Holiday gift swap 2011 edition

[Aleria]

Pics or it didn't happen, Kome!

[Aredhel77]

I'm currently pretending it's not sitting here because I'm so tempted! I can't imagine not being excited about gifts when you don't know what they are (I don't get quite as excited when I do.) If you weren't so far away I'd tell you to come with my family Christmas eve. We play steal a gift! It's kinda like secret santa. Everyone buys a gift around a certain dollar amount and the gift goes into a pile. Your name goes into a hat. Names are pulled one by one and you get to pick from the pile or steal someone else's gift that they pulled. That person gets to pick again or steal, etc. The first person to pick is also the last. It's so much fun. This way we all only have to buy gifts for the kids and one for steal a gift. Helps with money and keeps the night fun. Last year we had to make a rule against spouses working with each other. Siblings are still allowed to though (for now.)


This is so sweet! I also regret that I missed out on contributing, but I certainly do understand. You've done such a great job with this whole thing! I'm just glad that PrincessBob is going to still get her present. I was seriously bummed about her gift going missing. I think this must be the greatest place on the internet!

[HIJACK]I'm in the UK, and my stepfather works for an American boss who has instigated a US-style Secret Santa for his employees this year. The UK-ers are a bit confused by it. My stepdad tried to explain 'the system' to me and to me, as an British person, it sounded so weird that you would be able to 'take' another person's gift off them just because you had picked a higher number out of a hat and had precedence over the people with the lower numbers. Obviously it must work fine and be fun in practice if everyone is OK with those rules, but to me it seemed strange, almost unfair! I guess there's a chance you might end up with a worse gift? Or are they generally all of similar value/quality? (I'm not moaning, just trying to explain how different it sounded to me, and I'm curious). My experience of UK-style secret santa is that you are just assigned a giftee and you buy a present for that person anonymously (very like this gift swap ).
So it was interesting to hear how another country might do it [/END HIJACK]

Hope that came across how I intended it.

I too, am stalking my daily post/mail

[PrincessBob]

[HIJACK]I'm in the UK, and my stepfather works for an American boss who has instigated a US-style Secret Santa for his employees this year. The UK-ers are a bit confused by it. My stepdad tried to explain 'the system' to me and to me, as an British person, it sounded so weird that you would be able to 'take' another person's gift off them just because you had picked a higher number out of a hat and had precedence over the people with the lower numbers. Obviously it must work fine and be fun in practice if everyone is OK with those rules, but to me it seemed strange, almost unfair! I guess there's a chance you might end up with a worse gift? Or are they generally all of similar value/quality? (I'm not moaning, just trying to explain how different it sounded to me, and I'm curious). My experience of UK-style secret santa is that you are just assigned a giftee and you buy a present for that person anonymously (very like this gift swap ).
So it was interesting to hear how another country might do it [/END HIJACK]

Hope that came across how I intended it.

We call that steal-the-gift sort of gift exchange a "White Elephant" gift exchange.
We normally set our limit around $10.

[Aredhel77]

We call that steal-the-gift sort of gift exchange a "White Elephant" gift exchange.
We normally set our limit around $10.

Ah, OK Thanks PrincessBobSo they'd more likely be inexpensive, fun little gifts? That would probably work well in a work/job setting. (I had visions of some people receiving expensive gifts only to have them snatched away and replaced by something inferior LOL)

[Toiréasa]

We call that steal-the-gift sort of gift exchange a "White Elephant" gift exchange.
We normally set our limit around $10.

We do this at my work place with a low $ amount and call it Dirty Santa,it can be very fun

[Ligeia_13]

Calaelen you rock, girl!!!


I keep seeing everyone's parcels arriving and I'm getting a little worried that mine has gotten lost or something. Or the post office here can't read properly . There's still time till Christmas though so fingers crossed!

[In2wishin]

I'm currently pretending it's not sitting here because I'm so tempted! I can't imagine not being excited about gifts when you don't know what they are (I don't get quite as excited when I do.) If you weren't so far away I'd tell you to come with my family Christmas eve. We play steal a gift!

