2024 Secret Santa Workout Gift Exchange

Laura Rainbow Dragon

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Bard from Canada
Posts: 2,407
"Striving to be the change."
The Secret Santa Workout Gift Exchange is back for 2024! Here's how it works:
  1. You must have an active Check-In Thread here in the Hive to participate. This is so your Santa can read up on the types of workouts you like to do, so they can design a suitable "gift" for you. * If you're new here: Welcome! You can still join in if you set up a new check-in thread now and post at least three updates prior to the Secret Santa assignments going out. (More is better.) Also: if there's not much content in your check-in thread yet, please post an intro/summary of where you're at in your fitness journey right now.
  2. If you'd like to join in, sign up by commenting on this thread. The deadline to join is Sunday, November 24, 2024.
  3. If you decide to join in, you will be assigned your giftee, either by me or by my assistant elf (if somebody volunteers to assist me with this task), via DAREBEE private message. Santa assignments will be delivered by Wednesday, November 27. Be sure to check your in-box!
  4. Once you receive your assignment, go and read your giftee's check-in thread. (If it's really long, just reading the most recent couple of pages is fine.) Then design a 15-30 minute workout that you think will be fun and challenging for your giftee to complete. The theme of the workout is: The Great Getaway Gala. (More on this below.) Write up the workout, and send it via DAREBEE private message, either to me or to my assistant elf (whichever elf gave you the assignment). The deadline for turning in your gift is Saturday, December 7. DO NOT BE LATE!
  5. I will post all of the workout gifts here in this thread (so you won't know who your gift came from). Your gift will be posted here no later than Sunday, December 22. (The Gift-Wrapping Elf and the Dragon Elf need time to get the gifts wrapped and delivered. Which is why you need to get your gifts submitted on time!)
  6. You must complete your workout gift and post in your check-in thread that you did it, no later than Sunday, January 5, 2025.
  7. Is it better to give, or to receive? To investigate this question, you must also complete the gift you gave and post about doing so in your check-in thread. To make it harder for your giftee to identify you, you may break up this workout across multiple days and/or be vague in describing the exercises you did. The deadline for completing this is also Sunday, January 5.
  8. Read up on your fellow Bees' holiday adventures in their check-in threads and try to guess who was your Santa!

The Rules:
  1. Try to wrap your gift in a story that explains why your giftee must complete the exercises you have assigned to them. (For some inspiration, check out the awesome gifts that were created for last year's workout gift exchange.) The theme for these stories is: It's been a year, right? The Bees have decided that for our holiday party this year we truly need to get away from it all. So we've planned a getaway to a wonderful, magical land, where the sun always shines, and colours are vibrant and bright. (Unless you prefer shade and muted colours, in which case there is a shade tree that follows you wherever you buzz, and you see only calming, subtle colours--this is a magical land, after all!) In this land the sweetest, most-nourishing nectar drips effortlessly out of giant flowers, flowing freely like rain (and magically tastes like whatever you want it to taste like). But the trouble with galas in far-distant magical lands is that one has to find a way to get to them before the fun can begin, and this can be tricky business. Will your giftee Bee encounter wild weather, rough terrain, road bandits, or mischievous critters en route? Will they forge a path they and their fellow Bees can follow on foot, or build some sort of contrivance to make the journey easier? Whatever the challenges the journey entails, your giftee Bee will conquer them through completing their workout gift.
  2. Don't be gruesome! We're here to challenge one another. But also to have fun. The workout you design is meant to be a gift. Do not assign anyone 100 burpees! (Unless they've written recently in their check-in thread about how much they LOVE burpees and really hope that Santa will gift them with a high volume of them.)
  3. All exercises assigned should be no-equipment exercises--unless you know from reading your giftee's recent check-in posts that they have regular access to the equipment you're asking them to use.
  4. If you assign an obscure exercise, you need to include a link to a demo of how to do it. Anything in the DAREBEE video exercise library is fair game (if it's within your giftee's wheelhouse). For yoga poses, please use pose names from the Pocket Yoga pose library (or provide a link to a demo if you're assigning a specific sequence, or a pose that's not in that library).
  5. Modifications are fine! If you are gifted with push-ups, but can only do kneeling push-ups at this point in your fitness journey, for example, it's fine to do the kneeling variety. Conversely: if you assign your giftee step-jacks as part of their workout, because you've read in their check-in thread that they're not doing high impact activities at the moment, but you want to do jumping jacks as part of your "gift you gave" workout, this is fine too. Try to complete both the gift you receive, and the gift you gave to the best of your ability, using exercise variations that are right for you. In the Hive, we honour where each individual bee is at in their own fitness journey at this moment in time.
  6. You are welcome to include fun activities in the gift you design (e.g.: singing, dancing, etc.) if they are appropriate for your giftee Bee.
  7. All of the gifts, like last year, will be gift-wrapped in the DAREBEE way. To assist you in designing a gift of a suitable length, and to assist the Gift-Wrapping Elf in wrapping your gift, we have some guidelines this year on the number of exercises that can be included. Please see below for details.
  8. If you have any questions--either about designing your gift, or about how to complete your gift once you've received it, please post them here. (Or you can PM me if posting your question publicly would give away too much about the gift you're designing.) I will try to answer all gift questions myself (so your Secret Santa does not need to out themself by answering themself). Santas: I, or my assistant elf, may contact you via PM if a question is asked about the gift you gave which I don't know how to answer.
  9. The December 7 deadline is a HARD DEADLINE. Please don't miss it! If you sign up to participate in this gift exchange, you are committing to designing a workout gift for one of your fellow Bees, and submitting it to me (or my assistant elf) between November 27 and December 7, 2024.
  10. Have fun!
Comment below if you want to join in!
 
