Ornament exchange again?

Last year here at White Threads I organised a Christmas ornament exchange. I have been wondering about whether to run it again, as I’m not sure it was entirely successful last year. I just wasn’t sure that everyone received their ornaments. However, no-one let me know that they *didn’t* receive the one that was promised to them, so perhaps I should not be concerned.

My questions for people who participated last year are (and you can email me privately if you prefer):

• did you receive your ornament?
• Was it a fun and positive experience for you?
• Is there any feedback that you can pass on to me that we can learn from, if we are going to run it again?

For everyone (those who participated and those who did not): would you like to take part in a Christmas ornament exchange this year?

To give you an idea of how things might run, in case you’ve never done something like this before you need to know the following things:

• you will need to make an ornament as a gift for someone else. Someone else will make one for you. Your recipient and giver may not necessarily be the same person.
• You will not know who you will be receiving yours from, but you will know who you are sending yours to! The idea is to keep it a little bit secret, but that you will let the recipient know in the parcel with the ornament who and where theirs is from.
• you will need to post it – possibly to the other side of the world – so that it arrives at least 2 weeks before Christmas.
• Post at Christmas can take much longer than you think! You may need to allow up to a month for transit.
• International post can be expensive. Flat or flattish things will likely be cheaper to send.You should check your postal regulations for guidelines.
• Some countries have strict quarantine laws about what can be sent into that country. You will need to make sure your ornament does not breach the quarantine requirements of the recipient’s country. As an example, you would have a hard time getting wood into Australia.
• You will need to make sure that if you commit to taking part, that you actually make and send the ornament. Nothing would be worse than being the person who does not receive their ornament because you ran out of time or inspiration. It is a firm commitment, and you should take your commitment seriously.
• There is no need to send anything else other than the ornament.

Any questions, please ask. If I decide to go ahead with running the ornament exchange, we’ll probably need to have signups completed in about 2 weeks to allow enough time for people to make and send their ornaments.