Secret santa for the birdies

[FlyFreeForever]

i thought it would be a cute idea to do some kind of secret santa for our birds. just a thought.

 

[SailBoat]

This is a great idea!!!

But! I'm not sure if the 'snobby' Amazons would play nice. After all, if they do not pick-out their own toys, there is no way of assuring that they would accept it 'kindly.' The list of broken hearted Grand Parents who have purchased expensive toys for our Amazons only to be faced with total rejection is monumental!!

Like I said above, its a great idea!!!

 

[GaleriaGila]

It's a very sweet idea... I have the same reservations as Mr. Boat above.
The Rickeybird is also very hard to buy for, but for very different reasons. Rb is a great mimic and real character, but he's just not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Forage toys confound and frustrate him, and he's scared of the big things, and he swings hanging toys so recklessly that they knock him off his perch.

I have an idea, though. Anybody who'd like to play Santa could go to the Members Toy Exchange thread... buy a toy, show it... send it to the first interested party, and there ya go!!!!!!!!!!!

I've done that with a toy the Rb rejected, and it was fun!!!

 

[BeatriceC]

Another forum I'm on does a card exchange instead of a secret santa. I like that much better. How it works is that everybody who wants to participate notifies the organizer and gives the organizer their address. The organizer compiles the addresses, and then sends it out to everybody on the list. Everybody then sends just a card to everybody else. There have been anywhere from 18-50 people participating in the years I've done it. Even with a few international people thrown in, it's not terribly expensive (well, for the people stateside...the people outside the US wind up having to spend more in international postage). It's fun, and I always enjoy the month of December waiting for all those cards.

 

[Kentuckienne]

I would send cards ... and secret Santa would be fun, but so hard to pick toys even for the bird I know. What about sending gifts - money, toys etc. - to some parrot rescue places?

 

[GaleriaGila]

Kentuckienne!

I
LOVE
THAT!
A holiday donation, maybe in the name of our forums!
I'm gonna do it. I'm not exactly loaded these days but I can mak 10-20 happen... The Hope Rescue in Ohio will be my choice.

 

[Anansi]

Just wanted to let you all know that we mods have discussed the Secret Santa idea as proposed in the first post. While we absolutely LOVE the spirit of the idea, there would be far too much potential for things to go wrong in actual practice for it to be a Parrot Forums sponsored event. One such challenge (but not the only one) would be adapting Secret Santa for the international nature of this community. Some secret santa participants might wind up paying more for shipping than for the actual gifts.

Now, all that said, there is no reason why 2 members couldn't agree to a gift exchange between their birds. They could do so with full knowledge of the cost involved. Addresses could be exchanged in private, and only with members they really trust.

I also love Abigail's suggestion of adapting the Toy Exchange sub-forum for this purpose, as well as Beatrice's idea about a card exchange (although again, that would have to be handled via pm and off the open forum) and Kentuckienne's idea of sending gifts to parrot rescues.

 

[Rival_of_the_Rickeybird]

That's what I call good moderating.

 

[Rival_of_the_Rickeybird]

Beatrice, the Mrs. is now going nuts looking at parrot cards on ebay...

 

[Kentuckienne]

The Rival packed the artwork I got from the Rickeybird in an oversized box. I wondered briefly if he had contemplated including the artist in the package as well. If we do secret Santa .... beware....