My Reddit Secret Santa Gifts!

If you are not aware of Reddit, you should be. Reddit has a Secret Santa gift exchange where strangers exchange gifts in the spirit of the season.

My gift arrived today! Keegan brought it to my desk and he helped take photos for the unboxing.

It's here!


Keegan let me borrow his knife


Brown paper! Just what I always wanted!


A wrapped box. And the color of the wrapping paper matches my eyes exactly!


OK, not exactly.


More boxes inside the first box.


First up, a bottle of Tentacle Grape soda.


Next is a moustache mug from Modern Madness.


I've finally made it to puberty!


Bacon Flavored Popcorn! What will those crazy scientists think of next?


Extremely cool! A 30th anniversary Pac-Man Moleskine!!


And finally, Jack Daniels and Kahlua Coffees!


My Secret Santa, who chose to remain secret, did such a great job picking out gifts for me. I think my favorite is the Pac-Man Moleskine. Here are some close-ups.



Here's everything together.


Thanks Secret Santa! I hope you got some good stuff, too!

Reddit Secret Santa Surprise

I am a fan of Reddit.com. This past holiday season, they put together the biggest Secret Santa gift exchange ever. Reddit community members were assigned another member for whom to buy a gift with the knowledge that they, too, would receive a gift. Thousands of people were involved and it was a beautiful thing.

I signed up and received my Secret Santa’s name and address. I bought this person a few gifts, wrapped them and sent them out. That was December 10th.

The folks at Reddit set up a website so that users could track when they got a gift and learn when their Secret Santa got their gift and how they reacted. People posted photos and stories. Some were happy and many were ecstatic. I waited for my Secret Santa to get his gift and for my Secret Santa gift to arrive.

Did I mention that that was December 10th?

Time passes. I did not get my gift and my Secret Santa never posted that he received his gift. I was sad.

I gave up at the end of January. Even a bomb shaped gift from Australia going though customs would have made it by February.

And then today…

Today, Gary stopped me in the hallway at work. He said there was a package for me on his cart. I didn’t think much of it until I saw the beat up box with the word HolyJuan on the top. For a fragment of a moment I thought my Secret Santa gift had finally arrived.

Then I realized that the box was my box and the address was my return address and the large stamp on top said UNCLAIMED and RETURN TO SENDER.

And again I was sad.

Then I remembered what Dad once said. He said, “The best gifts are sometimes the ones you buy yourself.”

So I took my box home and gave it to my son Greg.

Here’s Greg when he found out that my package didn’t make it to the person it was supposed to get to.


And here he is finding out that the gifts inside are now for him!


The unboxing:


The interior of the box. A couple wrapped presents:


The first gift.. a HolyJuan.com refrigerator magnet


Unwrapping Gift #2


A gyroscope!


The note attached to the gyroscope:

I've wanted a gyroscope for
years and never bought one.
So I bought one and I'm
giving it to you.
no one has ever accused me
of being smart.

Opening the third gift:


Star Wars Mad Libs!


Here is the note attached to the Mad Libs:

Hello thehax0rist,
I thought you would enjoy
this Star Wars Mad-Lib.
I think this is actually
how Lucas wrote it in
the first place.

Happy Holidays!
HolyJuan

Here is Greg and my first Mad Lib together:


And while the math isn't completely right, two people were very happy with how their Reddit Secret Santa turned out.

See you next Christmas!