Blog Azeroth

Hello Blogosphere! This year I would like to host a Furtive Father Winter gift exchange. It is open to anyone with an email address, a blog, and some winter cheer. Because the holiday season can be quite hectic, the concept is simple:

*Between now and December 15th, please email me using the comment form in my blog, OR leave a comment on my post or this thread to state your interest to participate. (You can also try twitter but it doesn't always alert me -_-)

*On December 16th, I will pair up participants and contact everyone with the name and email address of their gift recipient.

*Gift givers should then create a holiday-themed post using prose, poetry, music, graphic art, screenshots, or anything else of their choosing. There is no quantity requirement; just make something you might like to receive as a gift!

*Between December 20th and 31st, please deliver your post to its recipient, and publish your gift on your blog! Be sure to give credit to the gift-giver so we can appreciate your creativity!

Please try to send accessible files, for instance .zip instead of .rar, and MS Office documents compatible with 2000/XP rather than 2007 only.

Here are the December event threads from 2009 and 2010 for reference!

Gift Posts are now being posted! Thank you to everyone for participating!
Participants:
Amerence - Amerence Love WoW - from red cow rise
Liala - Disciplinary Action - from The Golden Crusade
Kamalia - Kamalia et Alia - from Disciplinary Action
Windsoar - Jaded Alt - from Effraeti's RP
Draccus - A Druid's Doodling - from Flinthammer Hall
Navimie - The Daily Frostwolf - from Heroically Random
Cymre - Bubbles of Mischief - from Fel Concentration
Beruthiel - Falling Leaves and Wings - from The Bossy Pally
Ophelie - The Bossy Pally - from Raiding After Dark
Akabeko - red cow rise - from Dwarven Battle Medic
Mia - Chronicles of Mia - from Bubbles of Mischief
Effraeti - Effraeti's RP - from Bravetank
Anslym - Bag Overflow - from The Daily Frostwolf
Gladly - The Ready Check - from Children of Wrath
Poneria - Fel Concentration - from Altaholic Warcraft
Thespius - Healer by Nature - from AmerPriest
RenaissanceMan - Children of Wrath - from The Reluctant Raider
Morrighan - Caer Morrighan - from The Ready Check
Xsinthis - The Golden Crusade - from Kamalia et Alia
Saif - Raiding After Dark - from Chronicles of Mia
Angelya - Revive and Rejuvenate - from Falling Leaves & Wings
Karegina - The Reluctant Raider - from A Druid's Doodling
Oestrus - The Stories of O - from Resto is Epic
Dreamy - Drunkard's Regalia - from Jaded Alt
Rilandune - Heroically Random - from The Stories of O
Bravetank - Bravetank - from Bag Overflow
Ringo Flinthammer - Flinthammer Hall - from Caer Morrighan
Fannon - Dwarven Battle Medic - from Healer By Nature
Katarnas - Resto Is Epic - from Revive and Rejuvenate
Nightwill - Info about WoW from the Altaholic - from Drunkard's Regalia

sounds like a great idea!

Question though: I know you mentioned "Winter Cheer" as a requirement. I don't celebrate the holidays this time of year, which just means that I cannot create a "holiday-themed" post. Does this mean that I can't participate? That's fine too. Just thought I'd ask.

I know last year many gifts were based on the theme of the recipients' blog. I did a top 10 list for DK's for a DK blogger for example that had nothing to do with the holiday. I'm sure we wouldn't want to exclude anyone

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Thanks for your support!

I am all for this event taking off and really bringing some cheer and non-alcoholic eggnog to everyone inbox. I must confess that I am on somewhat of a Seasonal high at the moment. The crackle of a warm fireplace, the scent of pine trees filling the air, the Christmas music i have been eagerly awaiting to have rolling on my que, or the lessen of people's guard towards helping and greeting total strangers and friends with warm wishes. There is a lot here to play off of and share with others.

Totally count me in, and I will refrain from shipping crates of Mistletoe to all the lovely gals of the blogging community and I will also try to not buy every guy a red rider bee bee gun this year.

I really like Windsoars idea of trying to match the gift to the person and/or their respective blog. That would require the giver to really think and try to give something the person would want. The notion of a person spending the time and energy to really invest in the other person is a nice selfless act.

Last thing a person would want that loves to cook and share her recipes with the rest of us (yes Edenvale I am referring to you) is a post on how to make fast food an affordable and quality meal choice. That last part I listed ten different posting gifts that would actually be a nice gift like, the origins of cooking in ancient cultures, or the 10 top different tools a chef would need in their kitchen... you get the idea.

