An Irreverent But Mostly Factual (At Least As I Remember It) History Of Pesty Elf's Christmas BG Giveaway Extravaganza
a public service announcement
some of which originally appeared in my
Gaian Journal some months ago
Way back in the Dark Ages of Gaia, about two years ago if I recall correctly, a player named Wishlist Santa noticed that people who played Booty Grab tended to accumulate a certain amount of gold. And he - she - it - I never was quite sure what was behind the keyboard and it doesn't really matter - thought that maybe some of them would part with some of it to make other Gaians' Christmases more merry.
He was right. He asked and received donations and turned them into items on people's posted wishlists. The charity did so well that it opened again the next year.
But something was different. Perhaps all that time being inside a cow had done something to Santa's brain. Perhaps it was the four lost weeks at Club Med. Perhaps it was being called to testify in front of the panel. Perhaps it wasn't anything in particular. No matter what the reason, the end result was that Santa was not able to fulfill the obligations of the charity last year.
Fortunately, Santa had elves. Santa turned over the resources of the charity to those elves who took over Santa's work and made sure the donations were distributed to the worthy and the not so worthy but who at least had the brains to follow the simple instructions.
And those elves liked the whole idea so much that they decided to continue on without Santa. Of course, without Santa, the charity and thread needed another name and another face, and that's where Pesty Elf comes in. Pesty's good at being the band's front man. Front elf. Whatever.
There are a couple of other elves who hang around to help and eat your brains in addition to the office staff (like me) (I'm logistics and fund raising and annoying details) (because I'm good at details and often annoying).
It all boils down to two very simple ideas:
- While it may not be better to give than receive, it sure feels good.
- Ask and ye shall receive. Maybe not everything on your list (ok, probably not) and maybe not the most expensive thing (because there isn't an infinite amount of gold in the budget), but you don't have to jump through hoops or hop on one foot while patting your head and rubbing your tummy. You just have to ask (well, and follow the simple outline of date/length/cost for your list, but that's mostly to make it a little easier for the people running the show).
This latter is what attracted me to participating in this endeavor. See, life's hard. Everything is a lot of work, and while yes, it's good to work for the things you want and it builds character and all that rot, sometimes it's just nice to ask for something and have the answer be "yes".
So that's where all this came from. Thanks to all of those who have donated and will donate (yep, still taking donations, still playing
Seven Tanks A Week). Thanks to those who are posting wishlists - yes, gifts will go out on or about 12/15 because even though we ask not to open until Christmas we know what temptation looks like.
And thanks for sitting through our little public service announcement.
And if I'm wrong on any of this, someone WILL correct me. This is Gaia, after all
mrgreen .
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