That is so sweet of you If you absolutely can't stand it any longer, you can open up one or both of the littlest packages and save the main part for Christmas. They are small little extras (just DO NOT open the card or the other envelope!)

PrincessBob: I am so happy that you are getting replacements! Neither you nor your SS deserved what happened. Has Vesuvius' fur dried yet? Kitties make great pillows to cry into, just ask mine

[Lostsoule77]

That is so sweet of you If you absolutely can't stand it any longer, you can open up one or both of the littlest packages and save the main part for Christmas. They are small little extras (just DO NOT open the card or the other envelope!)

Nope, I'm waiting for the whole thing, though maybe I'll open those earlier in the day and then open the others at the end. Thank you for that hint.

Ah, OK Thanks PrincessBobSo they'd more likely be inexpensive, fun little gifts? That would probably work well in a work/job setting. (I had visions of some people receiving expensive gifts only to have them snatched away and replaced by something inferior LOL)

This actually started because my sister does it at work. We thought we'd try it for a year and see how it went. We had people in the family complaining about who they got in Secret Santa and my sister was tired of hearing about it. We voted and decided we liked it so it stuck. We do a higher dollar amount though since it is family. We just keep it all around a certain dollar amount and everyone has been good at doing that. The only thing is to me it's hard to shop for.

[In2wishin]

This actually started because my sister does it at work. We thought we'd try it for a year and see how it went. We had people in the family complaining about who they got in Secret Santa and my sister was tired of hearing about it. We voted and decided we liked it so it stuck. We do a higher dollar amount though since it is family. We just keep it all around a certain dollar amount and everyone has been good at doing that. The only thing is to me it's hard to shop for.

Reminds me of the gift exchange we did in grade school. It was really hard to shop for a classmate, especially if it was a boy with cooties, and keeping to the limit of 50 cents (yeah, I'm old) so almost everyone gave a boring but safe Life Savers Book like this:

[Alvrodul]

Welll - now I have been to the post office and fetched my SS package. and wouldn't you know that there had to be drama this year too! Last year around this time, I was at the post office to get a parcel from Ravenslair with some goodies I had bought. The lady at the counter went to get my package, but I could immediately see that it was the wrong package! It happened to be the gift from my SS that she had found!
This year ... it turned out the package had been sent to the wrong post office! I moved this autumn, and I think my SS got my old address. But that was not all - this year's present was on the verge of getting sent to Australia!!! No, I'm quite serious!
My brother and his family have also recently moved, and to Australia, and the parcel was going to be sent to their new address! But fortunately I got to the post office in time to prevent that!

So So now we can proceed to the Great Unwrapping - the 2011 edition!

Here is Exhibit A, the unopened package sitting on top of the mantelpiece, just as if Santa himself had come down the chimney!




And then we do of course proceed to opening up the package. And what did I find when I opened it up? Another package - this one a lot prettier! actually, it was a box:




... which in turn was opened - to reveal *drumroll* ... More packages! My SS must have had a lot of fun wrapping up this stuff!




Then I proceeded to opening up the innermost wrapping - starting with the chocolate! Yummmm! I then went on to opening up the mysterious dark package with my initial on it. It contained a leather hair slide, in the shape of a raven's feather, Then there were two Goody ouchless barrettes, and some hair-safe elastics (and it is not possible to have too many of those! I have not seen anything like those barrettes here in Norway, and I love the elastics, too! I have only seen hairsafe elastics in solid colors here, and having some with patterns is great!
Then there was a shampoo bar with ginger and cardamom, whose lovely fragrance I am unfortunately not able to appreciate properly today, due to a cold. And there was a lip balm - only last night I was looking everywhere for one of mine, but they tend to disappear mysteriously when I want them!
Then there was a towel with Frosty the snowman on it, and a fantasy book! and there was a Christmas tree ornament!




In the lovely letter that was slipped into the Christmas card in the package, my SS told a story from the Queen Charlotte Islands about Raven - I love all myths and legends, so I really enjoyed reading that! and there are a couple of ravens that are quite prominent in my mythology as well - Hugin and Munin (Thought and Memory) who are Odin's spies.

Thank you ever so much, Toiréasa - these gifts are wonderful, and so well thought out! I love them! Thank you!