Amid the usual batch of Black Friday horror stories and obligatory tales of “buyer beware”, Elfster has managed to find one textbook case of gift-giving gone good this holiday season. As the inaugural post of our Elfster Spotlight blog series, we’re sharing the story of two longtime users who are now celebrating their 5^th annual Elfster gift exchange… with 12 of their closest college classmates!

When Mariam Shahab and Erika Lam were freshmen at Boston University, the two Communications majors formed a unique and lasting bond with their college dorm neighbors: Caty, Constance, Sarah, Julia, Alice, Caitlin, Emilie, Steph, Shannon, Lori, Michelle, and Becky. Clearly in need of a more concise nickname, the group called themselves “14C” for short.

“We all lived on the same floor of a huge freshmen dormitory,” explains Mariam, who is now a Communications professional living in Dallas. “Our name, 14C, originated from the fact that we lived on the 14th floor of Tower C in the building. Coincidentally, there were also 14 girls in our tight knit ‘family.’”

That December, the group of friends, all freshmen Communications majors at BU, chose to begin a holiday tradition to help ease their end-of-semester stresses. As Erika recalls, “We decided to start a Secret Santa gift exchange – to get our mind on the holidays and off of exams! We did it the old-fashioned way our first year, literally drawing names out of a hat.”

The approach was adequate for the time being, but as the group discovered, the standard Secret Santa name draw had some real drawbacks once the group was dispersed and moved out of the dorm. This inspired the tech-savvy Mariam to give Elfster’s online Secret Santa organizer a shot.

“After freshmen year,” Mariam says, “our living situations started shifting and we moved all over campus. That being said, it was, of course, easier to draw names through Elfster.” She adds, “Using Elfster let me control exchange aspects like not having roommates draw each other. And it remembers year over year draws and prevents people from getting the same person each time.”

The ladies of 14C have since finished school and moved away from Boston, but thanks to Elfster, they are still keeping their college tradition alive almost 4 years later. Mariam says the group remains as close-knit as ever, even though they are now far-stretched geographically.

“Since graduation last year,” Mariam says, “we’ve settled all over the US – from Dallas and New York to Los Angeles and Shanghai. Regardless of distance, our friendship has kept up over the years.”

Although Elfster has helped the group to maintain this bond, Mariam says the exchanges have been known to become competitive, too, with some of the friends trying to ascertain their Secret Santa’s identity well before the final swap.

“As with any good secret gift exchange,” she admits, “we always have a few friends who try to figure out who has who.”

All of this begs the question: Has Mariam ever exploited her position as exchange organizer to drop “helpful hints” to the devious detectives of the group? No way, she says.

According to Mariam, “They would often try to get me to use my admin/exchange host rights to confirm their algorithm of clues matching friends up.” But in the end, she says, “I didn’t succumb.”

The good-natured guessing game will continue this holiday season, it appears, as the women of 14C plan their latest gift exchange on Elfster. “This year marks our fifth year of 14C Secret Santa!” Erika says.

The women of 14C all agree, Elfster is a great way to stay in touch over the holidays, as well as over the years. “We’ve had great experiences with Elfster. Using it to set up our gift exchanges helped bridge our busy schedules in college and now our distances across the country and globe.”

Photos courtesy of: Mariam Shahab and Erika Lam

To My Adoring Public,

It has come to my attention that my approval rating has taken a dive down the proverbial rabbit hole in recent weeks.  While I’ve still got a good number of “believers, the Facebook polls don’t lie.

My agent seems to think this little slump might have something to do with my escapades in the off-season. (Hey, I’m a rabbit.) He’s even gone so far as to suggest a quick visit to the vet to correct the problem. With my bunnyhood at stake, I feel that I must offer some explanation of my behavior.

Having to live up to the impossibly white and downy fluff of the bunnies featured in Cadbury ads, and the boundless enthusiasm of the Energizer mascot in commercials, I have to say, I’m under an awful lot of pressure. Not normally prone to “performance anxiety”, you can imagine the toll this has taken on my self-esteem.