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Laura Rainbow Dragon

Moderator
Moderator
Bard from Canada
Posts: 2,407
"Striving to be the change."
All of the gifts, like last year, will be gift-wrapped in the DAREBEE way. To assist you in designing a gift of a suitable length, and to assist the Gift-Wrapping Elf in wrapping your gift, please adhere to the following considerations:

  1. Your gift will be presented in 3 rows. Each row can contain 1 to 4 exercises.
  2. You may include combo exercises. Each part of the combo counts towards the 4 exercises/row limit.
  3. You may, if you like, split the gift up into two or three parts, by rows. Each row should use the same workout type protocol (i.e.: classic, circuit, once through).
  4. The final exercise can be a "filler" (something done between each of the preceding exercises) or a "finisher" (something done only once, at the end of the entire workout).
Examples:

A basic circuit style workout, containing 2 rows with 3 exercises each, and 1 row with 1 exercise:


A basic classic style workout, containing 1 row with 3 exercises, and 2 rows with 2 exercises each:


A basic workout with no sets, containing 3 rows with 4 exercises each:


A circuit style workout that includes combos. This one has 3 rows with 3 exercises each:


A workout in two parts. Part 1 includes 2 rows of exercises and uses a circuit style protocol. Part 2 includes 1 row of 1 exercise done with a classic style protocol:

day04.jpg



A workout with "filler" exercises. This is a classic style workout of 2 rows with 4 exercises per row. The third row shows the "filler" which is done between each of the preceding exercises:

day29.jpg



A circuit style workout with a "finisher" exercise:


Any questions: ask the Dragon Elf!
 
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Laura Rainbow Dragon

Moderator
Moderator
Bard from Canada
Posts: 2,407
"Striving to be the change."
Gift Exchange Timeline:

Sunday, November 24, 2024
: deadline to sign-up (everybody)
Wednesday, November 27: deadline for delivery of Secret Santa assignments (dragon elf and assistant elf)
Saturday, December 7: deadline for designing your gift and submitting it to the appropriate elf (everyone)
Sunday, December 22: deadline for Laura to post all workout gifts (dragon elf)
Sunday, January 5, 2025: deadline for completing both the gift you gave and the one you receive (everyone)

There is one additional important date for the Assistant Elf (should anyone choose to take on this role):

The assistant elf is responsible for collecting the gifts from half of the Santas, and forwarding them to me (via copy and paste into new PMs, so as to strip the original sender's name from the gift) by the end of the day on Sunday, December 8. (The Santas in my group will be designing gifts for the Santas in the assistant elf's group, and vice versa. This is done so that both I and the assistant elf can play too, and our Santas will remain a secret from us.)
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

Moderator
Moderator
Bard from Canada
Posts: 2,407
"Striving to be the change."
2024 Theme Recap (to make it easy to find, because the first post in this thread is long!):

The Great Getaway Gala

It's been a year, right?

