Secret Santa... With a Twist!

Nov 23, 20097 min read

Deviation Actions

ProjectComment

Published: Nov 23, 2009

4.7K Views

Hello there deviants!

If you've had experience with Secret Santas in the past, you'll know that it's a little game where names of people willing to participate are collected and then randomly handed out to the other players. It's simple from there. Once a player has received a name, they then set out to create a little gift for the person they've been assigned and they're then handed out on Christmas day. What fun!

So the end result is, a player will give a gift and receive one in return.

Secret Santas on deviantART however, means that we're a little bit more restricted. We can only give and receive art gifts, whether this is good or bad. So, to add a bit more spice this year, our Secret Santa is going to have a few more rules…

Rules of Secret Santa

Each player will be sent the name of another deviant.

The player then has two weeks to create a small art gift for that deviant.

All gifts must be sent to alwaysmotivated by 16/12/09

All forms of art accepted, including but not limited to photography, traditional art, literature, digital art and stock.

The art must be your own work and must not contain any Copyrighted material. Collaborations are not permitted.

You must not disclose the name of the person you are giving the gift to to anyone at any time.

No mature content (e.g. nudity, violence, racial discrimination) accepted. We want everyone to be able to participate and have fun.

All gifts must be submitted to the player's own deviantART gallery and be sent to alwaysmotivated via a note (the gift is then passed on to the recipient).

Once you have been assigned a name you cannot pull out. Consider carefully if you will have enough time to do this. It is not far to other players if you end up not giving.

but we've added some extra rules...

Extra Rules

We have now also included commenting! So not only will you give and receive art but also comments! It works like this.

Upon receiving their gift, each player will give a constructive comment on the deviation.

All players must comment.

The comment should 50-100 words in length

The comment should be in-depth and should focus on the positive aspects of the artwork as well as a few hints for improvement

The comment should not put down the artist in any way. Be nice and keep it happy, it's Christmas!

Feel free to comment on some of the other gifts as well!

How to Send

Firstly, submit the artwork as a deviation into your own deviantART gallery (not Photobucket or any other image hosting website)

Next send the deviation to alwaysmotivated so we can tick you off the list.

alwaysmotivated will then pass your gift to the recipient in another note.

Got all that? Great! Sign up!

How to Sign Up

Send a note to ProjectComment with the following details:

Subject Line: Secret Santa
I am best at [insert forms of art e.g. traditional art, literature] and would like to receive [insert forms of art e.g. I don't mind, traditional art].

Yup, simple! But make sure you do it quick and do it right, we're only allowing 1 week for sign up!

Dates

Sign-up opens: 23/11/09
Sign-up closes: 30/11/09
Names distributed: 1/12/09
Creation Period: 2-16/12/09
Gifts delivered: 17/12/09
Comment Period: 18-25/12/09
Both groups feature in news article: 26/12/09

Guidelines

To create the perfect gift, consider these tips:

It doesn't have to be Christmas themed but it should still be cheerful

Put time and effort into it, you wouldn't be too happy if you received a scrappy gift

Have a look at the person's page and gallery and consider what they might like

Put a bit of thought into the artist's comments section as well. Give the person a festive greeting and who knows, maybe you'll be meeting a new friend?