So our disclaimer first of all:

Although most of the verbage on the site refers to pronouns such as 'us' and 'we,' Secret Santa Workshop is really just a 'me' or 'I.' I created this page for Christmas 2009 because my family does these once in a while, but there was always the one person that drew, who knew all the names. Enter Secret Santa Workshop. So, you may notice that this site dosen't run quite as smoothly as others, or you may have even encountered an error in creating an exchange. My excuse is that I am not a programmer. However, I built this site, from the ground up (with some minor help from open source code) on my own. It took me probably 10 times the number of hours a real programmer could have done it in, and it's still glitchy. I promise I'm working on this frequently to get rid of the bugs.

So, basically, here is how the site works...or supposed to work.

You create an account You click on the 'advanced' page Click on 'start a new exchange' The next few pages are hopefully self-explanitory. Just fill in the information. If you want to require confirmation, when you finish putting in all the info, the site will send out confirmations to every email address you listed. Once users click on the confirm link in their email, they can quit there, or create an account of their own. Once everyone has confirmed, you (the creator) will be sent an email with a link to finalize the exchange, or you can log in to check the status of confirmations. When you click the finalize link, the site will go through each person and assign them a random partner, then send them an email with the information. If you want to update your wishlist, on the 'advanced' page, or main menu, at the bottom you will see a place to edit your wishlist information, and submit it on. This will change your wishlist for EVERY exchange you are part of. Hope to make this unique to each exchange next year.

Stuff I want to add next year:

Make the lists editable, so you can reuse your lists and not retype everything. Allow unique wishlists for each exchange Get rid of the slow "sending message x of x," so emails will be sent in the background without you having to wait at all I want your ideas! I will accomidate every idea to the fullest extent of my knowledge of web programming.

Still having troubles, or have suggestions for the site? Let us know!

support@secretsantaworkshop.com