Laura Rainbow Dragon
Moderator
The Secret Santa Workout Gift Exchange is back for 2025! Here's how it works:
The Rules:
- 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.
- If you'd like to join in, sign up by commenting on this thread. The deadline to join is Sunday, November 23, 2025.
- 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 26. Be sure to check your in-box!
- 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 Riotous Revelry Rescue. (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 6. DO NOT BE LATE!
- 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 21. (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!)
- You must complete your workout gift and post in your check-in thread that you did it, no later than Sunday, January 4, 2026.
- 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 4.
- Read up on your fellow Bees' holiday adventures in their check-in threads and try to guess who was your Santa!
The Rules:
- 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 this year's stories is: It's holiday time again, and your giftee Bee is so excited for the Hive's annual holiday party! But when they arrive back at the Hive, eager to begin the festivities, they find a scene of chaos. Everything is in disarray! All the Bees are buzzing around frantically, working at cross purposes to one another, and the Hive itself looks like a scene from a horror movie, not a welcoming place of comfort and joy. What is going on? Your giftee Bee must get to the bottom of the problem and, through completing the exercises in their workout gift, get all of the Bees working together again to get the Hive ready for the party.
- 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.)
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The December 6 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 26 and December 6, 2025.
- Have fun!
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