2021 Secret Santa Spectacular!

[Tidgy's Dad]

Well, I hope it will be spectacular. 

Thank you to Santa's Helpers and everyone who participated last year to make it such a success. 

I think Doren would have been very pleased.

  

 

 Never forgotten.

 

Thanks, once again to my wonderful helpers and advisors from last year, @Darktoothr @Bobby Rico @fifbrindacier and @sixgill pete. 

Honestly, your assistance was worth more than you know. Invaluable. I hope I can rely on you once again when I start to panic.   

If you, or anyone else, has any suggestions or advice 

 

 

Welcome to the Secret Santa Exchange 2021, a Festival of Fossils. 

The Secret Santa Exchange is when you enter your name into a pool and get matched with another player to send a gift, while another Santa sends you a fossil surprise! 

We try to keep the gifts to close to a $35 value, so no one is sending too extravagant a gift or receiving too menial a one. 

When making your selection on what to send, ask yourself;

"Would I be happy receiving this?" 

 

 

ALL ARE WELCOME TO PLAY AS LONG AS ADHERE TO THE FOLLOWING RULES : 

 

This is a Secret Santa Exchange. The point is that your recipient won't know who is sending the gift or what it will be until it is received. Your name will in turn be chosen for a different Santa to send you a gift. It goes without saying that the real Santa will be watching and it is crucial that the identity of whom the gift is coming from be kept totally unknown, so that the real Santa gets all the thanks. So no hints or contacting who you are sending to! If you have any doubts, contact me.

Signing up for this fun annual event will begin immediately and entries will be accepted until the cut off for entry on Wednesday 27th of October at midnight your time. You will then be matched with with your exchange partner and the names and addresses will be sent out by the witching hour on Halloween. 

 

Please PM me, @Tidgy's Dad with your full name and postal address. There are three choices you can make for your exchange recipient.

1. US domestic only.

2. European only. (includes Morocco and Wales.) 

3. International. (includes SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, Jupiter, etc.)

 

Deadline for post may be variable due to the current world situation, postage costs may also be higher. Some countries may ship by sea only which will take a lot longer. Here the camels are pretty fast at the moment.

International post can be cripplingly expensive, so please check before agreeing to send a fossil tree stump to Taiwan. 

Please ship your parcels as soon as possible as the situation in your state/country or that of your Secret Santa partner could change at any moment. Last year, the international cut off date for sending from the USA was the second week in November, but I'm not sure about this year. Post as soon as you can. Internal US or within Europe will be quicker, but please check and bear in mind that some of the postal services are not making any promises. 

Please post as early as possible, if someone has a parcel under their tree for two months and has itchy fingers, it's much better than them not getting their parcel until March. 

 

It is important that everyone posts their parcels well before any deadlines, especially in these years of pandemic. Everything is still in flux, so better safe than sorry. Please do yourself and your partner the courtesy of posting in plenty of time. 

 

You may open your parcels whenever you wish, I know some folk can't wait til Christmas because of impatience or because they have plans for the holidays that would make this inconvenient, so you don't have to wait to open it on Christmas Day if you don't want.  Boxing Day is fine too. 

One of the rules of the exchange is that you MUST photograph your fossils and share them on this thread, preferably before Christmas or on Christmas Day or Boxing Day, so PLEASE photograph your fossils as soon as they are out of the box and before they are distributed around the house, put in your collections or the kids have run off with them. Last year, some fossils vanished before photos had been taken and so the sender never had their lovely gift shared online. It's all about sharing, folks. And there's a game to be played guessing who sent which parcel of fossils with points to be won! So, don't mention your Santa by name until it has been worked out by others. 

 

A few handy tips that we have learned from past exchanges that may help the shipping transactions run more smoothly and prevent any unnecessary hold-ups :

 

1. Make sure your items are cleared of dust and dirt as best as you can. Most foreign customs services frown upon having a load of foreign dirt entering their country.  

2. Check the box on your customs form as "Gift." This gives a better indication that the contents are not being brought in for commercial resale.

 

3. In the past, when writing the description on the customs' declaration, it has been found that something very simple like "Geological Specimens for Educational Purposes." or "Study Grade Fossils for Educational Purposes - No Commercial Value." works well.

You don't want your gift to incur taxes if the tax office thinks they're going to be sold on.

 

4. For the contents value box on the form, make sure you have a low valuation, say $10, no matter how high the value of the actual contents may be. ($35, ahem!) Many customs departments will charge the recipient an additional charge based on the supposed value of the package's contents as declared on the form when entering the country. As it's a gift, we don't want any of our friends to have to pay to get it released from customs! 

 

5. DO NOT PUT ZERO (0$) on the valuation section either. This automatically raises a red flag to customs. Nobody sends a parcel through expensive postal services that is worth nothing at all.

