Secret Santa Workout Gift Exchange

Syrius

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Valkyrie from The Sonoran Desert
Pronouns: she/her
Posts: 1,071
"Energy and persistence conquers all things. -Benjamin Franklin"
Hello Bees! Almost all done with my investigations. ;) Heeropotter, I don't want to you to go on without knowing and since you don't have time to look, here you go! You should check out Proister's penguin drawing earlier in the thread in his check-in thread, it's really cute!
@Proister gifted @heeropotter

edit: corrected location of adorable penguin
 
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Anek

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Sorceress from Bavaria, Germany
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Posts: 2,866
"If the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember Cedric Diggory."
Okay, I've decided that it is too much fun helping other Bees find their Santas. I don't care if I get revealed any more. So, one more for tonight.
@Anek gifted @OJJJEM
Yessss correct!
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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"Striving to be the change."
@Syrius it turns out your spreadsheet was most excellent!

Congratulations to @Nevetharine , @Syrius , @Sólveig , @Mianevem , @Maegaranthelas , @neilarey , @graoumia , @Anek , @Gandhalfit , (and me--but I had an unfair advantage), who all correctly deduced who their Secret Santas were. And mad props to @Syrius who figured out everyone else's!

But seriously guys: the biggest props go to all of you for creating such amazing gifts!

Thank you once more to the Viking Elf and the Gift-Wrapping Elf for your help, and thank you to everyone for playing!

Should we do this again next year?
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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"Striving to be the change."
Yes please, more next year :D
:happy:
I am a little sad some people signed up but didn't follow through,
Everyone who signed up (who qualified to participate) did follow through on designing a really thoughtful gift for their giftee. This was the main requirement for participation, about which I had said, "If you sign up, YOU ARE COMMITTING TO DOING THIS!"

It's true some Bees were a bit quiet in their check-in threads re: logging the gifts they did. I tried to help out there with providing clues for giftees where I couldn't find any in their Santas' threads. And I think @Syrius 's sleuthing work helped to keep the guessing game fun for everyone where some giftees just didn't have the time or other resources to hunt down their own Santas.

It is the nature of the Hive that some of us here are very chatty and others are much less so. We also come from all over the world, and everyone has a different level of English language proficiency. This event required a pretty high level of written English skill to be able to participate. (My second language is French. I know I would have really struggled to participate in an event like this in French! Mianevem certainly would not have received as involved of a story if I'd had to write it in any language other than English!)

I wanted to make the gift exchange as inclusive and welcoming of an event as possible. But this was honestly a bit scary. It is easy to sign up for an account in an online community. It is even easier to abandon one. DAREBEE's December events always draw in new people (and draw back some old people who had gone quiet). Some of these new/newly-returned folks become active members of the Hive. Which is great! But a lot more people sign up for accounts, then post once (or not at all) and then disappear.

When I posted a public invitation to participate in this event, I knew it would be seen by both long time regulars, new Bees, and even folks who did not have a Hive account at all. When @Damer asked if DAREBEE could promote the event on the site's front page, and I gave my blessing for that, I knew it would be seen by even more new people and casual visitors. I was confident any long time regulars who signed up would follow through on designing a great gift. But I just could not know that about new Bees who I had never met before.

The main reason there was a long gap between the deadline for turning in your gifts and when I posted them was because I needed to allow myself time in case anyone signed up but then disappeared without creating a gift, which would have forced me to scramble at the last minute to create extra gifts for anyone who had created a gift for someone else but not had one created for them. Thankfully, this did not happen! (It was still a good thing I'd built that time in there, because that time ended up being used by the Gift-Wrapping Elf to work her magic. :happy:)

In the end, we had 19 participants, 4 of whom were new to our community and set-up brand new check-in threads for the very first time, specifically so they could participate in this event! Every one of those 19 people created a wonderful, thoughtful gift which I think really demonstrated the creativity and caring of our Hive community. DAREBEE is a special place. And I think we captured the spirit of that place together here well.

but you lovelies made it a fun experience :hooray:
Yeah! I'm glad! :D
 

Syrius

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Valkyrie from The Sonoran Desert
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Posts: 1,071
"Energy and persistence conquers all things. -Benjamin Franklin"
And I think @Syrius 's sleuthing work helped to keep the guessing game fun for everyone where some giftees just didn't have the time or other resources to hunt down their own Santas.
Honestly, that's a big part of why I didn't just make all my guesses all at once. I thought if I spread it out a little, anybody who was still trying to guess and just needed a little more information might find my guesses help them to eliminate possibilities. And it gave people a chance to dispute an incorrect deduction.
(It was still a good thing I'd built that time in there, because that time ended up being used by the Gift-Wrapping Elf to work her magic. :happy:)
The Gift-Wrapping Elf just added a whole extra layer of magic and if I haven't said it before, thank you Gift-Wrapping Elf! :love:
 

