The jolly crew over at Reddit just launched its Secret Santa 2011 gift game. This year, they’re going all out with a push to snag the official Guinness World Record title for “The Largest Online Secret Santa Game” of all-time. And you can help by joining in the holiday fun.
Reddit Secret Santa basically works like any other secret Santa game: You are matched with a person to buy a gift for, and in turn, someone else who signs up is assigned to buy a gift for you.
During the course of writing this article, the number of registered Secret Santas jumped from about 1,600 to more than 3,500. Sign up only take a minutes, and you are given the extremely awesome option of listing various things you do and do not like, to help give your mystery gift-giver choose something you might actually enjoy.
While a Reddit account is not required for sign-up this year, you are smartly still able to link a Reddit account to your Secret Santa profile, which means whoever lands you as their giftee can do some good-natured sleuthing to find out more about who you are, and thus get a better idea of what to give you.
Once you receive your gift, you’ll be able to post photos of it to the Reddit Gifts website, and show everyone how awesome your Secret Santa is.
Some people get great gifts, like iPads and video games, and many people make custom Reddit gear, like Reddit alien sculptures or t-shirts. I took part in last year’s Secret Santa, and it was exceedingly fun. Unfortunately, the person I was assigned didn’t write anything in terms of likes or dislikes, and wasn’t particularly active on Reddit. The only thing I could find about him was that he like Pringles potato chips, so I sent him a case. He seemed to like it enough.
Of course, the push to set a world record is the definition of a stunt, just like a lot of world records out there. But that’s not the point of Reddit Secret Santa; the point is to have fun, and get a (hopefully) sweet gift from a complete stranger.
Sign-up ends on November 25, at which point everyone will be assigned their giftee, and the snooping can begin. Gifts must be shipped by December 12.
Updated at 12pm ET with additional information
