While everything was happening it was all too quick to process, but now that it HAS happened, I feel like I need to chronicle the series of random events that led to this taking place. So here's the story:

It all started when my co-worker (jkb83) and I decided to have a Montreal meet up for the secret santa gift exchange. It was her idea, and I skeptically tagged along to see what would happen. We always wanted to meet more Redditors, we absolutely love this community, but we feel so isolated sometimes, no one we knew frequents the site or understands us when we start talking about narwhals or 4 paperclips. We tracked down close to 20 participants in the secret santa from the redditgifts.com website very close to where we live, and submitted a post to have us all meet up and open gifts together.

I have to say, I was skeptical, I kept saying no one will show up, and for a good 20 min no one did. But then they started walking in. We noticed them. Carrying boxes with orangered envelopes, and aliens posted on their jackets. It felt pretty awesome finally meeting other Redditors. We had a blast too. We opened gifts together, some were in awe at how much stalking their Secret Santa had to do to get them their gift, and some were a little freaked out, but we shared stories and enjoyed each other's company. We parted ways promising to meet up again soon. Little did we know a few days later some of us would be seeing each other under very unexpected circumstances.

A picture of us at the meetup gets posted in the r/secretsanta, and someone from Radio Canada (CBC) in Montreal, picks up the story and messages all of us to come in for a radio interview (thanks dfawlt). Somewhere in between getting phone interviewed and coming to terms with the madness of this whole thing jkb83 gets a call from CBC Television that they want to cover this interesting story on the news. She was with family, she couldn't make it, so she passed the torch on to me. I didn't feel like I should be doing this at all. I wasn't prepared, we had 3 hours notice, it was surreal, and even though in no way do I see myself as a spokesperson for reddit or secret santa, someone had to represent. So despite my hesitation, and intense fear of doing a live show, I decided to do it. I rushed to get ready, and prepared a whole set of notes about different stats to mention, and heartwarming stories to share, there's so much, I was getting overwhelmed. This was too much responsibility for a lowly grad student like myself. I was carrying all the awesomeness of Reddit on my shoulders. Let me tell you, it was quite heavy.

It was pretty surreal walking up to the CBC Studios,

I really couldn't believe I was actually going to be on television within a few minutes. I met up with another member of the Montreal secret santa gathering and we were shown to the make-up room!

After that, Christy (pic) took us on a tour of the CBC studios. She let us take pics, but suggested we avoid using flash. Here are some cool pics from the trip:

This lady has a lot of work piled up for her!

How'd this guy get past security?

After we had our fun, we were taken to the studio where we were going to do the interview (pic). I was starting to get nervous. Kept looking at this little script I wrote out and printed right before coming, making sure I mention everything I need to, and don't make a fool of myself on TV!

Before I knew it, we were sitting in the chairs, got our microphones on (pic), and the interview began (pic). My nervousness began to cease as I tried so hard to keep the topic on track, and the awesomeness of the Reddit secret santa in perspective. However, time ran out, and I couldn't finish saying all I wanted to say. They were all really nice at CBC (pic), I would love to go back, but I'd doubt they'd let us in past security this time!

So here's what I would have said if given the chance:

Thank you Kickme444 and 5days and all the organizing committee for such a wonderfully executed international Secret Santa gift exchange, I hated Christmas before this, it was a miserable time for me, but taking part in this was both fun and rewarding in more ways than one. Something about sharing a part of the Christmas tradition with a complete stranger made me realize that there's more to this season than the things I hate. It made me realize how much I enjoy giving. How happy it made me to see fellow Redditors post up their gifts in the gallery, sharing their stories, and gratitude for the flattering thoughtfulness of a stranger. Also thanks to my fabulous coworker and friend jkb83 who was responsible for the Montreal Secret Santa meet up that led to all this crazy publicity! And most importantly to you the Reddit community at large. I love you. That is all.



