Wish Fulfillment, The Blog

Gina the Elf Asked Elfster:

Love Elfster. Using with my family and office!
We are using Elfster with my family only to have a running list of what every person wants (we all buy for one another).

My sister in law wants martini glasses. Is there a way I can inform the group that I bought her martini glasses without her finding out?

The Answer from Elfster

If she put the Martini Glasses on her wishlist, then you can go to her profile, click on the item from her wishlist, and then click “Mark as purchased.” Other people in your group can tell it was purchased, but she cannot!

Bonus Answer, you didn’t ask for:

I recommend serving the martini’s with Ketel One and an Olive

Happy Gifting,

Elfster

Barb S. a super elf from St. Paul, Minnesota, has an interesting take on how her family approaches the Christmas gift exchange.  Among other neat things her family does, the adults separate out the guys from the girls.  Here she explains:

The guys give to the guys and the girls give to the girls (adults only)…Is there a way for the girls to see the guys’ wishlists so they can use it to purchase items for their spouses . . . and check off when it’s purchased, so that they don’t get duplicates?

Isn’t that a cool approach?  I love it and I think I just might see if my family will go for it next year.

Well, after testing around in the workshop over the weekend, here is what we recommend for this set up.

You can create one giant exchange with everybody, guys and girls in it.  Then, for each guy, check off all the girls as people that the guy cannot draw.  For each girl, check off all the guys as people they cannot draw.  When you draw names, you will have:

• Every guy draws a guy
• Every girl draws a girl
• Everbody can see everybody else’s wishlist
• You can suggest and ask questions to your spouse or your draw and still keep them guessing because you can do it anonymously!
• Anyone can check off items as purchased so there will be no duplicate gifts!

Thank you Barba for sharing your family’s approach and questions.  She had some other neat ideas that we might be covering in a future Ask Elfster post.  Do you have an Elfster question or idea for Ask Elfster?  Let us know and we’ll try and give you a hand?

Ho Ho Ho and Happy Gifting! 

This is a part of our recurring Monday morning series, “Ask Elfster?”  Today we have a special edition related to answering the questions a lot of people have about what’s all this new coolness on the site?

This weekend the elves were working hard to make Elfster even easier and more fun to stay connected and give and receive great gifts.  Here are some of the highlights.

• There is an all new shopping and gift guides section!  There are lots of great gift ideas in a dozen different categories that will help you find gift ideas for those hard to please types!  We even have some expert picks for kids from Savvy Auntie herself.  Take a peek and let us know what you think!
• There’s an all new “People” tab which allows you to easily see all the people you are connected with.  You can also quickly get to their profile to see what they like and you can ask them questions to find out any missing clues that will help you get the perfect gift!
• We have so many amazingly talented Elfster users who have lots of great feedback for us. Liz, a London product designer made great suggestions for us including picking a more readable color of green for our links.  We all have Liz to thank because her pick is now out on the site.  Thanks Liz!

Elfster is always improving based on your ideas and suggestions.  Thanks for being a part of building something great and we always welcome your ideas.  Happy gifting!

Hi, it’s Peter here, the founder and head elf here at Elfster.  Today we are kicking off a new series, Ask Elfster!

Each Monday we will feature some great questions we’ve heard and share with you answers, tips, tricks, and ideas. Here is a message received last week:

Melissa asked:

“We want to use this site year after year, is there a way that the program will make sure we don’t get the same person we got the previous year- or year before that? (without me trying to remember and checking off the “do not pick list”)..? So once we have all picked each other once, then it will start over again. Does this make sense? “

What’s the good news?

Each year, Elfster automatically makes sure that you don’t draw the same person you drew the year before.  You don’t have to make any special changes in the set up to do that.  Lots of people feel that way so we just make it automatic.  

What’s your question?

Do you have a question, suggestion, thought, or feedback for Elfster?  Send me a message and I’ll answer it on Ask Elfster!