appearance?

How about we all agree a description/photo of what we got (ourselves not included unless we really want to for some reason) and any thank you's can go in this thread?

So if I sign up, I have to give a thoughtful gift to (possibly) a complete stranger?

ill tell you what i want . . . sex.  no wrapping, no money involved, no thinking, no rules.

Could you guarantee that I get your Julian's name?

LMAO that was funny.

grateful wrote:
So if I sign up, I have to give a thoughtful gift to (possibly) a complete stranger?

thoughtFUL? No. Should you put some thought into it? Yes. Is it really that hard to buy something for a regular on here? Worst case scenario: 930 Club gift card.

walkonby wrote:
ill tell you what i want . . . sex.  no wrapping, no money involved, no thinking, no rules.

I think you are going to have a disappointing Non-Denominational holiday.  

grateful wrote:
Could you guarantee that I get your Julian's name?

No, but you have as good of a shot as anybody, I tell you what.

Julian, wrote:

grateful wrote:
So if I sign up, I have to give a thoughtful gift to (possibly) a complete stranger?

thoughtFUL? No. Should you put some thought into it? Yes. Is it really that hard to buy something for a regular on here? Worst case scenario: 930 Club gift card.

Gift Cards are lame.  If I wanted a gift card I would just buy it myself.   I like cars.  The Maserati that ggw has is nice.  Someone can get me one of those or maybe GGW could give me his.  Whatever works best.