Hooray! It's that time of year again - the fourth annual BGG Secret Santa! Christmas is still a while away, but if we want this to run smoothly, we've got to get it started now.

If you want to sign up for the BGG Secret Santa, we invite everyone to get involved. But before you do, please read the following guidelines to make sure that we are all on the same page.

1.) We invite every BGG member to join; you have until November 14th to sign up. At that point, each person involved will have a random name and address sent to them. Players should check the BGG profile of this person and choose a game (or more) off of that person's wishlist and send it to them, so that it arrives by Christmas.

2.) You must update your wishlist (NOT want list) of games. Please have at least twenty currently available games on your list, and try to have most of them fall within a reasonable price range. If you only have high priced, hard-to-find games on your list, don't be surprised when you don't get them. Every year I have people upset that they didn't get what they wanted, and then I see that they have a small , or difficult-to-fulfill wishlist. The longer you make it, the better off you are.

3.) Secret Santa is all about the giving, not the getting, so be prepared that the person who is sending you a gift may be a jerk and not do so. Most people last year did a good job, but idiots do abound - and I urge you NOT to join the Secret Santa unless you plan to send a gift; this isn't "get a free game for nothing" club. Those who don't send gifts, and then won't respond to follow-up emails from us may have their accounts suspended, as we don't want the name of BGG besmirched by greedy folk. You certainly won't be involved in a future Secret Santa that I run.

4.) You should buy at least one game for the person who you are giving a gift to, and not a dinky game like a card game - use Ticket to Ride as a guideline. However, there is no problem with going above and beyond - sending two, three, or even more games! And what makes it really cool is if you can personalize the gift somehow. Examples and ideas can be found on this geeklist from two years ago. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/17908. Some really nice stuff has been given out.

5.) This is an international Secret Santa. Everyone from all countries is welcome to join. Realize that if you check, "ship anywhere in the world", you very well may be given a target from a foreign country, so be prepared to factor shipping into your gift. I love the fact that BGG is pulling the whole international community together - and this is a really neat indication of that fact. You can pick to ship locally, which is fine - but I encourage you to go international, if you can.

6.) I will add any game stores (from whatever country) who wish to get involved in the program. Please notify me if you run an online store and want to get involved in the program. I will post those participating stores in the next thread.

7.) Look, I know that there is a recession going on, and that some people simply can't afford to give out games, or send internationally, etc. No one will think any less of you if you don't get involved, and it's quite possible that other Secret Santas will be run (with smaller gifts, specific countries, etc.) Figure that there is a distinct possibility (when shipping internationally) that you'll have to fork out $100 - to ship a medium sized game to Zimbabwe. I know that not everyone can do this, so don't worry about it. If you really want to give, you can find people in your neighborhood, local YMCA, church, or relatives to give a smaller game to. There are plenty of ways to give; this is merely one of them. I do my best to make it fair and balanced, but it doesn't always happen. However, over 1000 people last year participated, and most had wonderful results.

Click the link below and join ONLY if you agree with the above points. Merry Christmas!

www.boardgamegeek.com/secretsanta

Edit: Some related geeklists

What's this all about? See what happened last year:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/25338

Ben Lott tells us why it's fun:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/27058

Simon gives us some stats on the event:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/26874

What games were given out the most?
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/28076

Some of the ...odd... messages sent:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/26648

Signed! This will be my first Secret Santa--I saw how much fun everyone had last year, and I'm really looking forward to participating this holiday season. Now off to update my wishlist!

Awesome, thanks for running this again, Tom! Happy giving, everybody!

I'm in! It was a blast last year.

OK, I'm in! I can't believe it's that time again!

In.

I´m also in this year. Had a great time last year!

Im in, I had a lot of fun last year!

In again!

Joined, can't wait, thanks Tom!

I'm in. I loved participating last year.

Gantrell
"KMG365"

YAY!

Looking forward to it! Thanks for keeping this going Tom.

Woop! Favorite time of year!

My first Secret Santa... I've been waiting for this

I joined. This will be my first time to participate in this program. I'm hoping that the recent economic conditions won't make it too hard to ship games to Japan. Anyway, I'm looking forward to sharing a boardgame with someone.

Missed it last year, but never again!

Oh yeah -- SS #3 for schlap!

Thanks again, Tom.

I'm in too and hoping sombody does a USA secret santa again as well! Twice the giving!

I'm in, as always!

I used my U.S. address for this, as it will be easier for Secret Santa to send me a package there, rather than Australia, and then my wife (who's going home for Christmas) can bring the package back with her.

But I haven't played my Secret Santa game from last year yet!

I'm in! I had a fun time last year. I was even able to keep my identity secret and my target loved their game.

Well shipping will hurt (unless I utilise my contacts around the world bwahahaha) but hey why not, I'm in.

Hooray!!! I participate for second time. Last year, I received a gift from Brazil and I send one to U.S.A.! It was cool experience!! I highly recommend to participate!

I'm in again, making it 3 in a row now.
Can't believe it's SS time again, another year that flew by...

Thanks a lot Tom for organizing this once more !!!