Hanging up hat, boots and errr 'beard'??

Hi guys,

Well this is a fairly sad post and I am hoping y'all understand where we are coming from, but after two highly sucessful Secret Santa gift exchanges Elf, (better known as Astrid) and I are hanging up the hat and boots and retiring!

Its been a fun adventure and essentially it has been a victim of its own success. As SGP streeteam numbers continued to grow it has become harder and harder to manage. Some of you may be aware, some not, but the 'extra gifts' that had to be bought and sent last year to compensate for some people 'not playing the game' really made us realise that the community has now grown too much for us to ensure fair play by all.

Maybe some of you will feel inspired by Kasias birthday card exchange, or another Christmassy idea to get everyone in the spirit, and whoever feels they want to embark upon something similar will have our full support.

Thanks to everyone who made it a very special time for us all, with a special wink to my own Secret santas, on and off the record!

Annie

Secret Santa Reminder

Ok guys so it is now the first of December, and I am guessing the more organised amongst us have now managed to send off the Secret santa parcels.

Please do not forget to gift wrap the gifts and in the event that you need to sent overseas DO please get a wriggle on.

Looking forward to seeing pictures of the packages are they arrive safely at their destinations. Remember to post on flickr, tagging 'SoGoProSecretSanta' and then pop the gift under the tree and wait paitently for Christmas day!

Then of course on Christmas day, please post a picture of the gift and use the description box to tell us who you think your Santa is !

Annie

Secret Santa Gift Tags

Firstly I want to thank Annie and Astrid for all the wonderful work they put into Secret Santa this year.  It's greatly appreciated by all!  We know how much work is put into it.

Secondly, in regards to the tags.  You will have received an e-mail from Annie with you giftee's address already included on it.
This was not my intentional use for the tag, but I think it's a splendid idea.  The only thing is I don't think it's quite big enough to cater for all the long addresses.  And I feel rather ashamed to have been the one responsible for such a minuscule Address Tag, (or maybe I'm just blind.)  Too pedantic?

I have made up an Address Tag of a much larger size.  (Don't worry they're not TOO BIG at all.  They're just at a really high quality level.  So the size doesn't need to be reduced.)  So if you would like you are more then welcome to print one out and hand write the address (or type it in too).
The smaller tag was made up as a Name Tag for the giftee (So basically I meant for the Secret Santa to punch a hole in the left hand side of it, and write their giftee's name in the space), to go with the Tree Tag on the gift.

Anyway I've done an example:

...and the tree again.

I thought I would just give y'all the option of using this, if you want to.  It's essentially up to you guys.
Cheers!
I'm really looking forward to see the exchanges going on.

Sucessful Secret Santa 2009

Dear all,

Apart from a couple of last minute panics with gifts not getting to destinations on tim, and a few threatened 'beheadings' for gift opening on 24th December, the SGP Secret santa 2009 was pretty darned awesome. Thank you to everyone who played along, I hope everyone enjoyed giving and receiving the gifts this year. I know I did.

I was delighted to see the care that the steetteam took in finding appropriate gifts for people - the majority of which have never even met. It was pretty inspiring. If you want to check out the gifts that were received many have posted photos on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/groups/sogopro.

At the same time, if you really don't know who your Secret Santa was and you really want to know, drop me an email and I shall put you out of your misery!

Thanks again, looking forward to playing again in 2010!

A

Secret Santa...

Hello my festive friends, only 5 days till Christmas!

Firstly a huge thankyou to everyone who participated in this first years SGP Secret Santa! I for one have had great fun, and hope you all have too....

For those of you taking part there should be a special SoGoPro gift keeping warm under your tree. For those of you who have not yet received your gifts do not despair! it may be that some gifts get held up with the weather conditions and general holiday snail mail, but I am sure they will arrive at destination before New Years!

So the idea is as follows, once you open your gift on Christmas morning, please try to get a friend or family member to take a picture of you and your gift! Then upload it to the flickr group tagging SoGoProSecretSanta. I suggest that you use the description box to tell us what you got and who you think gave you the gift!

In the meantime, Happy Christmas, Joyeux Noël, Geseënde Kersfees, Feliz Navidad, Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce a stastny Novy Rok, Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar, Froehliche Weihnachten, Gledelig Jul... etc...etc....

Guess what came in the mail today...

