Greetings, Friends!

It’s that time of year again! Time to gather around friends and family, stuff our bellies full of food and laughter, and most importantly try to forget about how cold and miserable it is outside. What better way to help ring-in the upcoming holiday season than with the return of the HBO Secret Santa... thing (with a twist, now includes 100% more DBO)! Not only does this help reinforce the bonds that we've forged over the years, but it also gives us the opportunity to learn more about each other and even provide some laughs and entertainment along the way.

How It Will Work

We will try to adhere to the rules of the traditional Secret Santa as much as possible; however since the population of these forums is made up of creatures from every corner of the Sol system, a few modifications are going to be in place. Here are the Rules:

The most important rule is to keep the secret of who you're sending your gift to. I know that everybody dislikes Honor rules in their custom games, but in this case it's a necessary evil.

Each participant will be both a giftee (receiver) and a gifter (giver), but not necessarily to/from the same person.

All digital gifts will be sent to me, acting as the neutral party to maintain secrecy. Just before December 25th, I will distribute the gifts out to their respective recipients.

All physical gifts will be sent directly to the giftee, whose address will only be provided with permission and under strict confidentiality

On or slightly before December 25th, I will start another thread "Secret Santa Results" where we can discuss and brag about the gifts that were received. This is also where the “guessing” should happen to try and figure out who your Santa was

Bonus internets if the giftee can guess their gifter

Spending money on physical gifts will make things harder on those involved and could cause delays; however it is entirely up to each gifter to decide what to give.

The ideal gift is something personal, that you've created/tailored specifically to the likes/interests of the giftee.

Finally, don’t forget to have fun with it!

How To Sign Up

Signing up is very simple, really. Here's what I need to make this work:
1) Your name and/or forum handle
2) Your e-mail address
3) A brief introductory statement.
4) Are you exclusive to HBO or DBO (in other words, do you only visit one or the other)? And if yes, then which?

Very Important: I hope you noticed the #4 there this year, because it's important (and will continue to be important for the coming years). If someone is exclusive to HBO, I will ensure that they are not matched up with someone who is exclusive to DBO. As the populations diverge in the coming years (like after Destiny or Halo 5 is released), this will become more and more important.

Also Note: The Intro section can be as simple as a few links to past forum posts, or a personal website/blog - or it can be a textual description of your likes and interests - or just something that you think would be cool to receive (keep it sensible, decent and realistic). Whatever you can put together that describes you, and will help the gifter create something that is personal and meaningful. Please try and limit this response to one paragraph.

If you have any questions, or if you are afraid of what happens when you submit an entry, you can always contact me directly: JDQuack (at) gmail (dot) com. I’m here to help.

You have two options for throwing your name in the ol' proverbial hat; however keep in mind - both methods require you to provide the vital information outlined above, so if you prefer some privacy, method 2 is for you:

Method 1: Simply post a reply below expressing your interest and providing the info above
Method 2: E-Mail me directly: JDQuack (at) gmail (dot) com, making sure to include everything that I've mentioned above

Tentative Timeline

Here's how it should break down:
November 11th-29th: Sign-Ups
November 30th: Participants receive the information for their respective giftees
November 30th-December 23rd: Digital gifts submitted to JDQuack (at) gmail (dot) com, or physical gifts shipped to recipient (after arranging logistics through me).
December 23rd or 24th: Gifts will be redistributed to respective recipients
December 24th or 25th: Results thread posted to discuss gifts.

You have until midnight PST for each of the above closing dates for submitting things, signing up, etc. And don’t worry, I’ll post reminders here (and email the participants for the critical reminders that shouldn’t be missed).

The "or" dates will come down to how many people we have participating and how complicated the gifts are. I will try my best to adhere to the earlier dates, but it's up to the participants to follow the guidelines as best as possible.

On the Subject of Gifts

I know the bullet points above won’t be enough to explain the whole gifting part, so let me elaborate a bit here. There is no obligation to purchase a gift. The gifts can just be something that is relevant to the giftee's interests. You can create a video, or draw a picture - maybe just take a screenshot of the person’s Spartan and dress it up in MS Paint. Maybe record a fake podcast talking about how awesome that person is. The point is that we'll be sharing our gifts and talking about what we got over the holidays. It's a fun way to get to know each other better, and to just spread around that warm feeling of giving for the holidays.

Note that the vast majority of gifts will be in digital form. This means that if you are an international HBO/DBOer (as in: not in the United States), you should NOT be afraid to sign up! If you are feeling generous and really want to spend money, then go right ahead. Just note: it will make things much simpler on everyone involved if your gift is something digital that can be emailed/downloaded, etc.

If you still insist on giving a physical item, then we will arrange the details over e-mail. You can either ship directly to the giftee (in which case I will provide their home address to you as long as they are willing to email it to me), or you can ship it to me and I can forward it to maintain anonymity. I just want to reinforce that these details should be handled over email. I discourage anyone from sharing their home address on the forum. You might even want to obfuscate your e-mail address to ensure it doesn't get picked up by spam bots, like so: JDQuack (at) gmail (dot) com, etc.

Oh, and a reminder about being naughty. I've learned that sometimes we have naughty Santas who do not send out any gifts. I will hold everyone's gifts until the deadline. If a Santa was naughty and did not send out a gift, they will not receive one either (unless their Santa insists that I still impart their gift upon their naughty giftee). Last year we luckily only had one naughty Santa (you know who you are, and you should be ashamed). Being naughty puts you on my own personal naughty list, and I will not only prevent you from entering any future events, but I will hold a personal grudge against you for eternity until you make up for your wrongs.

Also, I’d like to remind you (just like the past 2 years--evidence below) I am NOT the Grinch who stole HBO/DBO Christmas, and I'm not trying to horde other people's presents. I am only acting as the middle man to maintain the secrecy of HBO/DBO Secret Santa. I realize many of you have no idea who I am, and wouldn't trust a stranger farther than you could throw them - so in that case, I'm sorry that I don't know you better, and nobody is forcing you to participate. Just remember, we'll be sharing our gifts here over the days of Christmas, and if somebody sees that their giftee didn't receive exactly what they sent to me, it will be glaringly obvious. You have permission to publicly humiliate me in such an event.

2012 Results
2011 Results

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A huge thanks to Hedgemony for the inspiration for the banner graphic. Also thanks to Louis Wu and all the other admins for keeping two tidy houses for this great *BO family to fart around in.