12 Days of Christmas For All

It’s the 4th annual 12 Days of Christmas Swap, and you better believe it’s the best one yet. And one of the reasons this year is pretty darn special is because I’m hosting it with my bestie, Nicole – from Raising K Squared! Even if that was the only information you had for this year’s swap, that would be enough to get your super excited. She is the QUEEN of gifting! The only thing I need to know now is: Do YOU love gifts!?

If this is your first year, boy are you in for a fun ride! If at any time you need a little inspiration, why not look at some of the giftees’ experience of our previous 12 Days of Christmas Swap? You can read about my first one here, or you can also search the hashtag #12DaysofChristmasSwap to get yourself super excited. Most of the us created a highlight reel on instagram with every day’s gift and experience.

CHRISTMAS THEME

Last year’s Christmas theme was FLOURISH, and we tried to incorporate this throughout our gifts. This year’s theme is GRATITUDE.

Some of us have seen real hard times this year. We’ve experienced loss. We experienced hurt. So many changes happened in and around us in 2021, that we thought it was about time that we take a moment to fill our hearts and minds with GRATITUDE. To take all that we’ve experience this year, and turn it into something we can be thankful for.

We would love if you can continue a spirit of thankfulness as you gift one special person this year. And have both of you realize how much we actually have to be thankful for!

HOW IT WORKS:

The idea behind the 12 Days of Christmas Swap is that you send the person you’re paired up with 12 gifts to open on the 12 days leading up to Christmas day. In return, they do the same for you. It’s NOT to out-do anyone, but to show genuine love and gratefulness for new friends.

If you’ve never participated in a Christmas swap before, here’s how it goes:

1. You fill out your information the handy sign-up form below
2. We use the information you provided to match you up with another who has also signed up
3. Get to know your new pal (stalk their blog/social media, email them questions, etc.)
4. You each pick out 12 fun gifts (within the allowed price range) that you think the other person would like
5. Wrap the gifts (whether or not you number them is up to you)
6. Send each other the gifts all at once
7. You each open one gift every day in the 12 days leading up to Christmas
8. Post about your gifts/experience/new friend on your blog or social media

WHO CAN SIGN UP

• Anyone with a public blogs or social media accounts (even if you have an active insta-account (business or personal) that is public and you’d like to get involved)
• People located within South Africa

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER

• Sign-Ups: November 5th – November 13th
• Partners Matched by: November 17th
• Packages Mailed by: December 3rd (They must receive their gift packages BEFORE December 12th)
• Start Opening Gifts: December 13th till 24th Dec
• Post About Experience: Every day you open a gift, (or if you have a blog, create one specifically dedicated to this whole experience.) Please remember to create a highlight reel so others can go back and see all 12 days.

12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS SWAP RULES

Here are the rules you need to abide by when swapping:

>>>Follow through<<<<
If you sign up, you need to follow through and send off the gifts. It isn’t fair for your partner to put in the effort of sending to you, and then receive nothing in return. Please please please follow through.

YOUR PACKAGE

You must send 12 wrapped gifts to your partner.
How you wrap them is entirely up to you; you can go all out or just wrap them up in newspaper. No judgement here. They just need to all be a surprise so that they can be opened on 12 different days without spoiling it.

Your complete package should not exceed R500 cost before courier.
The reason for the cost limit is so that we don’t have one partner who goes all out with her gift, and another who might not be able to afford to, and then a disparity in gift quality that leaves one or both feeling badly. But it’s NOT about how much money you spend either. Try to keep your gifts inexpensive. (R500 divided by 12 gifts, averages about R40-odd a gift) You can cut your cost by:

• Shopping sales.
• Handmaking some of the gifts.
• Regifting (gifts need to be new or like-new, nothing old and gross)

SHIPPING RULES

Your package must be shipped out by December 3rd.
They need to have the package in hand before December 12th so they can start opening gifts on time. You should courier earlier if you think it’ll take longer with regular shipping, or use a faster method of shipping. I recommend that you just put all gifts into one Aramex bag (from PicknPay or Checkers) that courier overnight.  It’s the easiest and has no weight limit. Postnet also offers great rates. If you live close enough to your partner, why not arrange to meet up?

You MUST provide a tracking number if shipping.
I cannot stress this enough. As soon as you ship out your gift package, you need to send the tracking number to both your partner and to myself so we know that it will be arriving and can watch out for it. This also helps us make sure that there is follow through so someone isn’t left without. Again, those amazing flat-rate Aramex bags include this, so I recommend them.

POST ABOUT YOUR SWAP

You need to post about your swap somewhere publicly.
You can blog about it, or you can post to your Twitter/Facebook/Instagram, etc. It just needs to be posted somewhere publicly. Please tag your gifter. This is just a nice way to show your gratitude and share what your partner got you. It also allows you to give your followers a little introduction to your partner and you both get more exposure in each other’s world.

Most importantly; Have fun and be kind!

SIGN UP HERE:

Nicole and I have been besties for so long, and we constantly say; “You can sit with us!” because we love making new friends. So we absolutely can not wait to match everyone up and see the gratitude behind all your Christmas gift!

All our (almost Christmas) love,

Simone and Nicole xx