 

6. Please, please, please package your items with lots of packaging material. The parcel may seem well packaged when sitting upright on your coffee table, but they get tossed around, jumbled, beaten with baseball bats, have heavier parcels placed on top, get turned upside down etc. 

 

You can never have too much padding, especially when you parcel is travelling halfway around the world. 

There is nothing sadder and more frustrating to anxiously await a package and then to find that the sender did not take the time to ensure everything was packed tightly and your gift is broken. If you can feel the slightest movement in your box, assume it will break. Pad every item individually and the spaces that surround them. 

 

 HAVE FUN ! ! ! !

 

But, okay it must be said. This exchange is built on trust. All participants are putting their decent items that they have either found, purchased or been gifted on the line in the hope that the other players have done the same. We cannot control what members do, so please play fair. Do not send a box of trash rocks. We all want items that we would be glad to have in our collections and your gift should reflect that.  

Remember that this is for the 25th December Holiday! 

 

A major part of this exchange, indeed , a compulsory part is to post pictures of the gifts that you receive.

Please photograph what you get when you receive it, before the specimens disappear into you collections. Share with us. We want to see what Santa sent you. That's half the fun! 

 

If you don't feel the rules and deadlines are suitable for you, then please refrain from signing up for this event. 

We have had shed loads of fun with these events in the past and hope to keep it that way. 

 

LET THE FOLLIES BEGIN ! ! !  

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Coco]

First one to participate !

 

Coco

[Tidgy's Dad]

1 hour ago, Coco said:

First one to participate !

 

Coco

Yup! 

Thank you very much, Coco, my friend!   

It has begun.............

Edited October 2, 2021 by Tidgy's Dad

[Tidgy's Dad]

I also promised to alert a few unfortunate souls who couldn't participate last year for one reason or another. 

@Sjfriend

@grandpa

 @Top Trilo

 @Darbi

 

I never forget anything. 

If I write it down and give the scrap of paper to wifey to look after. 

[Fossilis Willis]

I was just wondering about this year's festivities a few hours ago. The last couple years have been lots of fun. Put me down for US domestic again this go round. Thanks for organizing this yet again Adam.

[Tidgy's Dad]

1 hour ago, Fossilis Willis said:

I was just wondering about this year's festivities a few hours ago. The last couple years have been lots of fun. Put me down for US domestic again this go round. Thanks for organizing this yet again Adam.

Starting date the same as last year, I have Tidgy bite my toes on the 2nd of October. She doesn't do it otherwise. 

Can you just please send me a PM to open communications, Will. 

Thank you very much for playing again this year and glad you enjoy it all. 

Cheers! 

[Misha]

Woohoo! Can't wait to participate, these have been so fun the past.

[Tidgy's Dad]

1 hour ago, Misha said:

Woohoo! Can't wait to participate, these have been so fun the past.

Yup, you're in! 

[fossilhunter21]

Yay! I'm in! 

[Tidgy's Dad]

1 hour ago, fossilhunter21 said:

Yay! I'm in! 

Yup. 

Welcome! 

[Sjfriend]

Make mine a double 

[FranzBernhard]

I would like to send someone a small Secret Santa, but I don´t wan´t to receive anything.

I am always restricted in storage space (I am not located on Jupiter, of course ) and I don´t have things that valuable (around $ 35).

Any chance?

Franz Bernhard

[Paleorunner]

1 hour ago, FranzBernhard said:

I would like to send someone a small Secret Santa, but I don´t wan´t to receive anything.

I am always restricted in storage space (I am not located on Jupiter, of course ) and I don´t have things that valuable (around $ 35).

Any chance?

Franz Bernhard

 

I don't think this works like that. 
But you can send me anything you want. I KEEP THE SECRET FOR YOU ..................

[fifbrindacier]

9 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

1. US domestic only.

2. European only. (includes Morocco and Wales.) 

3. International. (includes SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, Jupiter, etc.) 

But, i wanted to send to Mars !

9 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

 

 

[Paleorunner]

Interested in participating. @Tidgy's Dad

PM Sent.

[Tidgy's Dad]

5 hours ago, Sjfriend said:

Make mine a double 

You can have a triple if you wish. 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

4 hours ago, FranzBernhard said:

I would like to send someone a small Secret Santa, but I don´t wan´t to receive anything.

I am always restricted in storage space (I am not located on Jupiter, of course ) and I don´t have things that valuable (around $ 35).

Any chance?

Franz Bernhard

We will sort something out, old chap. 

PM sent. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

3 hours ago, fifbrindacier said:

But, i wanted to send to Mars !

 

Okay, I think I have managed to find a Martian Fossil Forum member for you to send a parcel. 

So ,you're in Fifi. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

3 hours ago, Paleorunner said:

Interested in participating. @Tidgy's Dad

PM Sent.

