Mumsnet Christmas Appeal/Secret Santa - your thoughts please?

[JustineMumsnet]

Hi all,

It's that time of year again where we are looking towards Christmas and thinking about the annual Mumsnet Secret Santa.

For those of you who've no clue what we're on about, the Mumsnet Christmas Appeal is an annual (obviously) tradition in which MNers nominate other MNers whom they feel to be particularly deserving of support/reward/love to receive a Secret Santa gift. More about it here - and here's how it works plus some FAQs, too.

As we said, it has a long and honourable history on MN - but some have suggested that now we've got Giving Week we should think about retiring the Secret Santa.

So we thought we'd take this opportunity to ask you, before we launch it as usual, if you'd like us to continue with it. We do love helping with the Secret Santa and the thankyou thread is always a very moving read, but it's quite a mammoth thing to organise and there have been a number of complaints about gifts not arriving and/or a lack of thankyou messages which has put a slight dampener on it in recent years.

In short we're happy to stop if folks think it has run its course - and happy to continue if people still think it's worthwhile.

We'd be very grateful for any and all thoughts. Please do post them here.

"Hey, I'd love to give VulnerablePoster a Christmas present - could someone pm me her home address?"

No way that could be abused, nope.

MN adds the anonymity and therefore the security.

But if you know who you want to give a present to, just PM them and say. And if they want to be a recipient, they can tell you an address to send it to, not necessarily their own. Or use Paypal.

Unfortunately a lot of MNers are vulnerable, and really shouldn't be divulging their addresses.

That's where all the work comes in for MNHQ.

It is a nice idea for people who like Christmas. I know last year there was a few threads from people saying they didn't get nominated and they were devastated. But on the whole my opinion is if people want it to continue then it should. Maybe have a separate section for woe is me threads and then people can hide them.

Any thoughts, MNHQ?

I suspect MNHQ will be mulling this over, over the next few weeks.

Over the gin, more like.

Or perhaps they are trying out some new mulled wine recipes this weekend.

Mulling over the mulled.

Mulling over the mulled © Zombie 2014

Zombie

i doubt they're going to give a response on a weekend

the MNHQ christmas gin appeal is going well though

They could declare it a fallow year and then decide in 2015 whether they want to go back to it, as they'll have the two options for comparison then.

Hello, hello
Ok, so from what we can see general opinion is that, notwithstanding a few irritations (including the word Appeal), the MN Secret Santa is worth keeping.

So we will soldier on - or more accurately SandyMumsnet will - but we will also make a few modifications, namely

a) Change the name to Secret Santa or similar as appeal isn't right

b) Work on some tech modifications to improve the operation of things and to try to ameliorate some of the usual causes of disappointment/gripes (eg auto notifications/reminders/tracking)

We'll also look at including an alternative call to action to donate to a charity (eg Shelter/Refuge) - can't see any reason why we couldn't do this.

Thanks everyone for the input. We'll be kicking off 2014 Secret Santa in the next week or two.

I had to look up "ameliorate" on dictionary.com.

Good word! :)

@ItsNotEasyBeingGreen

I had to look up "ameliorate" on dictionary.com.

Good word! :)

Thank you very much

That sounds good, Justine.

I have given via the Appeal the last couple of years and seeing the thank-you messages from the recipients was one of the nicest moments of my Christmas. It was also good being able to nominate Mners who have put loads of time and effort into helping other MNers in difficult situations while clearly not having the easiest lives themselves.

However, I wonder if there is an argument for suggesting a price limit - I did feel a bit about sending an Amazon voucher, chocs and a couple of stocking fillers when there were so many posts expressing thanks for the Fortnum and Mason hamper, designer baby clothes etc.

Please don't put a cash limit on it.

In past Christmases I've given to people who I knew were in need (for one reason or another) and it was really lovely to be able to send them something that would help to ameliorate their situation. I have been in the fortunate position to be able to afford to do that. I've never boasted about what I bought, never told anyone, just been grateful that I'm in a position to help make someone's Christmas a little bit nicer/better than they might have been able to afford.

I think there should be a cash limit.

I think people are put off taking part by posts about the expensive gifts etc some posters have received.

If it's anonymous I'm not sure how you know who is in need. I had no idea who I donated to last year I was just given a number.

I did know, because of the information I was given, and because I asked some specific questions about the poster(s) I was matched with.

It's a matter of matching financial need to those who are in need financially and smaller treats to the 'good eggs'
No idea how you do that though

I was just given basic info, age of child. I don't think it's HQs place to give you any more information than that.

I don't think there should be a cash limit. But telling people how much you have sent or what a generous gift you have received shouldn't really be done.