Bump.

And again.

Okay, now is the last day to join in, emails should be sent to me by Friday noon (10AM GMT).

tuomas the loneliest elf

just out of curiousity, how many people are involved?

Between 10 and 15 I think, haven’t counted the exact number. I won’t start doing this until after 12 today (Finnish time), so there’s four hours to mail me if someone still wants in.

I’m sorry, this has been delayed a bit, ’cause I had to wait to get one persons’ address still. I don’t have the time to do the draw today, but I’ll be emailing everyone tomorrow.

Okay, I’ve emailed everyone. Thanks for taking part in this, now we’ll just have to wait for Santa to do his job.

what was the price range again?

¥1168—¥1752

oh brilliant

Bump.

— Tuomas (lixnix...) (webmail), December 5th, 2006 2:54 PM. (Tuomas) (link)

And again.

— Tuomas (lixnix...) (webmail), December 6th, 2006 3:31 PM. (Tuomas) (link)

What we have here is a failure to communicate that this is a bad idea.

I bought some stuff for a secret santa this past weekend—the budget was £10, and I bought ten brilliant things from one of those pound shops. Shot-glass ludo drinking game with glass board! A ‘naughty’ wall clock which has smutty sexual suggestions in place of the numbers around the dial! A computer program which allows you to personalise all well-known board games with your own words and pictures! (To name just three, as I can’t remember all the other stuff offhand)

It wasn’t for the ILX secret santa though. In case anyone thinks I’ve spoiled the surprise.

apparently:

british pound shops>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>US dollor stores

Sometimes they’re rubbish, but other times you can find real treasure there.

Well, not real treasure, obv. Otherwise it would be full of people dressed as pirates (which it is not, always).

For me the great thing about pound shops (or €2 shops, as they are here) is that they always have those ball throwers for dogs for €2, instead of the €10 you pay for them in pet shops.

And huge bags of rawhide dog chewies for £1 instead of the extortionate amount they charge in pet shops.

And the balls of lard/cereal mix for birds for £1 instead of the huge price they charge in pet shops.

I think I said on the original thread that the price range was between 6 to 20 euros, you can convert that to dollars or pounds.

my secret santa giffs are on their way... i hope the receipient likes them!

I’m having enough problems thinking of what to buy the girl I’ve got for my work secret santa.

re: ilx secret santa

gifts are yet en route, but they will be soon! i imagine it takes time for int’l postal delivery, so it may not make xmas day, but there abouts!

I’ve put my gift in the mail too. If it doesn’t make it over the sea before Christmas Day, please be patient my dear Secret Santee, you will get is sooner or later.

My gift won’t make it in the mail until Monday probably though I am going to try very hard for tomorrow—my recipient is in the US though so it should make it there. If it doesn’t in time, I am very sorry!!

i think we’re all OK with recieving gifts after Christmas day, aren’t we?

Yeah.

We had better be.

I have no idea what to get mine. I’m thinking just some Tastykakes.

Mine might end up as being in one of traditions that call for gifts around epiphany.

will be sent out wif tomorrow’s post!

Sent mine already!

so, who has received their items? i got some wonderful things from scott and maria

Um, isn’t the sender supposed to be secret?

thats what i thought

I didn’t know the gift was supposed to be anonymous, I put my name on it. Though the Finnish stamps would’ve been a dead giveaway anyhow.

we didn’t know either. sorry! i guess an oak bluffs or vineyard haven post office stamp would have given it away if you knew where we lived. oh well! whatever. just glad it got to where it was going. merry xmas everybody!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i thought that it was just supposed to be secret until they got it... eh, who knows. i dont even know if my name will be anywhere on the stuff that my person is getting actually.

i cant send mine until wednesday because, well, im lazy and didnt get it in the mail before the xmas weekend. AND its coming from australia instead of arkansas.

it would have been hilarious if id gotten ai lien. i would have had to send it to my own house.

Well I wasn’t going to put my name on it but apparently it is illegal to send packages without names. Anyway I did receive mine, thank you whoever (there was no name), it’s great!!!

i, too, thought that they’d find out who was the sender when they received the gift!

i sent mine yesterday.

kate, you totally got mail!

I didn’t know the gift was supposed to be anonymous, I put my name on it.

Dude! SECRET Santa. I don’t get how that’s so hard. I’m not annoyed, you understand, I just think it’s funny.