You're in, my friend.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Good morning, Secret Santas, wherever you may be! 

We have Nine! 

 

 

 

[FranzBernhard]

1 hour ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

We will sort something out, old chap. 

PM sent. 

Problem solved! Thank you, Adam!
Franz Bernhard

[Tidgy's Dad]

For those of you who missed it last year, here is a summary of the history of Secret Santa on the Fossil Forum provided by Parker, @IonRocks, one of the co-founders of the event.

 

 

Hi everyone, I am not on often but I am very happy to see this tradition continue.

As my "gift" I would like to provide a short history of TFF Secret Santa. 

 

TFF Secret Santa began back in 2015, with my friend Raptor Lovers proposal . Due to his busyness with school, I offered to setup the trade. We ended up organizing the first 

Secret Santa Post together on December 7th. That year there were 17 participants. I believe that due to the late start, the last package did not arrive until February.

 

In 2016 Doren provided a kind reminder to do it again. He made sure we got an early start, and the Second Annual TFF Secret Santa  was posted October 22nd, 2016. This time there was around 22 participants from all over the world, thanks to Doren's frequent encouragement for more participants. 

  On 11/10/2016 at 10:25 PM, caldigger said:

Come on folks, join in on the fun and lets make this "Holiday" gift exchange an annual tradition that makes merriment spread worldwide. 

 

In 2017 I received a lovely message from Doren  titled "Time is creeping up on us"

  On 10/15/2017 at 4:14 PM, caldigger said:

Parker, are we thinking of doing the "Secert Santa" again this year? Would love to see it as an annual tradition.  I could assist if needed.

Thanks, Doren

So, I posted yet another TFF Secret Santa was posted October 18th, 2017. There were 26 participants. Due to the even number and a lack of fossils I was unable to participate... but Doren very kindly sent me a surprise package, which I suppose brings us up to 27. 

Besides being incredibly generous, Doren sent in some golden comedy for us that year

  On 12/20/2017 at 2:28 AM, caldigger said:

REASONS FOR YNOT'S PACKAGE NOT TO ARRIVE

- The agent got confused and thought Portugal was an Indonesian island, inwhich you will never see it again.

-The original box was used as a makeshift soccer ball for a rousing game in the back warehouse. ( I've gotten a few that look like that!)

-You wrote the address in hieroglyphics.

-The plane went down at sea and the package is on a deserted island next to a volleyball named Wilson.

-Vieira is just stockpiling your trades (NOT!)

-Your package is being delivered on a Galapagos Tortoise. (Tidgy!!!)

Seriously,  who knows why we must be tortured like this?!!!

Expand  

 

Unfortunately after this one I was more or less out of the fossil hobby, so after asking for my blessing (of course you can!) Doren lead the next TFF Secret Santa, and even invited me to participate.

  On 9/21/2018 at 4:00 AM, caldigger said:

be a part!  That's why I wanted to gift you some things, because of the fantastic job you did. You deserved presents too. 

Heck, even Santa got milk and cookies every once in a while.

The fourth annual TFF Secret Santa was dubbed the 2018 Secret Santa Spectacular!!! on October 8th 2018. There were a whopping 59 participants! The thread was a massive 65 pages. Doren did a spectacular job organizing. He also started the tradition of giving the exchange a neat name each year. After seeing this I knew I had to check up on him again...

so in August 2019 as a head start I sent off a message to Doren making sure he was planning to do it again. Of course he was .

  On 8/12/2019 at 1:22 PM, caldigger said:

Yes Parker, I was going to start proceedings in October for sign ups and general info for new members.

Don't worry, this won't fall to the wayside!

The 2019 Secret Santa Exchange Festival of Fossils was posted  October 13th, being the fifth annual TFF Secret Santa. There were 43 players! Not only was this large, but Doren managed to get every package delivered before Christmas?! He truly kept a list and checked it twice.

 

It is sad that the torch had to be passed on to our organizers this year, as Doren did such an amazing job both as a Secret Santa organizer, and as a member of the community. It would have taken quite a lot of work to participate in the forum without talking to Doren , and why would you want to avoid such a wonderful person?!

 

Edited October 3, 2021 by Tidgy's Dad

[Tidgy's Dad]

I may add that last year the sixth annual TFF Secret Santa, there were fifty-one players and fifty-eight parcels went out. They all arrived before Christmas. 

 

See the thread here : 2020 Secret Santa Extravaganza. - Member Fossil Trades Bulletin Board - The Fossil Forum

Edited October 3, 2021 by Tidgy's Dad

[Notidanodon]

Wooohhoo it’s that time of the year  thanks for running it again @Tidgy's Dad

[Jasperfossils]

Hello,

I am joining in this time . Europe only.  @Tidgy's Dad

Edited October 3, 2021 by Jasperfossils
improvement