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New Zealanders use Twitter to coordinate a country-wide Secret Santa

Can we just move to New Zealand now?

 

Christina Bonnington

Tech

Posted on Nov 29, 2016   Updated on May 25, 2021, 11:58 am CDT

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.

https://twitter.com/wendypooh/status/802212481003196416

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

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*First Published: Nov 29, 2016, 4:41 pm CST