In any case, whoever gets mine, it won’t be much of a mystery, what with the Irish post code and stamps and everything.

i think the problem is that there are different variations of secret santa exchanges. all og my previous ss experience has been in person and we have handed our receipent the gift.

from wikipedia:

“There is usually a gift-giving occasion, where all the presents are placed on a table, marked with the name of the receiver but not the giver. Sometimes the gift-giver will personally give the recipient the present, thereby revealing their identity. Some groups may choose to donate the money they saved on presents to charity.”

Yeah, the closest thing I’ve ever been involved with that goes with the COMPLETELY Secret Santa was one where we weren’t even given recipients, we just bought a gift and tossed it into a box and everyone had to pick one. Otherwise, we’ve always given the recipients their items in person, so it reveals the Santa no matter what! I wanted to do anonymous because mine came totally anonymous but the shipping lady yelled at me :(

this was fun, i will sign up again next season!

aw i woulda done this! wish i hadn’t missed the thread. next year!

anyway, my experience has been that giver is revealed by giving the gift to recipient.

So I’m curious—how many people are familiar with SS in which the giver’s ID is secret even after giving?

I’ve only done work SS’s and they were only secret up to the time of exchange.

For some really phenomenal accounts of a nightmarish workplace SS exchange, see Sarah’s posts on the Chicago thread. Highlight: working balking at a $35 max, countering that it should be $35 MINIMUM.

I was Tuomas’s SS so I was never a secret to begin with.

i’d like to know who to thank, you know?

i wish i did this! i had no pressies AT ALL this year :\\\ (but then i didn’t give any)

tsk, ken! next year then! you know, i have a good feeling ’bout 07!

you’ll get at least one present next year!

had no pressies AT ALL this year :\\\

i beg to differ!

also kenan is all like bah humpbug up thread and look at us all proving him wrong.

all og my previous ss experience has been in person

I initially read this as “...has been in PRISON.”

that’d be a nice subject for a short story.

I hope my present has arrived without problems, I sent it 15th December, so it should be there by now. (Finland isn’t considered a suspicious place of origin in the States, is it?)

So I’m curious—how many people are familiar with SS in which the giver’s ID is secret even after giving?

Me! That’s how we do it here.

My present was waiting for me when I returned from AUS. Melty! Thank you, Secretsantazay! I love it!

i got it! thank you! i’ve finished the g.novel and my sis is reading it now. it was really funny. i love the cd, too! thank you thank you thank you, tuomas!

Well, I’m glad that you liked the comic, I wasn’t sure if that’d be your thing. I got my gift in the mail too, thank you Grady! I’m yet to taste the delicacies but no doubt I’ll enjoy them.

you’re welcome, tuomas.

i hope the the almanac spawns several worthwhile ILE threads in the coming twelve months.

oh, and thanks for organizing the whole thing! i think all parties involved are very appreciative.

ALMANAC!!!!!!

i think i’ve participated in this 3 times and never actually gotten anything. is abbott organising this again? i would be happy to do it, instead being part of it, but i would suggest that we add the option of a preference for a recipient in your own country, and that each “application” is accompanied by a list of 3–5 things that you like.

there are like five oirish ilxors and four of them are dryballs imo

but i will sign up for this for the first time this year regardless

also, an option to only receive and not give, and an option to give an extra gift, that way no one misses out.

I was thinking about this today and was going to offer to run it if no one else was.

I’ve never done this before, but it could be fun. I’d be interested!

*raises her hand* I want to participate again this year.

I can’t run it this year because I’m both moving and going on vacation and wrapping up grad school semester all in the next two weeks. Also last year I sent out lots of extra gifts to many an ILXor to make up for bums and slackers and layabouts of yore who did not send packages ––– and I am still feeling MAD BURNT because my Secret Santa assignee never sent me anything. THAT is why people are grudgeful, Mark E. Smith!

To reexplain although it’s quite clear:

– I sent out 3–4 extra packages I did not need to to spread goodwill

– the person asked to be my Secret Santa did not send me a gift

– no one gets to talk about “panopticism” anymore because I know who the secret person is

– and yet they did nothing

– causing all this NAGL whining

– also I may have misused “panopticism” but TO NO GREATER DEGREE THAN ANY OTHER INSUFFERABLE GRADUATE STUDENT ASSFUKHEAD

okay so i will do this:

email me at just1n379 at gmail dot com (the first part is NOT googleproofed—that is the actual address)

please include:

your full name

your ilx name (not sandbox name)

your address

will you be receiving? y/n

will you be giving? y/n

would you like an extra person to send something to? y/n

let’s make the deadline: DECEMBER 10, NOON, PACIFIC STANDARD TIME, 2011

i forgot to add:

preference for same-country recipient?

if you have already emailed me, and you would prefer your recipient be in your country, let me know, otherwise i will assume you don’t mind either way

wtf @ option to get without giving??????

