Another 12 Days of Christmas Gift Swap!

2020 has been a HECK of a year and we all deserve some spoiling right about now. This is why I am extra excited about of 3rd annual 12 Days of Christmas gift swap! Every year, you get to make a new friend (don’t we all need this after being locked up for so long!?) as well as receive some love as we count down the days to Christmas! So I only have one question: Do you love GIFTS?

If you did not join in the fun last year, and need a little inspiration, why not look at some of the mamas’ experience of our previous 12 Days of Christmas Swap? You can read my first one here, or how about the woman that inspired the Christmas Swap, Angie. You can also search the hashtag #12DaysofChristmasSwap to get yourself super excited.

THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS SWAP

Last year’s Christmas theme was all about SLOWING DOWN. This year’s theme is FLOURISH. It’s been an incredible challenge of a 2020, and for most of us, we have learned more about ourselves and what we are capable of than ever before. We’ve been pushed to our limits, but now that we are starting to wind down the year, it is such a beautiful space to see how much we have actually flourished.

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 allow her to bloom.

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

HOW THE SWAP WORKS

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

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

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER

Sign-Ups: November 5th – November 13th
Partners Matched by: November 16th
Packages Mailed by: December 4th (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 once off in a blog 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 4th.
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 of those Aramex bags (from PicknPay) that courier overnight. It’s the easiest and has no weight limit. Postnet also offers great rates.

You MUST provide a tracking number.
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 show off 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!