Reddit Secret Santa 2010 — Thoughts and Experience

Around one month ago, I signed up for Reddit's 2010 Secret Santa. This year's secret santa featured 17543 people in 90 countries, up from 4523 people in  57 countries a year ago. I made sure to check the option to only be matched with somebody in Canada.

The matching process was set to be finished on November 26. However, the huge influx of people caused the process to be delayed around two days. I finally received my match on Nov. 28: a 26 year old college student in Barrie. Pretty good match for me; a match somewhere on the other side of the country would send my shipping fees through the roof. Having a lower shipping cost would let me spend more on the actual present.

On to my presents... After dragging Zammar and Jordan to Wal-Mart a few times I picked these well-decorated liquor-filled chocolates. It was on sale and set me back $10 plus tax.

I chose my second present after yet another Wal-Mart raid with Zammar / Jordan. Cyber Clean, a substance in a short cylindrical plastic bottle which seems like a cross between Silly Putty and jello. It's antibacterial and fits into crevices in your electronics to lift dust and destroy bacteria. Cost: $7

I brought these two items to school on the last day to ship [December 6th] and went to Shoppers at lunch to ship them. I wasn't sure what to expect; I've never shipped something before. Not even a letter. There ended up being a moderately-sized line of people waiting for the single woman behind the counter —not surprising as it's the Christmas season. She helped me shove the chocolates and jelly into a bubble-wrap lined package and shipped it for $11.

My Secret Santa confirmed that my gift [the one being sent to me] was shipped the next day by UPS. Like any other anxious gift-receiving kid, I made an UPS account to track the gift. It arrived the day after that at my front door. My mom saw the UPS truck [I didn't tell her about this] and dismissed it, saying "they went to the wrong house". I snuck out and grabbed the package around a foot away from the door. Instantly noticeable: it was a package from amazon.com. It was also moderately weighted; it felt around a few pounds.

 Again, like any other anxious giftee, I tore the package open where it said "tear here". Inside I found a Blu-Ray / DVD / digital copy of Scott Pilgrim vs The World and Under the Dome by Stephen King. Amazing gift choice —I was planning to buy the book and the movie's great. Unfortunately, I don't have a Blu-Ray player. I'll steal a PS3 or something. Thank you, Secret Santa!

I'm totally going to do this again next year. I'll also participate in the Arbitrary Day in the summer —an event created as an excuse to send more secret santas. Thanks again, Scott Carmichael from Calgary, if you ever see this.

UPDATE: My giftee just posted the gift on the site :)
goo.gl/Fa4Gf