Secret Santa 2016 (reveal)!!!

[Masao]

Happy Holidays, everyone! It's been great running Secret Santa this year, and I know it's been a lot of stress with the multiple rounds, but I hope everyone had fun! Feel free to leave any comments on the event here, or address your Secret Santa.

I tried to give every participant some sort of extra gift (files/folders marked with a stray "e") from Santa's Elf, AKA me. Some rounds I had to fill in due to life events getting in the way of a few Secret Santas, and others I added some mini extras in the final round. So that one way or another, I tried to make sure (almost) everyone got something.

Additionally, please leave your thoughts on how this year's SS was run, so we can adjust it, if need be, for next year. If you don't feel comfortable leaving any feedback publicly, either PM my directly, or leave anonymous feedback using our form.

SS Reveal:

• Camy's Secret Santa
• Aku's Secret Santa
• Lethe's Secret Santa
• Emrys's Secret Santa
• Kate's Secret Santa
• Tara's Secret Santa
• Megan A's Secret Santa
• Andrea's Secret Santa
• Megan K's Secret Santa
• Nyx's Secret Santa
• Larissa's Secret Santa
• Chibi's Secret Santa
• Elysa's Secret Santa
• Shinju's Secret Santa

[Megan]

Chibi - Thank you so so so much for all of the lovely things you've sent me over the past four weeks!! :D It means a lot to me! <3

[Camy]

Emrys, thank you so much for the gifts and findings!

[Lethe]

This event was so much fun - thank you so much for hosting it, Masao!! And for the extra gifts too! ;_; <3 AND THE CUTE REVEAL PAGES, YOU'RE THE BEST.

I really loved this year's format, though I haven't participated in the more conventional Secret Santas before. I think the anticipation, surprise and the feeling of being appreciated really fit the mood in December, so I like that there is more than one burst of gifts. It's also been very entertaining to watch people leave notes to their anonymous Santas in the event topic, and following the chat, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. to see people's reactions (and even gifts). Not to mention watching others write and send notes to their Santas after the reveal.

I know we didn't have to make something big every week, but I understand wanting to put a lot of effort into each gift... December also is a busy time with regard to errands, studies and family, so in retrospect, one gift per week for four weeks consecutively is quite the tight schedule, depending on what you plan to gift! I feel like any of the following, or a combination of them, could help:

• even earlier start of the event (sign-ups and assignments)?
• less rounds, deadlines more spread apart
• maybe even skip Christmas week, and have final round be around new year
• ... I wonder whether partnering up with someone, including non-participants, to make combined gifts would work out. Along the lines of anonymous gift packages? The person's Santa wouldn't even need to be revealed. Just, whoever wants to gift certain members anonymously during December - on top of their Santa - could send in their gift to the elf?

It'd be neat if we could find a way to include people who'd like to participate in Secret Santa in general, but don't have the time for so many rounds! :D

[Aku]

This is my first SS at Amassment, but I had a lot of fun and it ran really smoothly! (I know this was 100% due to the fact that Masao was going insane behind the scenes, though, so know that your hard work paid off! I hope there are ways to optimize the management side of this for next year, too!) It's definitely nice to get a little bit of something every week and kind of hypes up the mystery even more because you spend a lot more time thinking about it, haha.

I feel like this is a case of "three is the magic number". Four did feel like a lot to me, by round three I felt spread pretty thin and uncreative haha. I would say three longer rounds that don't fall so closely to the holidays. I think having less rounds gives a bit more focus. The amount feels less stressful and also gives more time to create "developed" gifts if you'd like--there were definitely things I considered, but just didn't have time to do in a week on top of other things. (I did a lot of "working ahead of time" to make sure I had what I wanted each week.)

That being said: Kate treated me really well in those 4 weeks, and I also had a lot of fun making gifts for Nyx! So thanks to Masao for hosting a great event + my santas and santee for making it so memorable!!

[Kate]

First I want to thank you Masao (again) for giving us such a wonderful Secret Santa this year!! It was my first time participating in an Amassment Secret Santa and I had an absolute blast. It was so much fun!!

I think multiple rounds was a great idea!
I like the idea of giving and receiving a variety of things over December; It felt really special and exciting!! However I wanted to suggest something like a two-part gift giving process? For the four weeks of December participants could take two weeks to create one part of a gift; then use the remaining two weeks for the second half? Or the gifts don't have to be related, they could just be two independent gifts for their santee! That way it gives more time for everyone to create something and get through the busy month of December?

