Sneaky Santa Virtual Greeting Exchange

Would you like to join me for a virtual holiday greeting exchange?

I have mixed feelings about Secret Santa exchanges. They can be lots of fun, but also I hate going to the post office to mail things, and I always stress about the dollar requirement. (Should I be over? Under? What if I include this handmade thing that doesn’t have a price?) I wanted to create a little holiday exchange, and keep it both easy and fun.

So I’ve come up with the idea of a virtual holiday greetings exchange. There’s nothing to buy or mail — instead everyone who participates will send virtual greetings to their recipient for a period of ten days, via the recipient’s choice of social media or email.

These can be simple or creative, as you like! They can be funny, or sincere, or a mix of both. You can send images, or memes, or whatever else you want to come up with. At the end of the event, we’ll gather virtually via Zoom at the time of my regular Thursday night Knit Night, and have the opportunity to share our favorite greetings that we’ve received.

I hope you’ll find this a fun (and not too difficult) addition to your holidays. Here are the guidelines for participation:

1.) Sign up to take part at https://bit.ly/SneakySantaGreetingsExchange. That takes you to a website called Elfster, which will match us with our giftee. It’ll ask you to register for a free account.

2.) When you sign up, please list your preferred way to receive holiday greetings — the name of your social media account(s) or email address, whichever you prefer, instead of your street address. This way your Santa knows how to best reach you. Although the form will require you to add (or make up) a city and state, there’s no need to include your actual mailing address, as we won’t be mailing any gifts.

Please also share what holiday(s) you celebrate at this time of year, so our greetings can be appropriate!

Sign up deadline is Sunday, Dec 8.

3.) You’ll automatically receive an email with your recipient on it when names are assigned by the system Dec 8. Beginning December 9, start sending those little happy holiday messages to your recipient. You may send as often as you like; please try to send something at least 3 times between December 9 and 19. The messages can be knit-related, or not, as you like. It won’t be secret, but it will be fun!

4.) Join us (if you can) on our regular Zoom Knit Night Thursday, December 19 from 5-7pm Pacific time (7-9 Eastern) where we’ll have a little virtual holiday party and each get the chance to share our favorite electronic messages. The Zoom link for the party is this (click at the appropriate time and it’ll take you right there).

If you can’t attend the party, you’re still welcome to join in the virtual greetings exchange, and if you didn’t participate in the exchange, you’re still welcome to attend the party.

Happy holidays to all!