New Zealand 'Wins Christmas' With Nationwide Secret Santa

A warning: It involves 'light stalking'
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 29, 2016 10:29 AM CST
New Zealand 'Wins Christmas' With Nationwide Secret Santa
Anyone need a hose nozzle?   (Getty Images/Sasiistock)

Some 2,000 Kiwis will receive holiday gifts this year—from complete strangers. A New Zealand man came up with the idea for a nationwide Secret Santa exchange in 2010, in which Twitter users were assigned another user for whom they were to buy. New Zealand Post has taken the reins this year after catching wind of the scheme, which is sure to make Buddy the Elf squeal with glee. A total of 1,979 people are taking part and have until Dec. 4 to submit $10 gifts, which will be passed to recipients anonymously. How do you know what to buy for a complete stranger? It only requires some "light stalking" of the person's tweets, reports Mashable, as providing a list of potential gifts is apparently discouraged.

Though gag gifts are a real possibility, New Zealand Post says it "accepts no responsibility for [the] inappropriateness of gifts." A participant in a previous year's exchange describes receiving "a book with a piece of card in the front that said, 'Your tweets are really weird,'" per Yahoo. Another says she was sent a nozzle for a garden hose, which is actually "getting plenty of use." "I know most of my recent tweets are about earthquakes. Please don't get me another earthquake," one of this year's participants quips in a tweet. Gifts will begin arriving on Dec. 15, with users encouraged to share photos of their haul using the hashtag "#nzsecretsanta." Concludes CNET, New Zealand "wins Christmas." (Bill Gates took part in a Reddit gift exchange.)

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