That is why I humbly ask for a little recognition. I would greatly appreciate your continued support in Easters to come… Those colored eggs don’t hide themselves, you know!

Sincerely,
The Easter Bunny

PS- I hear Santa gets cookies…

Photo credits: Ibrahim Iujaz

Sure. It’s easy to “blame the dog” for holiday mishaps. I’ll admit, I was out of line to drink up the last of the Christmas tree water. And freaking out at the sight of your festive Fourth of July sparklers was, in retrospect, uncalled for. But I maintain, last Halloween I was only trying to help enhance the festivities.

You may or may not remember, but I put an awful lot of effort into “setting the mood.”  First, I secured the perimeter of the yard, laboriously marking our territory in no uncertain terms. Pranksters and trespassing troublemakers abound on Halloween, and I wasn’t about to let them have their jollies…

When that job was done, I commissioned the work of Snickers the cat to spruce up the draperies with a “tattered and torn” motif. I still think that it was appropriate design choice for the haunted house feel I was going for. It must have worked too, judging from Mom’s screaming!

While Snickers was busy with the blinds, I put my own paws to work in the yard. Thinking I’d go all-out on the macabre Halloween theme, I dug a decorative grave or two, which I have to say, looked pretty authentic. To kick it up a notch, I filled each trench with the mangled remains of a few long departed squeaky toys.

After a good while of digging ditches, I hopped on the couch, where I decided it was time to start shedding. The original plan was to craft a miniature army of “furball monsters” to drift mysteriously around the house. Unfortunately, this attempt was thwarted when some wise guy (Dad) dragged out the vacuum.

Next, I warmed my vocal chords to provide an eerie ambient soundtrack to the night’s festivities. Barricading myself in the bathroom, I howled until I was practically blue in the face. The makeshift echo chamber really lent a ghostly resonance to my moans, which couldn’t help but chill the spine. But I didn’t stop there. Even when settling down for a nap, I made no effort to conceal my usual snoring. Believe me, this made some pretty scary sounds too!

So, here we are a year later, and believe it or not, I’ve yet to receive a single “thank you”. But I won’t let that dampen my mood. I’ve got big plans for this year!

I think I’ll start by knocking over the candy dish…

Photo credits: istolethetv on Flickr, Cory Schmitz, Liz West

Everyone celebrates the holiday season their own way, with individual traditions that make it unique for themselves and loved ones! In the past few decades, a big part of Christmas has become focused on bigger trees, better decorations, snazzier presents. They make these some of the funnest months of the year, but sometimes it’s nice to be reminded of the simple and significant reasons to celebrate and enjoy our vacations.

Save your money, your planet, your time, and your sanity by rediscovering the meaning of Christmas! Porter McConnell, Christmas enthusiast, offers these reminders on her personal and informative blog called Slow Christmas.

Porter notes that the average family spends $1,400 on Christmas each year, and you don’t have to pay that chunk of change just to have fun with your loved ones. She focuses on spending quality time with them, creating traditions:

“When you think about it, what we like about giving and receiving gifts is the thought put into it, and the feeling of being loved.”

The blog highlights homemade gifts and recipes, and tips to help busy families spend quality time without spending money. Readers can pledge to give an experience gift, a donation, or something they made instead of just one obligatory gift this year. Furthermore, she encourages families to go green, support small businesses if possible, and do something for charity. Her philosophy is totally aligned with ours here at Elfster, because we all need more ways to avoid unwanted gifts and simplify our gift-giving routines!

If you have kids that love video games, you’ve surely got a lot of questions as we approach the holidays.  Today we had a chance to catch up with Betty Shock.  She is Regional Vice President at GameStop, and we asked her some questions that are probably on your mind.  Many thanks to Betty for taking the time to lend us her expert opinion and make our last minute game shopping a bit easier!

– What will be most popular this holiday?  What games will be the hardest to find?

