I messaged everybody and also told your secret santa they have been assigned to you, so they should know.

Technically, the event starts on thursday, so a week before christmas. I just thought everyone could already send out messages, if they wanted to. That’s optional though, so perhaps they’re waiting until thursday?

First things first: A huge shoutout and thank you to everyone who has entered this project. Hopefully this experience will be a fun one for all of you!

I have finished making the lists and sending everyone who entered a message surprisingly fast. Everyone who entered should now have received either a submission, an ask or a direct message from me, telling you whose secret santa you will be for this event. If that is not the case, contact me and I will see how to fix the issue.

Speaking of issues: I did come across a minor “problem” while sorting out the urls and sending the messages.

A few of you have neither opened their submission nor their askbox. Of course, I could send you a message through the new tumblr chatting feature, but your secret santa will not be able to send you anonymous messages, if your askbox is closed! Please open your askbox and allow anonymous questions. Otherwise you will be excluded from the project.

That’s because people can still enter. I’ve been asked this a few times now, so I guess some of you misunderstood me. The project only lasts one week and does not start on December 1st.

Entries close on Friday, 11th December. I will not sort out and match up blogs before entries are closed.

WHAT EXACTLY IS THIS PROJECT?

The Secret Santa 2015 Project is an event, hosted by me. If you have any questions that are not already answered on either this post or the SS2015P tag on my blog, or have any concerns/issues, don’t hesitate to contact me. The purpose of the Secret Santa event is to share love and happiness and find possible new friends throughout the holiday season. I’ve hosted a smilar project once before, called anon love week or ALW for short. The Secret Santa project is basically the same, the only difference being that it is christmas themed.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

• All you have to do is enter the Secret Santa 2015 Project. How you can enter will be explained below. Please make sure you’re following all the instructions. I’m hosting this myself with no help and there are a few things you can do to make this easier for me.

• After entering, I will match you up with another person who has entered this project, by using a random generator. Your url will be assigned to a different blog than the one you’ve been matched up with. For example: A is now B’s secret santa. B, however, is not necessarily A’s secret santa.

• You will receive their url in your inbox sometime before the project starts. Make sure your inbox allows me to message you, even better, allow submissions to make things easier for me. Do NOT publish the message / submission, so that nobody knows who you’ve been assigned to.

• Starting a week before christmas eve (Friday, 18th December), you can start sending anonymous messages to the blog I’ve assigned you to. Your task is it to message this person for at least 7 days. If you want to stay in contact even after this project is over, even better! How frequently you message them and what you talk to them about is up to you. Just make sure to message them regularly and be kind.

• You can reveal yourself on christmas eve (Friday, 25th December), if you want to. You might send them a message off anon or submit them a little christmas present you made. This could be for example a poem, a ficlet, a little doodle or drawing or a message. This is completely optional, don’t feel forced to create anything. It would be nice though, if you made sure to make this time enjoyable from the beginning to the end.

HOW DO I ENTER?

• Reblog this post to enter. Please ONLY REBLOG ONCE and DO NOT LIKE this post. Both make matching up blogs very difficult and the process of filtering each and every single reblog is quite stressful. I can not stress this enough. The hardest part of this project, is creating the lists. PLEASE ONLY REBLOG ONCE AND DON’T LIKE THIS POST!!!

• Make sure to have your submission box available for me. If you absolutely refuse to open your submission box, at least make it so I can message you through your inbox. I can only send 10 messages per hour, but submissions are unlimited. Again, this makes things a lot easier. By opening your submission box, the process of telling people who they are assigned to, will be much shorter. As long as I can message you, it is okay to keep your submission box closed as well, though.

• Make sure to allow anonymous questions. The purpose of this project is so that someone can send you anonymous messages. It’s called secret santa for a reason. If you, for whatever reason, do not want to allow anonymous messages, but still wish to participate, that is also fine. Your santa should be able to send you messages nevertheless.

• You can enter until Friday, December 11th. All reblogs after this date will not be counted. Entering on Friday is absolutely fine and will still make you a a participant in this project.

• Be patient about receiving a message from me. I will do my best to tell you which blog you are assigned to as soon as possible. I should be done with this on Wednesday, 16th December. Unfortunately, I’m writing several exams during these weeks, so it might take a while until you’ll be informed who your secret santa person is.

I HAVE A PROBLEM, BECAUSE…

…the person I’m supposed to send messages, does not allow anonymous messages: It’s possible they’re not comfortable with receiving anonymous messages. In that case, you can still be their Santa and send them messages throughout the week. If you feel absolutely uncomfortable with sending them messages off anon, then message me. I will ask them to enable the anonymous function.

…I can’t find the url you’ve sent me: Maybe they’ve changed their url or deleted their blog. In any case, message me and you will be assigned to a new blog. Even if it’s just a spelling mistake on my behalf, message me and I’ll correct myself.

…I entered, but it turns out that I can not participate: If you for whatever reasons don’t find yourself able of sending your assigned blog messages, contact me asap. Your secret santa, that should have sent you messages, will now be the secret santa of the person you have been assigned to at first. Don’t feel bad about it, there will be numerous opportunities for you to enter a project similar to this one.