@Mia Sending you a lovely plush Pandarian Monk. Merry Christmas/Winter's Veil love a friendly Druid It is ok, I would think, to not be restricted by the real worlds limits on the holiday expressions within game.

@Windsoar Thanks for the event Badge to post to all of our blogs. That was going to be something I asked for. Along those lines, what is a good hash tag we should all use to link on Twitter? I was thinking #FFW or #FeaturedFriendsWinter just so we can all keep up with it all.

Looking forward to this event. Great job Akabeko for leading the charge on this.

@Mia: To be as inclusive as possible, let's define winter cheer as "hooray, the coldest season of the year in WoW!" Maybe you don't get super excited about cold weather (I can't say I really do) but at least that way it's nonspecific! I definitely don't want this to be a religious thing - the most holiday-esque it would get would be referring to the Azerothian Winter Veil. Which is also why it's not called Secret Santa :B

@Draccus, Windsoar: I think tailoring your gift to the recipient is a really nice idea, especially so it can fit into the theme of that person's blog. However, I also don't want to limit people by saying that it must match a theme or be about a certain topic. Should I have people with specific requests mention those when they sign up to participate?

D'oh ETA: let's go with #ffw so we can fit more actual text in our tweets!

#ffw FTW! GJ, LFM. LOL INC!

I would like to participate in this, this year (that green smiley is getting into the holiday spirit!)

Count me in as well, should be fun
#ffw (just practising)

Me too!

I guess i have to reply here too? I already did post that I will join on your blog Aka. lol Anyway, I am a little confused on what to post up with this. Does this mean we can work with a partner or no? Anyway Looking forward to it.

From what Wikipedia references in a subtle and very vague way, Furtive Father Winter Event (hash tagged: #FFW), will be an event of epic holiday cheer and merriment of Heroism/Bloodlust proportions. Think of the being paired with someone while square-dancing, you do not know them at first, but after stepping on each other's toes and figuring out how the moves work, you are a Rebirthed version of Fred & Ginger. We will not know who our dance partner is until Akabeko randomly pairs us all up.

Looking forward to us all giving the greatest gift of all: the gift of community growing.

Aww someone beat me to the Secret Santa this year

I don't think I'll be participating this year (which is why I was going to offer to host it), but for those of you who want some examples here is the recap from 2010 and a partial list from 2009.

@Ophelie: Thank you for the links! I'll add them to the original post so people can get some ideas. It helps to have the format examples, too.

@Amerence: No, sorry, you only have to reply to one of the places. I was just going for maximum coverage *_* You won't be working with a partner. You will find out who you'll send a gift to, then make a post by yourself for that person! They will post what you send them, and someone else will send you a gift!

Going to start adding names/sites to the OP!

Sign me up!

~Gladly

Okay, so Ophelie said I should post here and join the fray. Would you guys like another Secret Santa participant for this year?

Thespius - "Healer by Nature" - http://healerbynature.wordpress.com

It's a hybrid WoW/SWTOR blog, but I think Ophelie can attest to my dedication. I'm a casual blogger, not regular by any means. I used to write for World of Matticus and I co-host the Raid Warning podcast (although it's currently on hiatus).

Let me know!

I'll toss my hat in the ring.

I would like to participate too. It sounds like fun.

This sounds like fun, sign me up!

Sure, I'll give it a go!

O - O - O

(See, what I did there?)

I would like to spread some holiday cheer, as well. Count me in!

I sent you a message from your contact sheet! So please sign me up!

Sounds like fun, but I'm not very good with coming up with good posts or ideas, and I haven't given anything to another blogger before so I'm afraid they won't like it or think it's stupid.

If it just has to be something winter or holiday themed I think I'll be able to come up with something, I'm just a bit unsure about the part about what the other person might expect or want and what others are doing and if it has to fit the person's blog or not.

I think there's a bit of angst about this.

Your gift is *just like* your gift to friends and family IRL. It should be something YOU enjoy, and if it fits them perfectly, great. If not, they'll most likely still love it because you love it!

Don't be afraid to do what you feel comfortable doing! I've done a number of guest posts (and received them as well!) Class specific, general advice, spoofs on a class or holiday event, a wonderful poem or story, even a recipe! All of these are ok. Your blogger recipient will be honored that you took the time to *make something for them* and will love it. Guaranteed <3

I'm in. I'll write a blog-appropriate RP post for the recipient blog.