Secret Santa

Just occurred to me that its not very "Secret" if we post the result.. .

@Admin: Can we get a "generic" account just for posting the results so it remains "secret..."

or does anyone care? I really dont.. but the anonymity factor might play into it a bit more.. lol
 
@Wheatgrinder, correct me if I'm wrong, but most Secret Santa's I've taken part in it's only been anonymous up until the point of 'giving and receiving'. I guess some people might make it anonymous from start to finish, but that seems a little excessive...

But glad to have you on board! :D
 
Yeah the way I've always done it (up until my current employer) has been that it's only a secret until you give the gifts.

Unfortunately I didn't know that my first christmas working there, and that was the year I had drawn the bosses name from the hat
facepalm.gif
I looked like a complete kiss ass, I'm sure.
 
Flicker Pictures said:
We're in the same boat. I grew up with Christmas (and getting dragged to church) but it wasn't really a CHRISTmas for us, more like SantaTime. We enjoy getting our nog on, mulled wine, the carols, the conviviality of it all...

The top of our tree might give you some indication of our faith. We believe in shiny plastic stars and rubber squids made in China. :lol:

5244313180_46f24bbd9e_s.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7118044@N05/5244313180/

We both grew up Episcopalian (Christian-lite) and practice no organized religion since high school, but I do have faith in the goodness of mankind - and my fellow filmmakers!!

Cheers,

Jeff
Click to expand...

My background is quite different but yes, definitely in the same boat :)

@ Everyone else: I would say we decide on a date, like the 23rd or 24th EST and after that anyone can post their clips here. This way everyone has some leeway to post when they want but the clips wont come out too far apart. What say you?
 
Ernest Worthing said:
@ Everyone else: I would say we decide on a date, like the 23rd or 24th EST and after that anyone can post their clips here. This way everyone has some leeway to post when they want but the clips wont come out too far apart. What say you?
Click to expand...

Aye say I.

Let's say any time after the 23rd... i.e. Christmas Eve and onwards...

I also had another thought. For those people who don't have the time to make a video but have expressed their warm appreciation of the idea, perhaps one of us could do us a mega-solid and draw the names and PM people to tell them who they get? I know it's quite an ask, but that way no one (even myself) would know who has who as their Secret Santa victim...

Just a thought which relies on the kindness of someone's soul to give up their time with little reward. But if anyone was willing to do it then that would be A*M*A*Z*I*N*G
 
Good idea, Nick! I'm sure some one here will do it considering all the great people we have here.



In case it doesn't work, and this is just an after thought, i did a quick google search and found this site.

http://www.drawnames.com/

I haven't tried it but it looks like it could do the job.

This is what it says, "Organize your Secret Santa online in just minutes! DrawNames.com is the simplest Secret Santa generator with no logins or passwords. And it’s free! Just enter the name and email address of everyone in your Group. We do the name drawing, keep your wish lists, and email everyone for you. We can even exclude certain draws, if you wish."
 
Well done EW that website is perfect. I presume that everyone has an email address, so I'll need to collect those and then on Friday I'll send them off.

Great idea for a site that... bit specific, but still a good idea :)

So, current participants, emails? You can always PM me if you are afraid of SPAM...
 
www.drawnames.com Works perfectly, it sends three emails to each person!
Im comes with a wish list! So if you always wanted to have your faced comped on the body of a god or goddess.. add that info to your wish list and you might get your wish.. lol
 
NickClapper said:
Well done EW that website is perfect. I presume that everyone has an email address, so I'll need to collect those and then on Friday I'll send them off.

Great idea for a site that... bit specific, but still a good idea :)

So, current participants, emails? You can always PM me if you are afraid of SPAM...
Click to expand...

It is, isn't it? I read your earlier post about someone here sorting it out for us. And i spent a minute thinking about how i perhaps i could ask one of my friends to sign up and do it for us without telling anyone and then it suddenly occurred to me that chances were someone somewhere had probably built a site for this specific reason and a quick google search confirmed it.


wheatgrinder said:
Im testing it now.. Ill let you know the results
Click to expand...

Thanks, Wheat!


Dreadylocks said:
I smell drama...
:lol:
Click to expand...

Yeah, i liked how everything was kosher in the website's description all the way through until the last line which seems like an added afterthought yet yields all sorts of sinister possibilities :lol:
 
Just noticed one aspect that might make it not good.
It pairs the names. George draws Dan and Dan draws George. Might have just been my luck, but that how my 4 test users came out. two pairs..

EDIT: Or is that expected?
 
wheatgrinder said:
www.drawnames.com Works perfectly, it sends three emails to each person!
Im comes with a wish list! So if you always wanted to have your faced comped on the body of a god or goddess.. add that info to your wish list and you might get your wish.. lol
Click to expand...

We must have been typing at the same. I took longer.

Good to know, thanks! I'm sure someone here will do it for us, though. What do you guys think? Website or wait till the 10th to see if someone does it for us?
 
wheatgrinder said:
Just noticed one aspect that might make it not good.
It pairs the names. George draws Dan and Dan draws George. Might have just been my luck, but that how my 4 test users came out. two pairs..

EDIT: Or is that expected?
Click to expand...

Again, typing at the same time.

Secret Santa does not have to reciprocal. I don't know whether it was a coincidence that the website did that or it follows a certain algorithm where a pair is necessary.
 
I don't think it can draw pairs because the option is available to use odd numbers.

I'm going to test it with an expanded field and will report back when I find out.

EDIT: Well that was less simple than I thought. It seems that everyone first has to reply and join the group and then the names can be drawn and sent out. There may be easier ways of doing it...

EDIT PART TWO: I can also confirm that it doesn't pair people up. Must just have been the way the cards fell for you Wheat...
 
Last edited:
Ok... so far we have 11 participants, which is more than enough. As tomorrow is the deadline I need to start collected emails. So far only Dready has sent me theirs (and me, of course) but I need them asap, because the DrawNames.com engine requires everyone to 'join the group' before the names can be drawn.

So I need emails from the following:

-Flicker Pictures
-Cracker Funk
-Zensteve
-Gooberman
-SinEater
-Ernest Worthing
-Uranium City
-Wheatgrinder
-TruEsTaR

There's still space for anyone else who wants to sign up, but time is running out!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top