I signed up for the Reddit secret Santa once like a decade ago. Spent a bunch of time researching what to get, and made a really thoughtful gift bag of candy and toys from Western Canada based on what my recipient told me he liked.

The person who got me as their recipient sent me a $5 Amazon comic book for a video game I've never played. It looked and felt like the grocery store fliers you get in the mail.

Oh and whoever I sent my gift to claimed he never received it.

Be the change you want to see. Reddit Secret Santa was always a pretty big logistical undertaking, it would take effort to make a Fediverse one.

Also Fediverse users might be less keen on the idea generally, as it involves personal information and addresses. A very cynical take is that harvesting this data was the real purpose of the Reddit SS, which can't really be ruled out.

I stopped secret santa after 2 years in a row of not getting a gift. People would sign up to get free stuff essentially and never send out anything. Kinda ruined it for me to be reminded that people are generally shitty

Have you considered https://givin.gifts? They see themselves as the unofficial successor of redditgifts (they even let you import redditgifts gallery posts back when they were still online). They opened their Happy Holidays 2026 signups a couple of days ago and any premium user could also create a custom fediverse Secret Santa exchange.

I took part in every givin.gifts Happy Holidays exchange since redditgifts shut down and I'm happy with it. If there are any problems with your gifter, their team is really invested in smoothing things out and getting you a rematch if needed.

i never used reddit. what is reddit secret santa?

Sorry, best I can do to s Secret Satan

What is it?

I might be able to organize one for Canada for our lemmy.ca, piefed.ca and sh.itjust.works (and other Fediverse server users who live in Canada) peeps...

I'm not sure who would be comfortable with sharing the address attached to their real name or username on here? I move around too much to be able to organize collecting everything in a PO box and sending it to people, it would rely more on giving random people another user's address and people directly shipping to each other...

You have to let go of the past. You can enjoy your memories, but you can never re-live them.

if someone actually makes this for fedi: please don't slop it and provide e2e encryption for the addresses

I did it 3 years in a row, lots of research (had a custom jigsaw puzzle made for one).... I got crap in return, like, on person got me a (tiny!) lego set.... the others were just garbage. I think someone sent me a pair of unboxed figures from some anime...so yeah, it's a good idea, wouldn't mind giving it a try again, but ..... eh

This is a silly take but I've seen (internet) trends come and go, I miss some moments but know there is something else that will pop up to fill the space. There always is.

The couple times I participated, I only got one really nice thing: whisky glass with custom engraving. Still use it today

But honestly, the best was the reactions of the receiver when you absolutely nailed it

One time I had someone from a neighboring country who was insanely into all kinds of sausages and cheese

So I bought a styrofoam insulating box, filled it with several kilo of the most extravagant sausages and cheese I could find in my city, packed it with a bunch of cooling packs and sent it express to the receiver

They were absolutely thrilled

I think that year I got a mug with a dirty joke in return

Let's have a secret Satan!

Well it can happen, but someone would have to organize it

Shouldve known reddit was over when they fired the ama lady

oh boy consumerist holiday bullshit. just what i wanted to keep when i left reddit.