Reddit’s community does a number of things really well, and one of them is Christmas. The clamorous digital hivemind’s redditgifts faction hosts a massive secret santa every year. The tradition started in 2009, and in 2012, more than 44,000 people participated – and the holiday exchange is on track to have an even bigger year this time around.
The rules are simple: spend at least $20, ship your gift before December 20, and be gracious. Users can write a list of gift suggestions to help their secret santa pick an appropriate present.
And one user this year already received her secret santa surprise: a gift from noted mega-billionaire and apparent Reddit fan Bill Gates. Opening her gift (a stuffed cow with a donation to Heifer International, which is a charity that provides livestock and training to in-need communities, plus a book of travel photos) the user didn’t realize that “Bill” was Bill Gates until she saw the picture he took holding up her present with a sign for her.
The user wrote a blog post detailing her reaction to the gift (overwhelming, unadulterated excitement), and how it took her a while to figure out who it was coming from.
“I thought Bill sounded like a friendly fellow,” she wrote. “In fact, I had this whole image of this poor guy named Bill trying to navigate my wishlist full of makeup, nailpolish, glittery things to buy me. Quite frankly I felt bad for this “Bill” since I’m a self identified pain in the ass to shop for. I finally opened the card and realized that “Bill” (I use quotes, because like I said, I still didn’t realize that this was THE Bill) had donated to a charity on my behalf.”
Gates’ present was thoughtful and very in the spirit of the gift exchange, and just confirms that you never know who will pop up on Reddit.
(via Buzzfeed, photo from Reddit)