We continue to see a great deal of interest in the Nintendo Wii this holiday season. While these are still available at GameStop stores nationwide, we encourage people who are interested in the Wii should not wait as it continues to be in demand and hard to find. We’re also seeing a great deal of interest in Nintendo’s Wii Fit as the concept of “gamercising” – or exercising using video games – gains traction, which often makes the Wii Fit hard to come by.

Other popular games this holiday season in the traditional video game category include Gears of War 2, Call of Duty: World at War, Fable 2 and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. And sports games such as Madden NFL ’09 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 All-Play remain hot.

- Families will be looking for ways to save this holiday. What promotions, if any, will GameStop offer their customers?

Everyone is looking to save this season and GameStop definitely has a number of value options available. To start, GameStop has a wide selection of new and used games – and this holiday season has more than 2,500 titles under $20.00! These titles include some of the hottest new releases and accessories designed to fit even the smallest of budgets.

- What is the right age for kids to be introduced to gaming and what are kid friendly titles that might be educational?

Interest in video games can start at a very early age. In fact, more than 90 percent of the games in stores today are rated appropriate for ages 13 and under.

While we encourage parents to decide what is best for their own families, there are a wide range of games that cater to the younger demographic that provide educational value as well as enjoyment for the player. Games including the Brain Quest series, which specialize in an age-appropriate curriculum-based activities, and Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree encourage and inspire younger children to enjoy learning with fun number games and word puzzles.

- What are the biggest trends this season? Are their any games that get the entire family involved?

This season we’ve seen tremendous growth in the casual gaming arena. The traditional genres such as racing, sports, and shooters are still popular however; new categories for the casual gamer have emerged including music, fitness, cooking and puzzles.

The hot video games in these categories include: Music games such as Guitar Hero: World Tour, Rock Band 2 and Wii Music; sports titles such as Tiger Woods All-Play 09 and Madden NFL 09; cooking games such as Cooking Mama: World Kitchen and Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine; and puzzle games like Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree and Brain Quest.

To help make shopping for these new game genres easier for gift givers, GameStop has also created an online holiday gift guide and a “hint generator” to help ensure everyone gets the games they want. Test it out for yourself at www.hintorelse.com.

 
- What types of games seem to interest kids these days (e.g. action, sports, music, role playing)?

According to the Entertainment Software Association, 85 percent of all games sold in the U.S. last year were rated E for Everyone, E 10+ or T for teen, giving kids today a great deal to choose from!

Social games like Guitar Hero: World Tour, Rock Band 2, Mario Kart and DanceDance Revolution that the entire family can enjoy together are especiallysought after. These games encourage multiplayer involvement, making it especially attractive for large groups.

The newly released DeBlob, Spore and Little Big Planet are creative and interactive, and are fast becoming family favorites. Of course, traditional sports games continue to attract interest from all ages, thanks to popular series like Madden NFL and Tiger Woods Golf.

- How do you follow the ESRB rating system and how can it help our readers ensure the age-appropriateness of their gifts?

Located on the front of every box is a rating symbol – assigned by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), an independent regulatory body – to help parents and individuals determine the maturity of the content. There are six ESRB rating categories in all, including: C, Early Childhood; E, Everyone; E10+, Everyone 10+; T, Teens; M, Mature; and AO, Adults Only. These symbols, similar to those used by the motion picture industry to rate films, allow adults to make informed decisions about what’s appropriate for the child on their list.

Following the ESRB rating system is actually very simple and easy to use: Check the ESRB age ratings that appear on the front of every game package, and the content descriptors that appear on the back. You can use both parts of the rating system to select the most appropriate game for the child on your list.

Additionally, all GameStop employees enforce the Company’s policy to restrict sales of games rated M, for Mature by the ESRB. GameStop does NOT sell, reserve, or offer Mature-rated games to customers under 17 years of age. When a Mature game is scanned, an ESRB advisory appears on the register screen requiring employees to ask any under-age customer for a valid photo ID, unless accompanied by a parent or guardian.

If you’re looking for ratings information or to learn more about video games both the Respect the Ratings (www.respecttheratings.com) and ESRB (www.esrb.org) sites provide a wealth of information and ratings summaries for every rated video game on the market.