Thank you so much to Megan A for treating me so well through this event, she actually made me cry. Thank you to Aku for being such a wonderful Santee and making me smile. Thank you so Masao for hosting this unforgettable event at Amassment. Thank you to everyone here at Amassment really, I couldn't have asked for a better group to spend the month of December with.

[Emrys]

ANDREAAAAAAAAAAAAA, I CANNOT THANK YOU /ENOUGH/. EVERYTHING YOU GAVE ME THIS YEAR WAS ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS AND JUST!! I HAVE!!! SO MANY!!! FEELINGS!! I am so so happy about the mass of fanart and icons and buttons and oh man oh man I have already jumped the gun and used some of the textures you gave me in a layout for my new project! \o/ I just couldn't resist!! You know my style well, haha.

Thank you Masao for putting so much work into this little event - I am such a sucker for SS events!! If you need any help with it next year, seriously, hit me up ;) I would be more than willing. Although I do have to agree with Kate above! I really liked the idea of rounds but with the holiday season, work, shopping and just trying to find the time for regular life, four rounds proved incredibly difficult to stay caught up with! I think a two round system would be great because then it would be easier to actually plan out WHEN I could make/gather things. My gifts this year felt so tiny compared to the grand ideas I had at the start and I apologise for that, Camy sjhdgfsk I hope what I was able to rummage together was okay!!

Overall, I am really happy this event seemed to go over well. I guess I was sort of on the fence about my place in this community anymore but with the positive response I got to my mini tribute, the goodies I got from Andrea (+plus the inspiration!!) and just the general hype over this little event, I feel just a little bit better about being here!

I'm excited about 2017 and hopefully I can finally start to show you guys the stuff I have been working so hard on! Oshhhhh!!

[Camy]

Ahhh Emrys please don't worry about it, all of them made me happy even though they were small. It was the thought behind them that counts <3

Also yes Masao you worked super hard and I was too distracted on Christmas day to say that since "AHHHHHH" lol so great job handling this you superwoman you!

[Elysa]

Masao, thank you so much for all the time & effort you spent in organizing and handling this event!! And you even made all of us extra gifts, I'm so touched and you are amazing!!! ;___;

Also thank you so much to Megan K for all the lovely gifts you made me, I hope I'll have time to get all of them up soon!!! And to Megan A for being adorable, I'm so happy you liked everything! ;__;

Re: feedback on the event: I really enjoyed making everything, but I have to agree that a week went by a lot faster than I'd originally thought, especially because I also had other obligations T3T I think that either more time (so an earlier sign up/start of the event) or less rounds would definitely help making it less stressful?

• ... I wonder whether partnering up with someone, including non-participants, to make combined gifts would work out. Along the lines of anonymous gift packages? The person's Santa wouldn't even need to be revealed. Just, whoever wants to gift certain members anonymously during December - on top of their Santa - could send in their gift to the elf?

I actually really wanted to make some extra things to gift other people, but unfortunately I didn't have time to do this at all!! Kind of hoping the wishlist thread will stay up so I can randomly gift people stuff throughout 2017...

[Andrea]

SECRET SANTA, AAAAHHH. Thank you so much for all the time and effort, Masao! The reveal pages are so cute, and the extra gifts you made for everyone I just—WOW. The love and dedication—alksdjflkjasdf;; BEST ELF AWARD.

THANK YOU SO MUCH AGAIN, SHINJU, for your awesome gifts, o-omg. I've been so spoiled this year; I really have no words. All of your gifts were amazing and alkdjflaksdf;; /SOBS ( /)/////(\ )

EMRYS, YOU'RE TOO SWEET, AAAHHHH. I'm glad you enjoyed my gifts and I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE ALL YOUR BEAAUUUUTIFUL CREATIONS IN THE FUTURE—including this... "new project" of yours, hohoho...

Although the rounds were quite fun and exciting, it did get to be a little too stressful for me. There was this constant pressure to outdo myself every round, and there was a lot more I wanted to do with my gifts that lack of time and real life responsibilities didn't allow. I think either less rounds (3?) or having the deadlines more spread apart—or a combination of both!—would be helpful. Starting the event earlier could also work!

In any case, like I said before, I really did have a blast this year. Thank you so much—all of you—for making the Secret Santa this year a fun one!