Woodbury, MN
Welcome everyone to the official Secret Santa thread for 2021!
We're the best. We're the beautiful. We're the only...Pinside Secret Santa group! Since the last four years went off basically dolphin smooth, 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 another long year, so let's really try to end 2021 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 end of day, Nov. 12, 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. 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 though. The post office will probably be backlogged again this year, so don't wait till the last minute unless you absolutely have to! 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...just 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 $30. That is not a hard cap by any means. Tis the season, so you can spend as much as you feel comfortable with, but please at least hit that number value wise so no one is short changed from a dollar standpoint.
*I will keep track of who shipped packages and when they were shipped. I will send out a reminder to anyone I haven't heard from 1 week before the deadline, but PLEASE, be responsible and buy your gifts and ship them out before the deadline so we don't run into issues with having to track people down and recipients not getting packages in time. This will be especially important this year with the shortfalls USPS is likely to have.
*Finally, most importantly, No dead beat Santas. If you don't think you can fulfill your end of the bargain for whatever reason, please contact me and I can remove your name from the list now with no questions asked. Nothing would be worse for this than someone not following through and leaving someone empty handed. By participating, you are agreeing to be responsible and fulfill your obligation to the recipient. I know unexpected things can happen, so if a Santa runs into any issues, notify me immediately please. The sooner I am made aware, the sooner I can figure a solution to the issue. Once again, if a Santa fails to follow through, and does not contact me ahead of time (to solve the issue), I will have no problem outing them to the Pinside community and we all know how merciless this community can be. This is the only warning you will receive for this, so please let's not have to go there.
I think that about covers it. Any other questions, feel free to post in this thread or PM me and I would be happy to help. Let's put on those Santa hats, give 2021 a blowtorch to the scalp and get ready for a better 2022 with the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny #%&$@ Kaye! Let Christmas begin!
2021 Secret Santas:
1 2Kaulitz
2 67cutlass
3 6point5degrees
4 acitti
5 action76
6 Aflacjack
7 alexmogil
8 amkoepfer
9 Apinjunkie
10 ArcadeTechNerd
11 ArcadeUpKeep
12 Asylum
13 Atari_Daze
14 atrainn
15 Axaios
16 balt
17 bbriese
18 BenMielke
19 BertoDRINK1
20 bicyclenut
21 Blitzburgh99
22 bowtech
23 BroMan90
24 Ceckitti
25 Charliew65
26 Cheberha
27 ChrisPINk25
28 chromag
29 chubtoad13
30 Colsond3
31 Coz
32 Daditude
33 davidldennis
34 dddanielll
35 Dee-Bow
36 dirkdiggler
37 DJK77
38 dnapac
39 docquest
40 drbrain
41 easye9901
42 EternitytoM83
43 FamDocKevin
44 FatPanda
45 Fezmid
46 Flancrest_ent
47 FLASHBALL
48 Gexchange
49 grantopia
50 Gritty
51 Gundam_Pilot_
52 Hadojae
53 haiderdj
54 hanford29
55 Hayfarmer
56 Haymaker
57 HighVoltage
58 hogbog
59 homegameroom
60 hool10
61 icanswim70
62 illiterate
63 Insane
64 Ironphl
65 Isochronic_Frost
66 j_m_
67 Jaeg
68 Jawa
69 Jenniebear
70 jesperpark
71 Jets_1479
72 Jimmyhonda
73 JodyG
74 joefox22
75 jp1985
76 JRBBRJ
77 Judgeworm
78 K9Marshal
79 Karl_Hungus
80 King_Jelly
81 Kkoss24
82 LesManley
83 Liftserv
84 Llabnip1972
85 lowbeau67
86 luckycreature
87 MacJedi
88 madamyates
89 Magicchiz
90 Mando
91 marioparty34
92 matiou
93 merccat
94 mickey
95 Miguel351
96 mikespins
97 Mitoska
98 Mitoska (Son)
99 Mjonesproperty
100 Moelabby
101 Mopario
102 Mr_Tantrum
103 Mtg381
104 Murphdom
105 NeilMcRae
106 newovad
107 northerndude
108 northvibe
109 NovaCade
110 Number41
111 pacmanretro
112 Pahuffman
113 PappaDubz
114 paulbaptise
115 Pball
116 Pdxmonkey
117 Penguindeity
118 Percula
119 Petie423
120 Phat_Jay
121 pin2d
122 pinballjah
123 pinballjah (2)
124 pinballjj
125 Pinballlew
126 PinBall-Newbie
127 PinPickle
128 Pinsterwmass
129 Pintor
130 play_pinball
131 Ponzie
132 Porkfritter
133 Propsnsports
134 radial_head
135 Raedwald
136 RCA1
137 rockwell
138 rodcom
139 RoyaLJack
140 Saltimbanco
141 scootss
142 Secret Santa
143 SevenEightyRacer
144 ShooterMcD
145 silen7ce
146 SKWilson
147 SkyKing2301
148 smalltownguy2
149 Soapman
150 sp005
151 Spectreman
152 TaylorVA
153 tbutler6
154 the96stang
155 thedarkknight77
156 Thegeekyhusband
157 TigerLaw
158 tigzzz
159 Tomass
160 TonyScoots
161 TreyBo69
162 troxel
163 Tusken
164 undrdog
165 vabeachrunner4
166 wamonkey
167 wesh
168 Westbury
169 Wharhed
170 wireable
171 WonderMellon
172 Y3AG3R
173 yemons
174 ZEN
175 zenbone
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Χαλκίδα
Regina, SK
thanks again tho John! Can't wait to see all the awesome gifts again!
