Woodbury, MN
Welcome everyone to the official Secret Santa thread for 2020!
First of all, I want to say Thank You all for the well wishes and the messages of thanks in your PMs to me. It is a lot of work, but it is my pleasure running it since I see how much fun everyone gets out of it year after year. It's awesome to be able to give back to the group like this! Since the last three years went off basically without a hitch, I'll keep things nice and consistent for anyone who has participated before and not 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. It's a been a LONG year, so let's really try to end 2020 on a positive note.
Here's how things are going to go. Tonight and early 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 Tuesday, Nov. 17, 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 Monday, Dec. 18th 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 though. You can wrap the gifts individually if you want and send them in one big box 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 and they 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 you off the list. When your SS package arrives, please post in this thread too so the sender knows you got it safe and sound, even if you don't intend to open for a while. People can be worried about porch pirates, so even if the tracking says delivered, your SS wants to make sure you got it and not someone else. 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. If there is one thing we struggle with year after year, it's this. People can put a lot of time and effort into buying gifts and can be very proud of what they buy for you with their hard earned money, so please take a moment to post pictures after opening and say a quick thank you! You don't have to gush over everything and write a super long story, but please take a minute to acknowledge what you received.
Before the fun officially commences, we need to cover some basic ground rules...
*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, please 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 $30. That is not a hard cap by any means. Tis the season, so you can spend as much as you feel comfortable with, but please at least hit that number value wise so no one is short changed from a dollar standpoint.
*I will keep track of who shipped packages and when they were shipped. I will send out a reminder to anyone I haven't heard from 1 week before the deadline, but PLEASE, be responsible and buy your gifts and ship them out before the deadline so we don't run into issues with having to track people down and recipients not getting packages in time.
*Finally, most importantly, No dead beat Santas. If you don't think you can fulfill your end of the bargain for whatever reason, please contact me and I can remove your name from the list now with no questions asked. Nothing would be worse for this than someone not following through and leaving someone empty handed. By participating, you are agreeing to be responsible and fulfill your obligation to the recipient. I know unexpected things can happen, so if a Santa runs into any issues, notify me immediately please. The sooner I am made aware, the sooner I can figure a solution to the issue. Once again, if a Santa fails to follow through, and does not contact me ahead of time (to solve the issue), I will have no problem outing them to the Pinside community and we all know how merciless this community can be. This is the only warning you will receive for this, so please let's not have to go there.
I think that about covers it. Any other questions, feel free to post in this thread or PM me and I would be happy to help. Let's put on those Santa hats, give 2020 a big old punch in the face and get ready for a better 2021 with the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny #%&$@ Kaye! Let Christmas begin!
2020 Secret Santas:
1 2Kaulitz
2 67cutlass
3 acitti
4 action76
5 Aflacjack
6 alexmogil
7 amkoepfer
8 Apinjunkie
9 Arcade
10 ArcadeTechNerd
11 ArcadeUpKeep
12 Asylum
13 Atari_Daze
14 atrainn
15 Axaios
16 balt
17 bbriese
18 BertoDRINK1
19 bicyclenut
20 Blitzburgh99
21 BlueIrocGuy
22 bowtech
23 bowz
24 BubbaBeast
25 Captainhook
26 Charliew65
27 Cheberha
28 ChrisPINk25
29 chubtoad13
30 Coindork
31 Colsond3
32 Coz
33 Daditude
34 davidldennis
35 dc2010
36 Dee-Bow
37 Devilsmuse
38 dirkdiggler
39 dnapac
40 docquest
41 dolsontown
42 dondon4720
43 drbrain
44 EasternBloc
45 easye9901
46 Ericc123
47 FatPanda
48 Fezmid
49 fiberdude120
50 fosaisu
51 gentrsa
52 Gexchange
53 gliebig
54 Gogojohnnyquack
55 grantopia
56 Gritty
57 groffdaddy
58 guitarded
59 Hayfarmer
60 Haymaker
61 HighVoltage
62 hogbog
63 homegameroom
64 hool10
65 hupchallenge
66 icanswim70
67 Insane
68 Isochronic_Frost
69 j_m_
70 Jaeg
71 Jason_Jehosaphat
72 Jawa
73 jellikit
74 Jenniebear
75 jesperpark
76 Jimmyhonda
77 joefox22
78 jp1985
79 JRBBRJ
80 KingPinGames
81 Kwaheltrut
82 LesManley
83 Liftserv
84 lowbeau67
85 luckycreature
86 MacJedi
87 mandelbloom
88 mario_1_up
89 matiou
90 Mcrorin
91 merccat
92 Metaluna
93 mickey
94 midcoastsurf
95 Miguel351
96 Mitoska
97 Mitoska (Son)
98 Mjonesproperty
99 Mr_Tantrum
100 MrMikeman
101 MrsPin
102 Mtg381
103 Murphdom
104 Muskie82
105 NeilMcRae
106 newovad
107 northerndude
108 northvibe
109 Number41
110 pacmanretro
111 Pahuffman
112 PappaDubz
113 paulbaptise
114 Pball
115 Pdxmonkey
116 Penguindeity
117 Percula
118 Phat_Jay
119 pin2d
120 pinballj
121 Pinballlew
122 pinballphotos
123 pingod
124 Pinmasher
125 Pin-Pilot
126 Pinsterwmass
127 Pintor
128 PokerJake
129 Ponzie
130 Propsnsports
131 pzy
132 RCA1
133 rodcom
134 Saltimbanco
135 SarverSystems
136 Secret Santa
137 Secret Santa II
138 SeeDeeS
139 SevenEightyRacer
140 SKWilson
141 SkyKing2301
142 Soapman
143 Stosel
144 swinks
145 TakingupSpace
146 the96stang
147 TiltDis
148 TommyGavin
149 TonyScoots
150 TrixTrix
151 troxel
152 Twilight1
153 undrdog
154 wesh
155 Westbury
156 Wolfmarsh
157 WonderMellon
158 ZEN
159 zenbone
Warman, SK