Maegaranthelas

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Bard from The Netherlands
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Posts: 815
"I sing and I know things"
I wholeheartedly agree that I am glad this event brought some new people into the hive!
You and your delightful gift-wrapping elf did a fantastic job and I am glad I participated.
And the fact that everybody managed to put together a workout gift is amazing, and I shall be proud of that :move:
 

Jiolfi

Member
Viking from 2000
Posts: 23
Hello Bees! Almost all done with my investigations. ;) Heeropotter, I don't want to you to go on without knowing and since you don't have time to look, here you go! You should check out Proister's penguin drawing earlier in the thread in his check-in thread, it's really cute!
@Proister gifted @heeropotter

edit: corrected location of adorable penguin
yeah, that was me!
@heeropotter , I first wanted to make balanced workouts for you, but then after I started writing the story, it turned out to be what you saw as a result.
I hope you enjoyed the gift)

P.S.
@Syrius how did you know? :freak:
 

Syrius

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Valkyrie from The Sonoran Desert
Pronouns: she/her
Posts: 1,071
"Energy and persistence conquers all things. -Benjamin Franklin"
yeah, that was me!
@heeropotter , I first wanted to make balanced workouts for you, but then after I started writing the story, it turned out to be what you saw as a result.
I hope you enjoyed the gift)

P.S.
@Syrius how did you know? :freak:
I've gotta say, I thought that your gift was unique and really fun! As for how did I know, the Dragon Elf posted some hints. "Your Santa might be a hard task master, but he's not punchy." & "Look for a bird experiencing its summer season this time of year." Before she had posted the hint, I had no clue who you might have gifted. (You were one of my few that I had highlighted for no suspicion of gift) When she posted the first round of clues, I had gone through everyone that I didn't have a guess for, looking for details that popped out at me. (Like the hint translated "Wake up" for graoumia lead me & graoumia to Gandhalfit, whose check-in thread is titled "Good Morning Log".) You mentioned in your note to Santa that you didn't like to punch. Also, a penguin in the southern hemisphere would be experiencing summer right now, and you posted that adorable little penguin, and that was what really confirmed it for me. Without the Dragon Elf's clues, I would have had a hard time guessing you correctly. :excited:
 
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OJJJEM

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Mother of Dragons Posts: 632
@OJJJEM are you my Secret Santa? :lovely:
It was so cute and creative!
Maybe.... Yes! :ss:
Dr Evil GIF
 

Sólveig

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Posts: 2,200
"ᚨ Ars longa, vita brevis"
I've gotta say, I thought that your gift was unique and really fun! As for how did I know, the Dragon Elf posted some hints. "Your Santa might be a hard task master, but he's not punchy." & "Look for a bird experiencing its summer season this time of year." Before she had posted the hint, I had no clue who you might have gifted. (You were one of my few that I had highlighted for no suspicion of gift) When she posted the first round of clues, I had gone through everyone that I didn't have a guess for, looking for details that popped out at me. (Like the hint translated "Wake up" for graoumia lead me & graoumia to Gandhalfit, whose check-in thread is titled "Good Morning Log".) You mentioned in your note to Santa that you didn't like to punch. Also, a penguin in the southern hemisphere would be experiencing summer right now, and you posted that adorable little penguin, and that was what really confirmed it for me. Without the Dragon Elf's clues, I would have had a hard time guessing you correctly. :excited:

Like I said, the Hive's private eye. Syrius P.I.
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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Bard from Canada
Posts: 2,494
"Striving to be the change."
As we are getting closer to possibly having another Secret Santa coming up,
Hmm... are we?

Just kidding!
:muahaha:

Since you mentioned it: Yes! We are doing Secret Santa again! The official announcement and start of the sign-up period will happen on November 11. In the meantime, if anyone wants to pitch ideas for this year's theme, fire away!
 
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OJJJEM

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Mother of Dragons Posts: 632
Hmm... Twelve Days of Darebee? Though, it might be better as a workout title instead... A Grinch workout might also be a good idea in general... exercises to help boost the mood by elevating oxytocin levels.

In the "Twelve Days of Darebee", Santa can leave twelve gifts... they can go the literal Darebee gift route, or they can expand to acts of service. This comes with a "love letter" from Santa... A secret and personalize penpal letter expressing good wishes and appreciation towards our person. We can share a special message and offer twelve days of "gifts" in honor of our person.

