Secret Santa Presents

How many of you take part in Secret Santa schemes? I would think that this is more typically done at work, particularly when there are a lot of people in the department. We are actually doing one where I work although I have to say that there aren't that many of us in the office!! But this was a good compromise between the two sets of staff that although we are now one group, we used to work for two different libraries and so had two different traditions.

Anyhow, that is not the Secret Santa that I really wanted to talk about! What I really wanted to talk about is a Secret Santa scheme that is being run by LibraryThing (if you haven't heard me mention LibraryThing - it's a place where you can catalogue your own book collection and socialise with other book lovers online!). I have been a member of LibraryThing for a while now, but am not very diligent in cataloguing my own books, but that is probably because I get enough of that at work!

And still, I digress, so...LibraryThing are running SantaThing!! Which is an online Secret Santa for book lovers! If you are a member of LibraryThing then you can join in, you can offer yourself up for participation or nominate another person to be the recipient; so basically you sign up and pay $25, closing date is 12 noon US Eastern Time on Thursday 13th December, so you'd better hurry up if you want to take part!

Once you find out who you are being the Secret Santa for (by the way, I should say that all identifying detail is only held by LibraryThing and is not revealed to others) you can then have a look at their personal catalogue and try and find a book for up to $20 (the other $5 of the $25 that you paid earlier is for delivery!) that they would appreciate and tell LibraryThing to order this through Amazon.

Unfortunately this is only open to American, Canadian or British LibraryThing members, but I am sure that the LibraryThing team will put their collective brains into organising something a bit more comprehensive for next year.

Well, as you might guess, I have decided to take part! I have paid my $25 and am now waiting to hear who I am to be Secret Santa for! I am also quite eager to see what kind of book might land on my doorstep, hopefully before Christmas!