Official Secret Santa Thread 2011

[mrtr33]

Official Secret Santa Thread 2011

It is my pleasure to be your host for the 2011 Secret Santa Exchange.

You will be sending your address AND email to me via Private Message. Label your PM "Secret Santa 2011." I have cleaned out my inbox, so there should be enough room. I will send you the name and address of your Secret Santa recipient after all participants have entered (see important dates below). The Secret Santa user account is for everyone to access once we get going to ask questions of their recipient or to taunt their recipient to keep us anonymous. The password will be given out through PMs to participants only. I will send out the password once Hex resets it to something new and PM’s me with it.

This year, if we have enough participants, I am going to try to keep Canadian SS's with Canadian recipients. Thoughts? Please discuss below. Obviously, for this to work, we'll need more than 2 Canadians participating. Please determine beforehand which country you're representing.

RULES:

You send a 4-stick bomb to your Secret Santa recipient. You will, in return, receive a 4 stick bomb from your Secret Santa. There is a minimum of 4 QUALITY cigars. Each cigar MUST be quality smoke. Use accepted internet sites for pricing rather than store pricing since they vary so widely and you won't end up sending way overpriced $2 sticks. Our previously established means of determining cigar price is no longer available, and by this point, all past price guides should probably be deemed unusable. Please PM me if you have a question about a particular smoke. Premiums are great to send, but no whining if you don't get a box full of $20 sticks in return. That being said, no one expecting you to send HTF ISOM's or Stradivarius cigars. The rule of thumb is, if YOU wouldn't pull it out to smoke to celebrate the holidays, then DON'T SEND IT OUT.
There are lots of choices, but please determine your recipients preferences before sending out your package. Listen to them. I'm not saying you have to spend hundreds of dollars on your recipient, but given the choice of sending a dozen mid-ranged cigars or 4 quality sticks I know he'd enjoy, I'll go with the latter every single time.

2. Extras are encouraged and make this what it CAN be. Extras cannot be urged enough. A PIF is a PIF, but a Secret Santa is entirely different. Everyone can make homemade fudge for $5 to send. Use your imagination. If you have no imagination, borrow someone else's. Use the initial communication (via the Secret Santa login) to communicate with your recipient and determine what their likes, preferences, or dislikes are.
For example, in the past, I've been sent beer, liquor, books, cookies and ashtrays. Get creative.

3. The cut off date for your recipient to receive their package is December 25, 2010. You can send at any point before that. This year people will receive their packages BEFORE Christmas. For people shipping internationally, be sure to leave lots of time for the package to arrive. 3 weeks is suggested in my experience with the postal system near Christmas time.
Having a problem? Thompson taking too long to fulfill your order of Anejo's? Communicate with me. Communicate with your recipient (via the Secret Santa account)

4. If you fail to fulfill your obligation as a Secret Santa you will be outed, raw hamburger will be shoved down your shorts, and you will be tossed to the dogs on every forum we can find. Don't be a scumbag.
If you haven't caught on by now, the members on this cigar board frequent other cigar boards. Don't think you'll rip us off and never hear from us again. Need references? Just ask.

5. I am the person running the Secret Santa this year, thus I will not be participating. Keep in mind, that I am not personally responsible for your Secret Santa turning out to be a scumbag if that should happen. I will offer up the information so the scumbag may be outed if it comes to that, but I will not be raked over the coals for something out of their control.

Those are the ground rules for this year’s Secret Santa. The cutoff for sign ups will be Thursday, November 10, 2011 at midnight PST (Pacific Standard Time). The random Secret Santa selections will be finished by at the latest Monday, November 14 at which point I will PM everybody involved the name and address of your Secret Santa Recipient.

These are the rules borrowed from a few SS's, slightly modified for updates and other comments I thought pertinent.

If you are not an established member here, please don't get offended when you are asked to not participate. Gain some rep, do some trades and there is always next year.

IMPORTANT DATES:

October 14: Official SS11 signups begin. After signing up in the "Official Thread" you will then need to PM me your mailing address, even if you think I already have it, you must PM me your current mailing address.

November 10: Secret Santa 2011 signups are closed.

November 14: Cut off date to PM me your mailing address. I will not go out hunting down a mailing address in your profile, this is my confirmation of your most current mailing information and participation. Unfortunately, if I do not receive your mailing information by this date you will not be able to participate in this year’s Secret Santa.

November 14: Name drawing. Names will be drawn and one person’s name and mailing address will be PM'd to you. You will be that person’s Secret Santa and that person will be your recipient. Once you have the name and address, please work in a timely manner to get your Secret Santa package in the mail. Please let’s don't leave anyone hanging.

December 12: Final day for mailing out your Secret Santa package. DO NOT MISS THIS DATE

Questions? PM me or let me know.

Official Sign Up List

1. kevin7 (confirmed)
2. Roger (confirmed)
3. Roham (confirmed)
4. ashauler (confirmed)
5. buzz (confirmed)
6. Mangyrat (confirmed)
7. Alcibiates (confirmed)
8. Mizicke5273 (confirmed)
9. heftysmokes (confirmed)
10. Paddy (confirmed)
11. prophetic_joe(confirmed)
12. bigbill1300(confirmed)
13. VancouverMark(confirmed)