For the sixth year running, the island country of New Zealand has a country-wide edition of Secret Santa, and it uses Twitter to match up participants.
To play, Kiwis had to register on this website created by Sam Elton-Waters back in 2011 (the year after the gift exchange’s debut). Once you sign up, you’re partnered with a random Twitter user. You’re then tasked with figuring out what your recipient would like as a gift, and sending it through the New Zealand Post.
Registration is closed for this year, but you can still participate in the Christmas cheer vicariously through the #NZSecretSanta hashtag on Twitter. And the tweets Kiwis are tweeting about it are all just excellent.
My favourite #nzsecretsanta memory is when somebody got me a book with a piece of card in the front that said ‘Your tweets are really weird’
— em (@Emmzza) November 25, 2016
https://twitter.com/wendypooh/status/802212481003196416
Hello #nzsecretsanta ! Please know that anything you send will be accepted with joy ❤️
— Holly 🌿 (@Hollymollysee) November 25, 2016
Its first year, 200 people participated, but now nearly 2,000 people are involved. Considering there are roughly 4.7 million people in New Zealand, that’s only a small fraction of the populace (.04 percent, in fact). Still, that’s .04 percent more of a public, Twitter-based Secret Santa than we’ve got in the U.S.—and another reason to love New Zealand.
H/T Mashable