The Bees have decided that for our holiday party this year we truly need to get away from it all. So we've planned a getaway to a wonderful, magical land, where the sun always shines, and colours are vibrant and bright. (Unless you prefer shade and muted colours, in which case there is a shade tree that follows you wherever you buzz, and you see only calming, subtle colours--this is a magical land, after all!) In this land the sweetest, most-nourishing nectar drips effortlessly out of giant flowers, flowing freely like rain (and magically tastes like whatever you want it to taste like).

But the trouble with galas in far-distant magical lands is that one has to find a way to get to them before the fun can begin, and this can be tricky business. Will your giftee Bee encounter wild weather, rough terrain, road bandits, or mischievous critters en route? Will they forge a path they and their fellow Bees can follow on foot, or build some sort of contrivance to make the journey easier? Whatever the challenges the journey entails, your giftee Bee will conquer them through completing their workout gift.
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

Moderator
Moderator
Bard from Canada
Posts: 2,407
"Striving to be the change."
Reminder: You have two days (and a few hours, as I type this) left to sign up for this year's Secret Santa Workout Gift Exchange! I'll be closing sign-ups at end of day (AoE) on Sunday, November 24. (In practice, this will happen when I get to my computer on Monday morning. Which will likely be slightly after that time.)

Call for help: Would anyone like to serve as this year's Assistant Elf? The role of the Assistant Elf is a small but important one. (Well, it's important to me as it allows me to participate in the gift exchange too!) Your role (should you choose to accept it) as Assistant Elf would be to match up half of the Santas with their gift recipients (I will tell you which half), collect the gifts from your Santas, strip any Santa-identifying details from them (i.e.: copy the text they send you into a fresh DM--so that I cannot see where it originated from), and then forward them to me.
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

Moderator
Moderator
Bard from Canada
Posts: 2,407
"Striving to be the change."
The 2024 Secret Santa Workout Gift Exchange is now CLOSED to further entries.

Thank you to everyone who signed up this year! Let the festivities begin!

What happens next?

Over the next couple of days you will receive a private message here on DAREBEE, either from me (the Dragon Elf) or from @Saffity (the Gopher Elf) to let you know who you will be creating your workout gift for. Please watch your inbox for that to come in.

If you've not been posting much in your check-in thread recently, please be sure and get some fresh updates in there this week, so that when a Santa is assigned to you they'll be able to see what sorts of workout activities you're doing these days. Also: a couple of you have changed your log-in thread recently. Please be sure to update the URL for your check-in thread on your profile, so your Santa will be able to find it!

Here is a sample letter to Santa that I wrote to help my Secret Santa design an awesome gift for me. It is not mandatory to write such a letter if your check-in thread already includes the minimum 3 entries (everyone's does) and accurately reflects the types of workout activities you are doing these days. I present this only as an idea for something you might want to post. It can be helpful particularly if you want to highlight workout activities you love but haven't been doing enough of lately, and/or you have injury concerns you need to make certain Santa knows about, and/or you have workout equipment you like to use. (The default is to assume your gift-recipient has no equipment, unless their check-in thread clearly demonstrates that they do.)
 

Laura Rainbow Dragon

Moderator
Moderator
Bard from Canada
Posts: 2,407
"Striving to be the change."
All of the Secret Santa assignments have now gone out! If you have not seen yours, please be sure to check your DAREBEE Direct Messages.

When you have completed your gift, please forward it privately to whichever elf (either me or Saffity) gave you the assignment, no later than the end of day on Saturday, December 7.

Can't wait to see all the wonderful gifts this year!
:plot:
 
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