I really like ideas that focus on mental heath. I know that a lot of people suffer from depression here, and that depression hits hardest overall in the wintertime... The twelve days of Christmas last into January (25 December - 5 January), when everyone's stopped sharing the "Spirit of Christmas" and are ready to focus on themselves and their hope-filled unrealistic expectations for the future... January is the most depressing time for a lot of people... Holidays are hard, but when the Holiday high goes away, most people are left with nothing to do during the coldest part of winter. Ah, another option would be to start the 12 days of Christmas during Yuletide... Which begins on the winter solstice... Either way, I really think a letter of encouragement will go a long way this year for a lot of people...

Another idea that follows the mental heath route is to create exercises catered to your person that centers around self care.... It might be a bit too low-key, though, for a lot of people.
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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"Striving to be the change."
Thank you for your suggestions, @OJJJEM . Lots of great ideas here.

Some thoughts (and clarifications):

Another idea that follows the mental heath route is to create exercises catered to your person that centers around self care.... It might be a bit too low-key, though, for a lot of people.
Right. There won't be a restriction on the exercises that can be assigned other than the one we had last year: Santas are to design workouts that are appropriate for the recipient of their gift. All the Santas did very well with this last year, assigning self-care type workouts to Bees who needed that, and more challenging exercises to Bees who were working on that stuff. I don't want to mess with this.

In the "Twelve Days of Darebee", Santa can leave twelve gifts... they can go the literal Darebee gift route, or they can expand to acts of service.
The gifts need to be something that can be presented in a DAREBEE Workout poster. They will be gift-wrapped like last year. To make things easier on the gift-wrapping elf this time around, we will have a number of different templates Santas can choose from for designing their gifts. At least one of the templates will work for your Twelve Days of Darebee theme. But please remember that all gifts should be workouts that can be completed in ~ 15-30 minutes. You can assign self-care exercises (restorative yoga poses, meditation, a nature walk--assuming your giftee has access to nature and does not live in an inner city without transportation out, etc.), you can assign fun exercises (singing, dancing, etc.). But the gift cannot literally take 12 days to complete. Your gift recipient will have only two weeks in which to complete both the gift you give them and the one they gave to someone else, and for a lot of people this can be a very busy time of year. A Twelve Days theme that fits into one workout, however, you can certainly do.

This comes with a "love letter" from Santa... A secret and personalize penpal letter expressing good wishes and appreciation towards our person.
You have such wonderful and creative ideas, @OJJJEM ! I love this one. But not as something to force on all Santas. Some Bees write about a wide range of their personal struggles in their check-in threads. Others keep their threads more specifically as workout logs. So what we know about the lives of other Bees (and what they want us to know about them) varies quite a lot. DAREBEE's December events also bring a lot of new Bees in to the Hive. I want the workout gift exchange to be accessible to as many people as possible. While I think you would be awesome at writing a love letter from Santa to another Bee, I think this task would be intimidating to many, and also difficult where one's gift recipient's check-in thread contains strictly workout information.
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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"Striving to be the change."
For those thinking up theme ideas, what we need is a story prompt which every Santa can write to, which positions their gift recipient as the hero of the story, whether that person is doing Level 5 workouts or Level 1. I want to give everyone a starting point, while leaving things open-ended enough for people to get creative with the prompt.

A reminder of last year's theme:

Holiday Highjinks in the Hive: The Bees are all working to organize a big holiday party for the Hive. But trouble ensues which gets in the way of their efforts. Your giftee Bee will conquer this trouble through completing their workout gift.
 

Saffity

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"Getting strong enough to keep two tiny humans from unaliving themselves."
Would definitely need to be supernaturally for our tropical and southern hemisphere Bees! ;) (Or we could allow for other types of weather events too, as appropriate.)

I was thinking more along the lines of fending off a snowman army, but that makes sense too :muahaha:
 

Anek

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Sorceress from Bavaria, Germany
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Posts: 2,866
"If the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember Cedric Diggory."
Yesss to Secret Santa again!!!

A theme idea maybe: all the Bees want to travel to some holiday destination, but they need organization. Some need to build a car or a boat, some need to clear the roads, etc, to allow for different type of workout gifts depending if the recipient is more into cardio or strength training etc.
 

Maegaranthelas

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Bard from The Netherlands
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Posts: 815
"I sing and I know things"
Have I missed the Secret Santa thing? Or am I just confused about the when?
I am definitely confused though xD
My brain is thoroughly frazzled, and I need as much time as possible to try and herd my remaining free braincells in the right direction :chuckle:
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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Bard from Canada
Posts: 2,494
"Striving to be the change."
Have I missed the Secret Santa thing? Or am I just confused about the when?
I am definitely confused though xD
My brain is thoroughly frazzled, and I need as much time as possible to try and herd my remaining free braincells in the right direction :chuckle:
I am writing up the post for this year right now! It will be another half hour or so to finish it.
 
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