Broken Forum Secret Santa 2012!

Say I worked in Area 51 by night and posted on here by day, would you prefer me to send you an alien finger or a spaceship steering wheel?

/totally getting Brian's hopes up. :D

Edit: I'm not even in the secret santa. *teehee*

Brian, what happens if, by cross-posting here and at the Other Place, you wind up getting two copies of that?

Then he can play it on two TVs, set up at the proper distances to simulate 3D.

I could likely return one, so I wouldn't mind at all. :) Again, just trying to be helpful. (Unlike SOME folks without wish lists at ALL, ya bastards...)

Obviously Brian's not my Secret Santa, then, because I do have a wishlist.

And you're not wearing a yellow shirt, but you do drive a Volvo. Did you dress up as Gandhi for Halloween? (I love these puzzles)

I dressed up as Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast. Does that count?

Santee, I have everything for you but I just need to figure out how to get it there in a way that doesn't require me to win the lottery. But I swear it'll be on its way shortly!

You've got over a month, still. Even if you have to ship overseas, you should be fine. I'm planning to send mine out this week.

Getting things I asked for I can get from my friends/family. Getting things I haven't asked for but that have been deduced from obsessive stalking I can only get from here.

I've had the gifts for my Secret Santee for nearly a week now, but haven't wrapped/sent them yet because Assassin's Creed 3.
Also I'm moving in two weeks and haven't started packing because Assassin's Creed 3.
Perhaps I should send my Secret Santee my copy of Assassin's Creed 3.

Warning for everybody: never piss off Aurora. That woman doesn't "read up on you a bit". She develops *files* on you, J Edgar Hoover stylee. And I'm married to her. (brb rubbing magnets on all my PCs)

lol, you're 12 years too late :D rofl :)

She's been ghosting your drives from the moment she decided the two of you would meet.

I'm noticing lots of people are packaging up and mailing gifts themselves. Is purchasing online and having it shipped to the person considered bad form? Shipping from a US based site to a US address would save me like $20 to $30 rather than shipping it myself from my home in Canada to the US. Even if I were shipping within Canada I could probably save a good amount by having a retailer ship it for me.

I would say no -- I plan on doing something similar.

I am mailing mine personally mostly because a) my wrapping skills are legendarily horrible and everyone should experience them, and b) the gifts need to be opened in a specific order to make sense.

I like to package everything up and have an order they should be opened in, so I like to send it all in one package. I also like to include a note or card or embarrassing screenshots that I found while stalking my target. Y'know, Christmas spirit and all.

Not at all, in my opinion.

I have also entered the camp of getting-it-shipped logistics. I need to find the proper type and number of african swallows.

The first fruitcake tastes extra bad. The second normal but gives you explosive diarrhea. The third fruitcake is full of wasps. Open that one last.

I see you've played this game before, Mister Six. Very well then, extra wasps.

For international I'd think it's perfect form. I did something similar a couple years back on the other board when I had Glorious Mess who was in England. I just used Amazon UK. If I'd have shipped it from the US, I'd probably have spent as much or more on shipping, as I did on the gifts I got him.

Honestly I dont think how you ship it to someone should matter one bit. I plan on having mine shipped directly to the person from Amazon.

I pack and ship mine because they generally come from different sources. In all the years of forum SS'ing with many little criticisms popping up here and there, I don't recall anyone making a stink about having that done for you though, especially international.

If I shipped the gifts directly to my Santee then I wouldn't be able to lick them first.

I've gone back and forth on the issue. Shipping costs are a thing, certainly, but I'm more concerned about the gifts being shoddily wrapped or not appearing together if I decide on a few separate gifts instead of one big gift.

I have a pretty good short term memory so I feel a bit J Edgarish around this time. I can rattle off a potentially uncomfortably large number of things about my Santee right now just because I wanted to build an idea of what s/he would appreciate as a gift (I try to avoid simple wishlists as less fun).

The first year Other Forum had this, my Santee was El Guapo. Yeah, I built that profile too.

I bet your Amazon searches probably put you on a few watch lists that year.

I've had fun stalking my Santee! I hope I'm not misjudging his/her sense of humor, because at least one of these gifts needs to be taken with the spirit of humor in which it's given...

Condoms and spa chemicals. Easy.

Mine was pretty easy. When I got the email with their name, I immediately remembered something they like and went with that.

I ship the gifts myself because I like to add a special touch.

(I sit on each gift for at least three hours.)

Lucky for you, I find wasps *hilarious*

You sent him/her a balloon filled with helium, didn't you.

My Santee haven't posted much, making it easier to read all of their posts. Real name and username too common to really stalk, so I'll send something homemade. It was supposed to be made this weekend and get shipped on Monday, but had to be postponed. Hopefully it'll be made next weekend.

And I found out, still need to get it confirmed, that I can send up to 2 kg of candy to North-America.

Calling it: Nute's Santee is SwitchKnitter.

Dear Secret Santa: if you have not shipped your gift to me yet, please hold off. I'm moving at the end of the month but the exact date is in flux up to a week either way, so I don't know which address I'll be at and when. I promise not to post empty mailbox guy in a gesture of passive-aggressive concern.

Ok...I know what I want to get my Secret Santee. And surprisingly considering what I normally buy people, it's something the person would actually want.

I can get it to that person via Steam...but then they'd know who I was. Or I can buy it and mail a physical copy...but I would personally prefer Steam so I imagine that person would prefer it Steamwise as well...

I've never done the gifting via Steam thing before. Can I hide my identity in Steam when giving a gift? And even if I could, when should I buy and gift it? I can't exactly "wrap it up" so it's a surprise...or can I? Good lord, I'm hopeless at Steam. And clearly, at life in general...

I believe you can also buy an item and stick it in your steam inventory to gift later.