I started this last year, and it was all about the spirit of giving on deviantART. We have so many people in our equine artist community, ranging from not-so-well-known people to very well-known people! Thats why the Equine Secret Santa is great! It makes everyone on the same level, nobody is more known than someone else, and it brings everyone together to make our community a very giving one! So here comes Equine Secret Santa 2009!




Here are some of the wonderful gifts people drew last year!










WHAT IS A SECRET SANTA?
According to Wikipedia.com, [link] "Secret Santa is a Western holiday tradition in which members of a group are randomly assigned other members to whom they anonymously give a gift. Often practiced in workplaces, or amongst large families, participation in it is usually voluntary. It offers a way for many people to give and receive a gift at low cost to those involved.






WHAT DOES IT DO?
Wikipedia.com says:
"There are various traditions and ways in which a "Secret Santa" is run. In some variations, as Christmas approaches, names of participants are placed in a hat, and each person draws a name for whom they are to buy a gift. Along with name submission, each participant may also submit a short wishlist of items from which the gift-giver can choose. There is often a limit to how much can be spent on the present. Presents are then sometimes exchanged anonymously. Many schools and offices do this at Christmas time, often as a cost-saving effort. It usually take place prior to Christmas because the office and school settings require it. Sometimes people leave hints in cards on desks, others create other special ways to make themselves known.
Often, the gift-giving occasion is practiced with all the presents being placed on a table, marked with the name of the receiver but not the giver. Sometimes the gift-giver will personally give the recipient the present, thereby revealing their identity. Some groups may choose to donate the money they saved on presents to charity.






SO WHAT HAPPENS?
Well, instead of drawing names out of a hat, we'll have a list of a certain number of spaces, perhaps 100 or so. Then, once all the spaces have been filled, I will close the list and start my secret santa job - giving names to people! This will be done on a totally random basis. So, whoever is on the list will get another person's name who is
on the list. You won't be allowed to draw for someone you want to, seeing as some
people will get more than one person drawing for them! To make this fair, I won't be
participating (actually its cus I have my own gift list!)





SO HOW CAN I JOIN IT?
Send me a note (no comments please!) with your name and your character/s that you own and want drawn. If you have links to ref sheets, do include them as well!
Your name will be added to the list, and then just wait until the list is full and I shall sprinkle my magic horsey Santa dust over everyone!
Please note that this is an equine secret santa, so it does help if you have an equine character and draw equines! As long as it's along the lines of a horse, like a unicorn, pegasus, centaur, zebra etc!




GIFTS
The kinds of gifts are many! The most popular gift is a drawing, put some love into it to make it super special and gifty! ^^ You can do a simple drawing of their character, or a big one with their character and yours! You can do digital and traditional works! Photomanipulations are also awesome! And of there are many story lovers out there, maybe they'd like a little story about their character? Perhaps you'd like to give them a new character! If you're great with coding, maybe they'd like a new CSS journal? (Just check that they are a subscriber, and also if they already have a nice custom CSS. If they've got a plain one and you think they might like a customised one with their characters, then you can make one!) Whatever you feel like giving, go ahead! Its all about making that person feel the true spirit of giving on dA!
Just a reminder, but please keep gifts 'clean', no sexual content. There are young people in our community!






RULES

To join, you must:
Send me ( *Equinus ) a note, with the subject titled 'Join ESS'. Please include a few characters, and links to their ref sheets. I really appreciate including the link, since it is a mission to go to someone's page and dig around for a ref, especially if there are 150 of you! Then that gives your secret santa a choice of characters to draw, and perhaps they'd like to draw more than one! If you only have one main character, then thats alright!

How it works:
Your name will then go into my database of secret santas! Once I've filled the database, the ESS will be closed and I shall work my magic, giving each Secret Santa a special someone to draw for!

The person you'll be drawing for won't know you're drawing for them, and you won't know who's drawing for you either! Hehe thats why its secret!







NOTES

The assigning of a deviant is totally random. I honestly close my eyes and move my finger in a giant circle in front of the screen, and whereever it lands is the person you draw for!

Since you have plenty time to draw for your ESS-ee, you don't have much of an excuse if you say you can't do your half. Only to those who have a genuine reason will be excused, such as if you've been in a car accident, death in a family and you have to leave etc. If you're a digital artist and your tablet breaks, I'll accept that since its not cool to try draw without one! But things like your scanner dying, well, it is and it isn't a good excuse. I know scanners are good, but you can always use a camera with a few good lights to avoid shadows and take photos of it. Plus, Photoshop can fix up any photo!

If you know you're not going to be around the PC between the 'uploading' dates, it might be better if you don't sign up. That way there's less risk of disappointing someone when they don't get their gift!

I can't run after the 150 or so people to make sure they'll finish and upload their gifts on time! I also don't want to have to chase after people who don't upload. Besides, you should put all your effort into making these gifts!

Spend time on your gifts! And you can start uploading Christmas gifts between the 10th and the 23rd of December.

When you send a note to your ESS-ee, please send me a note with the link as well! That way we can collect all the wonderful gifts and make a giant feature of it!





Please no later than the 24th if necessary! They're meant to be Christmas gifts, so it is a bit silly if they come afterwards!




So if you have any questions, stick 'em in a comment and I'll do my best to answer them! But make sure you've read the whole article first, there's lotsa details and maybe you missed one! Otherwise, I hope you all help make Christmas on dA and really giving one, and let's make this Christmas rock!







_{This year's ESS goes to the memory of Ziven Shirokii, *Winged-Horse on dA. He helped inspire the ESS last year, and without him it would've have come to dA. This one's for you Ziven!}