Yes, Gentle Dopers of all Nations and Religious or Non-Religous persuasions, it is time once again for our Annual **Straight Dope Secret Santa 2004 **!
In years past you sign up and there is a $10 limit ( plus shipping and handling) to buy your Secret Santa recipient a gift. Mail it off and feel oh, so good.
In a rather charitable moment, inspiried by monica’s Help me pick a charity I thought, what if we combined two great ideas into one fun thing: Do a Secret Santa and a charity drive!
It would be rather easy.
To join our Secret Santa Exchange this year, there would be a $5 fee, as it were, that can go towards a charity that the world of Doperstan agrees to put proceeds towards thus we could make a collective difference in this world all with the flick of a few fingers. It’s that Simple!
Everyone has a charity or two that are near and dear to them. When you sign up and send me an email (special address below) put down three of your favorte charities, with links and a brief explanation of why this particular charity, if you want. If you have no preferance, that is ok, too.
That way it is done blind and the cannot be any swaying to your favorite charity with your magnetic personality, as it were. (I will post results.)
Then either myself, or another Trusted Doper With Paypal, can take the $5 donation that you will paypal them too (money orders can be done as well, in the charity name only, thus insuring honesty, etc.) And a letter with a check to said charity will go out before the end of the year. A copy of this letter and check can be emailed to all participants to keep them from feeling like they are participating in some kind of Nigeria Scam.
DisclaimerI have no problems with doing the Name Matching for Secret Santa. I have not yet had a chance to discuss this with Mr. Ujest to use our accounts for such a thing. So I am open to alternate plans and Trusted Dopers as a back up for paypal or other ideas to gather the mula. I just thought paypal would make it faster and convienent. Also, can a charity take a paypal donation directly?
Remember, whomever does the final letter and donation to the charity, unless done completely anonymously, will receive for the REST OF THEIR LIVES the pandering emails, junk mail begging for money. It is an awesome responsibility, no doubt, and a future potential mailbox clogging pain in the butt.
How does that sound?
If we have a consensus across the board for a charity, then we are done.
If we don’t, we’ll take it public and have participating dopers vote. In the unlikely event of a tie, ( or a cravat…ha! I slay myself!) I will put the top contenders into a hat and have one of my kids pick it out. You want to argue with a 6 year old and go ahead. My kids will wrap you up like a burrito with twisted logic and make you cry for yo mama faster than you can say, " Mommie!".
But don’t let me put the cart before the horse, lets get some pesky details out of the way:
Secret Santa 2004 Exchange The Teeny Tiny Rules. Read up!
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Sign up by emailing your screen name, real name, address & charity picks to sdsecretsanta2004@hotmail.com
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Deadline to sign up is: Friday, December 3, 2004: Midnight
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When you agree to be a Secret Santa you* agree to buy a gift for your doper pal and mail it to them in a timely fashion. * Having been pimped in the past, it is disenheartening to know there are a select few weasels out there that don’t show up to play. *
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If you have no problems with doing international mailings, please put that down. If you do have a problem with sending a package off internationally because of the cost, please let me know too. Incidently, if you get an international Doper, mail it off early and by airmail. This time of year, it could take forever because of the backlog of packages.
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Don’t ask for a specific doper to be your recipient because you have a wonderful gag gift to send them or have an on line crush…etc. I am not Cupid. When the cut off comes, everybody’s name will be picked randomly. Everything is up to Fate. If you do want to mail a gag gift off to someone as a surprise, email me, I will contact that doper and see if they aren’t oooked out by it and get permission, etc.
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The gift you are buying for said recipient should be in good taste. Remember, this is a holiday and some have kids or parents that might not get the 18" Purple Rotary Dildo with the bong attachment as a present. Even if it as gag gift, Granny could be there right next to your doper recipient when they open it.
It’s like this grannie…you stick this studded ended in your box, push the turbo button and then while it is working its magic, you smoke this end… wanna try? Ick.
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When you mail off your present, please send me an email (and post in thread, too to give false hope to every doper out there thinking that you were on the ball and cared to do it now and send it off fast.) stating you did so. That way I can keep track as well and bring down my steel toed boot inthe butt crease of the lethargic holiday mailers through strongly worded emails.
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If some reason you cannot fulfill your Secret Santa duties, (really only your death and a note from your doctor & religious council,funeral home and an announcement on the CNN newsticker will suffice. All other excuses are just that. ) please email and I will find an alternate Secret Santa.
9.Information the what/when for sending off your $5 donation will be posted in a few days. When you sign up, you agree to the donation. A promise . A pledge. Remember we are trying to make the world a better, happy place for one person. Don’t make me publically out you for pathetic reasonings of why you can’t pony up five bucks. Giving up a Double Expresso Cafe Au Lait Latte for one day shouldn’t be too hard. Won’t somebody think of the gaybabywhales for Chulthu?
10. I think that is it. Did I miss anything? You expected a short form?From moi? HA!)
