Woodbury, MN
Welcome everyone to the official Secret Santa thread for 2018! Last year we had 61 participants, this year we ended up with 113 participants! 
Last year went off without a hitch, so I'm not going to change anything. I closed the old thread since the registration time frame has now passed and I opened up this thread to keep things clean and streamlined. We can use this thread to post announcements, questions, updates, ship dates and of course to show off all our ill gotten booty that we receive from our secret santas.
Here's how things are going to go. Today and tomorrow I will assign everyone a number and go down the list and randomly draw a secret santa for every participant. I should have everyone's e-mail address, so I will send an e-mail to each person with the name and information I have for who you are to buy gifts for. If they gave me any gift ideas or a list of the games they own that they don't display to the public, I will include those as well. If you don't receive an e-mail from me by Wednesday, Nov. 14, please PM me. You then will have about a month to purchase gifts and ship them out to your SS. The cut off date will be Dec. 13th for shipping so all items have a chance to get there by Christmas Eve. You can and should ship them out much sooner as soon as they are ready to go. You can wrap the gifts if you want and send them or even have them directly shipped to your SS if you want to save some money that way. Please do not include your name on the return address no matter what method you choose, use the name "Pinside Secret Santa" instead. That way everyone will know when your package arrives, but won't know who it is from. When you do send your gifts, please send me a PM or e-mail with the tracking information so I can add it to my sheet and cross it off the list. When your SS package arrives, please post in this thread too so the sender knows you got it safe and sound. And of course, this is an important one...after you open your SS package, post the money shots of all your goodies here and give a proper thank you shout out to your Secret Santa for doing their part to spread a little holiday cheer. Lots of people are very proud of what they buy with their hard earned money for you, so please take a moment to post a picture after opening and say a quick thank you!
Now, I wish it went without saying, but we need to cover some ground rules just in case...
*First off, this will be as fun as we make it. If we put in some effort, everyone should have a good time. Please check your SS's public game list on Pinside and the ideas they included (if any) and do some creative investigation. Maybe search their old posts, check out any pictures or their Pinside story if they have one.
You are free to buy what you want, you don't have to get anything that your SS may have suggested for gifts, but please just put the same amount of thought into your gifts that you would want someone to put into the gifts for you and things should be fine.
*On that note, no public bitching on Pinside about what you receive, that isn't the point of this. This is supposed to be about giving, spreading some joy and adding a little of that childhood magic back into the holidays again. If you really wanted an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle...but got a football instead...be thankful for what you received, or at least fake it like you would with your in-laws.
*The dollar amount you should aim for when buying gifts is at least $30. That is not a hard cap by any means. Tis the season, so you can spend as much as you feel comfortable with, but please at least hit that number value wise so no one is short changed from a dollar standpoint.
*I will keep track of who shipped packages and when they were shipped. I will send out a reminder to anyone I haven't heard from 1 week before the deadline, but PLEASE, be responsible and buy your gifts and ship them out before the deadline so we don't run into issues with having to track people down and recipients not getting packages in time.
*No dead beat Santas. If you don't think you can fulfill your end of the bargain for whatever reason, please contact me and I can remove your name from the list now no questions asked. Nothing would be worse for this than someone not following through and leaving someone empty handed. By participating, you are agreeing to be responsible and fulfill your obligation to the recipient. I know unexpected things can happen, so if a Santa runs into any issues, notify me immediately please. The sooner I am made aware, the sooner I can figure a solution to the issue. Once again, if a Santa fails to follow through, and does not contact me ahead of time (to solve the issue), I will have no problem outing them to the Pinside community and we all know how merciless this community can be. This is the only warning you will receive for this, so please let's not have to go there.
Any other questions, feel free to post in this thread or PM me and I would be happy to help. That should just about cover it, so put on those Santa hats and get ready for the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny #%&$@ Kaye and let the games begin!
2018 Secret Santas:
1 2Kaulitz
2 acitti
3 action76
4 Aflacjack
5 Arcade
6 ArcadeTechNerd
7 balt
8 bbriese
9 Ben1981
10 BertoDRINK1
11 bicyclenut
12 bladerunner
13 blondetall
14 BlueIrocGuy
15 BubbaBeast
16 Capinball
17 Charliew65
18 chubtoad13
19 cjmjmm2006
20 cletus14
21 coindork
22 Coz
23 davidldennis
24 Dee-Bow
25 Derick2k
26 dnapac
27 docquest
28 dondon4720
29 drunkbaby
30 Ericc123
31 EvanDickson
32 FatPanda
33 Fezmid
34 fiberdude120
35 fosaisu
36 fxdwg
37 gentrsa
38 Gexchange
39 gliebig
40 h8breed01
41 HighVoltage
42 hogbog
43 homegameroom
44 HotPieceOfSass
45 Insane
46 Isochronic_Frost
47 j_m
48 Jaeg
49 Jawa
50 Jgel
51 joefox22
52 jp1985
53 Lame33
54 LesManley
55 LesManley
56 Liftserv
57 Litedpinballmods
58 LoganJK
59 mario_1_up
60 Matesamo
61 MeNaCeFiRe
62 mercat
63 mickey
64 modfather
65 MrsPin
66 Mudflaps
67 Muskie82
68 NeilMcRae
69 newovad
70 NintenBear
71 northvibe
72 Outlanes
73 pacmanretro
74 Pball
75 Pdxmonkey
76 Phat_Jay
77 Pinballlew
78 PinballStar
79 PinbBackpacker
80 pinjunky
81 Pinsterwmass
82 Pintor
83 Pinzap
84 PismoArcade
85 puck
86 pzy
87 RCA1
88 RobertWinter
89 Rock914
90 rodcom
91 SarverSystems
92 SKWilson
93 Snux
94 Soapman
95 Stosel
96 stpcore
97 swinks
98 the96stang
99 TheHueManatee
100 Tomass
101 tomdtocom
102 TrixTrix
103 troxel
104 Tyamry
105 V_piscopo
106 Waderade812
107 wdpvideo
108 Wharhed
109 Whysnow
110 Wolfmarsh
111 Xerico
112 ypurchn
113 ZEN
Orleans, ON
