Here is a story about the Reddit Secret Gift exchange as experienced by myself. Last year was my first year participating in the exchange. I was amazed by all the posts showing the thought and effort made by the Santas, and I wanted to participate. As I am an artist, I decided early that I would make half the gift myself, and buy the other half. I worked hard to create my gift and put thought and effort into my purchase choices. I mailed off my package and eagerly awaited my recipient's response.

And I waited. And I waited. To this day, I assume that my recipient hated the painting of their dog and the basket of dog related gifts I chose. They never posted to the gallery. I felt I failed.

Soon after, I received my gift. It arrived in a plain Amazon box. No note. No wrapping. No card. No effort. I was quite disappointed. And I learned the hard lesson that you are not allowed to share that you felt let down.

So, this year I was very hesitant to participate. I did not want to get another Santa that put the bare minimum effort into the exchange. I went for it anyway. Like last year, I created the main part of the gift myself, and made a purchase to go along with it (along with a card and hand written note, of course!)

The waiting began anew. I hate to admit this, as I feel like an ingrate, but my heart fell when a single Amazon envelope arrived from Amazon, addressed to my user name. I opened it and found, yet again, a single item. No card. No wrapping. No effort.

I gave up on the Reddit SS Gift exchange.

I should add at this point, that my laptop had a HDD failure days before and I was doing my best to navigate the exchange via my phone. What I did not see, was the other tracking numbers on my account. A few days later, another packaged arrived. With a mix of guilt and excitement, I tore it open to find... the exact same set of art pens I got last year. I had a hearty laugh. These are great pens (I used them to create my gift this year!) What a strange coincidence.

But wait! Yet again, a package arrived marked u/MoogleChowder. Colored pencils! Awesome! Let me tell you, getting a gift when you are not expecting one is the opposite feeling of what I felt when I got the first package! I was like a kid again. "Ha! Ha! They got me three things! This is awesome!"

When my fourth package arrived, I finally struggled through my phone to message my Santa to ask how many to expect in total, as I could not see the tracking numbers. Four was the magic number. I can only assume that my Santa lives in Utah. If not, no worries. I love my random Utah shirt.

Thank you, Santa for renewing my faith in the exchange. Staggering the gifts was absolutely perfect. Thank you for your message asking about my project with my son. THANK YOU for making an effort. It's really all I wanted. Merry Christmas. You rock!