Goodie swap

diamondlil · Post by **diamondlil** » Fri September 26th, 2008, 11:51 pm

I think that overseas postage for Christmas closes in October some time. Maybe one option is that people are given the option of saying whether they want only someone in their own country or that they are happy to post overseas?

pat · Post by **pat** » Fri September 26th, 2008, 11:58 pm

I have just had the thought....how can we give out our home address safely but keeping the idea of the randomness?

Could we PM all those willing or has anyone any other ideas?

Divia · Post by **Divia** » Sat September 27th, 2008, 12:09 am

We could always have someone that has all the addresses. Ex. I have all the addresses and Pat wants to send something to EC then she can PM me and I'll give her the address without EC knowing. That way it could be kept safe and not posted on the internet.

I just threw my name up there. It could be a mod if people are more secure with that..or someone else we all agree on.

SonjaMarie · Post by **SonjaMarie** » Sat September 27th, 2008, 12:14 am

On a site I was on a few years ago, the way we did it was we did eventually get the name and address of who we were buying for, so not strictly speaking the exact way Secret Santa is usually run but only because of the neccesity of having to be able to mail gifts.

If I remember correctly we sent our names in to one person who was organizing it if we were interested in participating, and we had to submit a list of things we were interested in. I think the gift cost was limited to $20, though I'm sure if people wanted to spend more they could. Then she randomly chose who bought for who and only then did we get the name and address of the person we were gifting.

The woman I got liked Shelties and I found her a cute mousepad that had Shelties on it. I got a Amazon gift cert because I wanted one of the Pirates movies, I think it was #1 at the time.

I like the idea of having people decide if they want to mail to a foreign country or to keep within their own.

SM

diamondlil · Post by **diamondlil** » Sat September 27th, 2008, 12:18 am

I think the tidiest way would be to have one person to coordinate the addresses etc.

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Sat September 27th, 2008, 12:21 am

Interesting idea, I liked the mention in the earlier thread about trying to out-tacky each other. That's a challenge I might like to take on

What about a postcard and souveniers (sp?) from where one lives?

We'd also have to figure out a way to draw straws, so we end up getting blind choices as it were.

diamondlil · Post by **diamondlil** » Sat September 27th, 2008, 12:26 am

That's where having one person coordinate helps. That way there is only one person that knows who got who and for everyone else it is a surprise.

Divia · Post by **Divia** » Sat September 27th, 2008, 2:20 am

I throw my name into the ring to coordinate if people feel comfortable with that. If not no offense taken.

Of course someone else will have to have my name or else i wont get to play.

MLE (Emily Cotton) · Post by **MLE (Emily Cotton)** » Sat September 27th, 2008, 4:51 am

Definitely prefer random, this is the lady who has only remembered her own anniversary three times in over thirty years!
I have a friend who sends me the oddest newspaper articles about animals she can find. I've gotten some good laughs -- like the elephant keepers in the Chiang Mai zoo building a huge toilet and training their charges to sit on it because it saved so much work for them!

Vanessa · Post by **Vanessa** » Sat September 27th, 2008, 8:38 am

I'm quite happy to join in and to send to other countries. If we're sending cards, do we have to put a clue in it as to who it's from so it's a sort of guessing game? Could be fun. Mind you, I suppose the stamps on the envelope might give it away. LOL.