MY SECRET SANTA PRESENT! and i must say, i am tickled pink by the wrapping job alone! Magenta wrapping paper and a pretty pretty bow!!! so excited, it was the perfect thing to come home to after my 4 hour exam today! and let me just say, it is taking every fiber of my being not to open it now!!! i am not all that patient but i will wait until christmas! i promise!!!

so whoever sent my awesome gift (i have no doubt it will be awesome!), it got here, safe and sound!!!

<3

Secret Santa

Just a reminder guys, 32 days 10 hours and 40 odd minutes until Christmas.......

By now you should all have received your secret santas so get thinking and buying and sending.

If you have signed up and received your giftee, remember they are counting on you. It would be a shame to send a gift and not receive one, so try your best to get it there on time.

The idea is to get your gift to the person concerned for Christmas day. Be aware of shipping times and so on to different continents. Hopefully on christmas day we can see some pictures up on flickr, use the description box to guess who bought you your gift.

Remember to gift wrap your gift - so the inital sending wrapping can be disregarded and the little gift can live under the tree for a few days!

Happy Shopping

Anneliese

If you have lost your email/cannot remember your giftee/lost address contact me by email or via SoGoPro.com and I can remind you.

Secret Santa - Draw this weekend

Hi guys,

Just to let you know that I will be making the secret Santa draw with my Elf at some point this weekend. We are 31 participating this year, so thanks to everyone who kept to the admission rules and got their details in on time.

Now to the 'other rules'.....

I will email each of you the name and address of the person for whom you are Secret Santa. Your task is to buy a gift for a value of NOT MORE than 30 USA $ - I really mean not more, and there is no lower limit. If you think you have an awesome gift for 5$ - go for it! The point is not to spend as much as possible, but to give something you think someone might like!

You MUST not reveal the name of the person you got! The idea is to keep it secret until Christmas day....

Any other questions and you can always get me on chat or leave me a message here.

Happy random Friday!

xx

SGP Secret Santa Inscriptions CLOSE in 1 day

In just under 1 day we will no longer be accepting secret santa inscriptions.
For those of you who have already registered you have until 13 November to get your addresses and likes/dislikes to me as soon as possible...

SGP Secret Santa REMINDER

Hey guys,

Anneliese here, just a quick message to remind you about our SGP Secret Santa that I am 'trying' to organise this year.

Well we are doing pretty well on inscriptions for our very own Southern Gothic Secret Santa and remember inscriptions will close on 10 November! A few of you have raised quite a few reasonable queries/comments and so as to keep y’all on the same page so to speak I thought it merited a brief update...

Inscriptions will close on Tuesday 10th November at bedtime for me (which embarrassingly, I have to admit) is at the “not very rock n’ roll time” of 22h30 CET. I will be strict and very mean and will turn anyone away after that deadline (unless I get a really nice gift/bribe, or indeed if the numbers are odd!)

I need you all to send me a valid postal address by Friday 13th November (if you actually want to receive the gift). This address can be work, home, school, parents, local pub, or ‘nice-non-thieving-friends-house’ in fact pretty much anywhere. I understand your privacy concerns and I hereby to solemnly swear that only me and your secret Santa will be given the address. For my part, come 25th December I will burn, explode, eat, bury and generally bin all addresses and would ask the Secret Santa’s to do the same.

This brings me onto the second point, the senders address....
Most of us are supposed to put a senders name and address on the parcel/packet/envelope, and in order to keep a little of the mystery it was suggested that we all try ingenious ways of keeping to the postal rules, whilst not completely divulging our identities. Name of sender, Mary Christmas, Mr. S. Claus etc.... clearly the postage stamps etc may give things away, as indeed may the country, so I still think the best thing to do is get someone else in your family/friends to take the postal packaging off without telling you where it is from! (*note to self DO NOT FORGET TO GIFTWRAP GIFT*)

For the moment the last thing I need from you are a few words to express serious likes and or dislikes, in order to help your Secret Santa in their gift search. I do not want sentences, I want words (less than 10 on each). Please follow the format below.

Yes please if it is : “useful, intriguing, traditional, cultural etc........”
No thanks if it is: “alive, yellow, edible etc...”

Another hint is to put some info up on your profile on SGP, you never know you may stumble across some likes/dislikes on there (mine for reference are: White gold not yellow, diamonds not pearls..... so good luck to whoever gets me !)

For those of you interested you can FB message me, you will find me easily enough on there or leave a message on this blog.

Look forward to hearing from you