?

bc lots of ppl sign up but never send anything out—and lots of ppl like to send out extra gifts. this way, if you’re just upfront about it, everyone gets something. like me and abbs both said: we never get anything!!

name those ppl ffs!

NAME THEM AND GIVE THEIR ADDRESSES!

lol i think you might be surprised. no naming and shaming in this thread.

i really, really don’t see why not...anyway i’ll mail you when i get a chance.

bumpbumpbumpbump

can you give me some examples of appropriate gifts?

i have moderate interest in doing this but it sounds kinda complicated and i don’t want to be an asshole

you’ll get your damned blood money i toldya

xp oh yeah should we include 4/5 ideas for the kind of things that would be good or leave it to chance

specifically, i don’t want to be the kind of person who says she will do something and then doesn’t do it

nor do i want to get mad burnt because tbh i do like to receive presents as much as the next person

tbh if i get a guy he’s getting posh artisan socks and if i get a chilXor she’s getting posh artisan soap

artisan socks

it’s a man’s world

in fact would you take an order?

I got a terrific cookbook (and homemade cookies) one year and gave an equally terrific cookbook (and a Bollywood calendar) another year.

oh i forgot to set price limits—let’s say no more than... $15?? does that sound right? more? less?

maybe include in your email 3–5 random things that you are interested in (eg cooking, rocks, birds, trains etc).

LL, i think funny little handmade gifts are appreciated (or should be). iirc i’ve sent a book (that was kind of a dumb one from me) and last time i sent a copy of abbott’s drawings that we published.

really, the whole point is to just receive something interesting in the mail, because who doesn’t love that

one time i mailed a giant bag of jasmine tea to ilx user casuistry but that was a really long time ago and it was also something i had sitting around the house

lemme think about it

good thing I’m not in this (or spendy) cuz one of you might get this:

http://shop.occulter.org/collections/object/products/half-a-person

i fucked up one year and didn’t send anything. cant remember who to. sorry whoever that was.

can i get Z_S this year?

email me your details and i will make it happen

Bumpin

So I only tried this one other time, and I mailed out an AWESOME THING and apparently I put not enough postage on it, and it ended up being returned but by the time it was returned I had moved out and was sleeping in my car for three days, and I was too ashamed to go back to the building and if you were my secret santa that year I still feel really bad about it even tho it was like 5 years ago. And also the worst part is I LOST THE AWESOME THING and it was really one-of-a-kind.

So if anybody’s mad at me I’m really really sorry and send me a private email and I will re-send something to you b/c I don’t even remember who you are.

Once, I mailed Roxy a bottle of Moxie soda but I can’t remember why.

roxie

i’ve emailed everyone back who wants in, if you didn’t get an email from me, it means i didn’t get your email so send it again.

don’t forget to include:

-do you have a preference for same-country recipient? y/n

-3–5 random things you’re interested in/like

also: if you want in, but feel a bit weird about me giving your address out, let me know and i’ll make sure you get a secret santa i can pretty much vouch for.

last day, people!

emails with your recipients have been sent

to the sandboxer that just ilx-mailed me: send me your full name, regular ilx username, and address, and i’ll hook you up.

can i get Z_S this year?

ooooh, how exciting! i dont’ even know who you are, lol sandbox!

<3<3

Email sent smoove

I think I got mine already, anonymously? Thank you very much Santa, it is awesome!

i dont think i got the email mentioning where i am to send to

I have honestly never heard of (or read) anything by the poster I’m supposed to be buying something for. Apologies in advance for a potentially generic present.

Kamb I emailed you a few days ago

Fucking fuck I double checked, and I spelled your name wrong in the address

yeah its an a. confusing for sure.

Thank you Secret Santa! The quills arrived intact!

I have to post a picture of my xmas card when I get home today, because I can say without hesitation that it is simply the GREATEST xmas card of all time. And the gifts were perfect. Thank you secret santa, you know who you are.

I have honestly never heard of (or read) anything by the poster I’m supposed to be buying something for. Apologies in advance for a potentially generic present.

I am so worried about disappointing the recipient of my gift, it’s not even funny.

I had to share my awesome secret santa card.

WOW

<3

:)

Mailing mine out this afternoon. Excited!

working on getting mine assembled for the recipient, about whom i know little but hopefully enough to please them...

:) :) :)

THANKS SANTA!

Fuck! I’m so bummed I missed this