The Secret Santa 2023 challenge is now officially over, and a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who made it such a FANTASTIC SUCCESS!
We had 128 Elves working on 339 Wishes over the two week period, non-stop since when one elf went to bed, someone else got up and continued working - or kept working through the night! We have some very tired, but productive elves - thank you to ALL of you who worked on one or more of these Wishes!
Not all the wishes were granted or mysteries solved, but we did know that, going into it, that many would be very challenging brick walls. However 77 Wishes were Granted, and 19 others were declared Super Solid Brickwalls, despite hours of research by the elves. Another 79 Wishes were Researched, and Research Notes added to let people know what was found, or not found, as the case may be.
You can view the 12th Day of Elf-Mas wrapup on the Saturday Roundup recording of 6 January 2024 (it was quite the Epiphany!) - and you may want to sing-along for part of it ....
For those who made wishes, and are wondering what happened, check out the Secret Santa 2023 free space page that was created. On this page, do a search for your Wish #, or the WikiTree ID of the profile or yourself (CTRL + F or CMD + F in your browser is the quickest way to do that). ALSO on that Free Space page there are a number of interesting links you might want to investigate, including lyrics to "The Twelve Days of Elf-Mas", as well as to "Sourcing Bells", written by Elf Tia Balcer.
A big thank you to Eowyn, our beloved Forest Elf, and Elf Prime for WikiTree, who helped set things up, and also did the daily G2G posts for the 12 Days of Elf-Mas, where we broadcast about one Wish that was granted each day. Thank you also to those Elves brave enough to join us on-air for those wonderful Elf-casts and who shared their experience and know-how - we all learned lots from you all!
Thanks also go out to Elf Julie who made sure that all Elves got into the Discord channel as soon as possible so they could chat and collaborate. That's where the real magic happened! It was very busy at times, records and requests were flying back and forth - at dizzying speeds at times. All very exciting, and rewarding. For those of you who haven't dipped your toe into Discord yet, I highly recommend it. Many of these wishes could not have been solved without the collaboration that Discord allowed between Elves over different time zones and continents!
A final HUGE THANKS and hugs go out to my fellow Lead Elves, Christine Daniels and Kathy Nava, who are a joy to work with, and tireless collaborators and organizers. They were ever-present in the Discord channel, and via email when needed, but that was only half of what they did. They also worked behind the scenes organizing the wishes, and doing so many things to keep the challenge on track and moving forward! Thanks again to you both!
The Secret Santa Challenge was a huge hit this year, and we all look forward to next year's version! For those that were involved, while it's still fresh in your mind, if you have suggestions on things that we can improve, please share them with us - via this post or via PM or on Discord.
Merry Elf-Mas to all, and to all, a good night!
