Secret Santa gift-giving overseas

[daisychain01]

Just wondering ...

during the 'matching process' between a Secret Santa and a gift recipient - is there any attempt to match people who are situated in the same country, to help minimise shipping costs (which can be more than the gift itself!).

Also if we are purchasing a gift voucher, presumably the person who lives overseas would have to use it online, but then they would have the shipping cost burden which may be a lot for people on limited incomes.

Just thought I'd mention ...

I don't know but I'd guess they try. Having said which, there are some locations (MN being international) which may present massive logistical issues for either party bi

Sorry - the cat posted that!

To continue

....for either party but particularly the donor.

I'd have thought that most things have a workaround and - as a last resort if you just can't do it - a good card with a message probably means as much (if not more) to many people than even a gift. Knowing someone has been thinking about you is the thing for many.

Hi daisychain,

We'll flag this thread to SandyMumsnet, who's in charge of the whole Secret Santa operation. She'll be back with an answer soon.

Hiya daisychain Thanks for flagging some great thoughts on this. We completely get where you're coming from.

Due to our increased security, we are not aware of the Mumsnetter's addresses when we go through the matching process (only that they live abroad) so we're unable to marry up folk in the same country.

We've never wanted to exclude Mumsnetters who live abroad from participating in the Secret Santa and try to match vouchers to anyone not in this country, however a flaw in this thinking has been highlighted to us this year and so we will be taking a good look at this for next year. [santa] [santa] [santa]

Hi Sandy, thanks for considering this situation - I'm sorry this is just another layer of complexity added to what should be a simple act of giving - I guess the internet is responsible for that!

Perhaps, next year, there could be an additional optional box for people (both donators and receivers) to state a minimum continent location eg: Americas, EU/Europe, AsiaPacific, Africa.

That means people are giving only minimum information to enable a reasonable match of locations to minimise postage.

So, someone living in UK can donate to someone in UK/EU/Europe. Or someone in US can donate to someone in North America/South America. Rather than someone in EU having to post to someone in Americas!

But for now, its still a fab initiative, thanks! Will nip down to the Post office at the weekend with my donation

Good thinking daisy - although I'll confess that I would worry who is going to donate to that poor nominee in Ulan Bator.

(Unless we, say, also have a (the first?) box as 'Anywhere' so that people can go for that if they're feeling up to the possible logistics. )

I think the Anywhere button is a great idea, cozie.

Hi everyone, thanks for all your thoughts and suggestions on this. Your ideas are really useful and very much welcome, please keep them coming!

Not quite the same thing, but I have friends in the US. When buying gifts for them, I usually order from Amazon.com and have it gift wrapped. You only pay local shipping then and it gets there faster than if I posted from the UK.