Welcome back, my friends to the show that never ends!
As the holiday season approaches, so too should our desire to impart the gift of holiday cheer upon our fellow community members. And what better way to share the bountiful joy found in holiday giving than by the ancient celebration of Secret Santa. And while the colonies made this celebration super illegal, all of those stuck-up colony worlds were glassed by the Convenant--so just know that this year will be the best Secret Santa that the HBO/DBO communities have ever seen!

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:

• 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) Would you like to be a cross-community entry?

Very Important: I hope you noticed the #4 there this year, because it's important (and different from last year). This year, I will make this option opt-in--meaning that only if you so choose, can your name be put into the pool of names for the other community (DBO in this case). This will only be used as-needed should we have an odd number of entrants in the other community's Secret Santa list.

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
Note: For method 1, if you'd like to keep your email address private, feel free to send that to me in an email and redact it from your reply below. Also note: I will be publishing the full list of participants forum handles at some point in the future (for guessing purposes)

Tentative Timeline
Here's how it should break down:
November 29th: Sign-Ups officially close
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 Guardian 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 had no naughty Santas! But 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 wrong doings.

Also, I’d like to remind you (just like the past 3 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.

2013 Results (HBO - DBO)
2012 Results
2011 Results

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also thanks to Claude and all the other wonderful admins for keeping two tidy B.org houses for this great community to live in