HGG Community Forums

Yaaaaaay I'm so excited for this!

Just a few wish list tips:

- Make a biiig like list of things you like! That helps the person who's gonna gift you something a lot.
- Anything can be on your wishlist. It can be anything from genes or colors you breed for or want to breed for, certain sized ponies, certain generations you need, to straws/eggs/embryos, to show horses, to horses from specific HHs that you like, to barns/pastures/upgrades. Basically anything can be on your wishlist! However, I would not expect to get a barn in the 25,000 category, as that is much more. But you can always put it on your wishlist! It is a wishlist, not a 'guaranteed-to-get'-list.
- I personally always state what kind of upgrade I have, so the one shopping for you knows wether you can use straws and embryo's and/or eggs.

- Remember: this is, like Secret Santa, all about the gift giving, not necessarily the receiving of the gifts. It is that feeling to make an effort to make your recipient happy what is the most rewarding, and receiving nice gifts for yourself from others is just the cherry on top on that gifting-feeling-cake! If you make an effort and try to find one or some things that your person likes that is more than enough! And everyone is always happy to help out if you have any difficulties finding gifts and/or have questions (you can always PM me!).

And most importantly: have fun! (*)

I want to do this but I don't have 250,000 hb's and stuff like that. I wish I did because I love giving and making people happy.

Also, remember that it is the "Gift Exchange". This event is not just for Christians. :)

Ok, I added in a warning that comes up if someone has a less than 500 character wishlist letting them know a wishlist of 1k characters or more is recommended. I did not want to punish people for not having enough on the list but also make it clear you really do need to include good info.

Lol. No issue at all. Wasn't an attempt to call you out, I just saw it and went... oh that is going to cause problems. :D :))

I was talking to the person who called it Secret Santa, not you. ;)

thats GOOD info tho @stacey ; someone can certainly help you get a bunch of showponies :)

Putting aside upgrades and gifting levels, I just wanted to check what are good things to ask for vs. what things are tricky for gifters to provide anonymously. I remember there were in-game systems for anonymously gifting most things back in the summer exchange, but I can't remember if there were any exceptions.

I assume that horses, straws, and eggs are all easy to gift, but is it tricky to gift barns, genes, hbs, IVs, GMTs, tack packs, breeding boosts, pastures, etc.? I know some of these things cost a bunch of real money and will really only be relevant for the Level 3 gifting but I figured I'd ask about everything just in case it is helpful to someone else too. Thanks!

I was also a "Middle Person " for a few of those items ; they were sent to me and i sent them to the giftee ; so the actual gifter was hidden until the end during the summer exchange

Straws, eggs, and embryos are already technically anonymous. "Another member has sent you an offer to purchase...." doesn't tell you who sent it. Granted if you're just sending a freezer full of things from your own horses it might be obvious but maybe not!

Stone Silo Farm yes it does, when you make the purchase it shows in your transaction log who you paid.

@Embla there is an anonymous gifting week and an open gifting week. You can choose when you want to gift but should reveal yourself at the end.

@HighFiveAcres ; its on the member page I think ; and also I know when your Gifter was shopping for you last year ; they stalked your barn lol to look and she what you had / needed / wanted. I know I also stalked my giftee's barn as well lool

So your only allowed to enter 2 of the three levels wondering cause sounded like it in the post but i was able to enter all thee. I have always done all three love gifting especially to newer players

@HorseCrazyByNature I know for the summer exchange there wasn't, not sure about this one though but I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same.

@Ammit I am beyond impressed with how thorough you are. You are incredible!

@Kczum ; Ammit randomly assigns a person for you to gift to and usually ( at least this past summer ) someone diferent to gift to you ; we find out after the sign ups close ( I believe they close today ) ; we then have 2 is weeks to shop for our giftee. Ammit created a program that allows each person to anonymously send gifts to each other for 2 weeks. after that I think there is an additonal week or so to give revealing yourself. There is a mandatory survey once the gifting is completed.
Alot of this is covered in the first post also ; if I wasn't clear please refer back to that post. If there is conflicting info ; please use the info given on the first post :)

Oh yeah, that part was fun.

I’m sorry that happened to you. That seems a bit unfair to ask for something that costs real money at level one...

- You can give them neutered show ponies, which seems more reasonable than cash purchases at level one. You can purchase and sell neutered licensed gene horses without having the license.
- You can trade hbs for real money and have someone else purchase the gene for them. (I note that at current exchange rates, even purchasing the cheapest genes will put you well over the gift bracket. A $5 gene is about 500,000 hbs, and the only licensed genes that are that affordable are the Phantoms.)
- If your recipient already has the license and you do not, you can arrange with some who does have the license to sell your recipient horses for 1hb and send the seller the rest of the money. You won't be able to transfer them via the gift exchange anonymous giving feature, but the seller can make it known the horse(s) is from their giftee.

Those are the three ways that immediately come to mind for me.

(Reminder to do check what the are asking for. In my level one entry on HJ2, I asked for pretty show ponies, and did list some licensed genes as examples of what I like to look at. I made sure to specify show ponies so my giftee would not be pressured/think I want the actual genes (and would be horrified if they interpreted it that way) - any chance your person wants the same and just phrased it weirdly?)

@mistylynn91 straws/eggs are always my go to in that situation! You contact the person that you want to get straws/eggs from and give them your giftees ID and they will send the straws/eggs directly from their account when gifting week comes, so no worry about licenses or account level. You can arrange a payment pony between the two of you.

A lot people are willing to offer straws at pull price for the exchange so you can arrange quite a few for your giftee well within the 25,000 limit! Same with lined horses. Take a look at the holiday shopping list and message people who breed what your giftee is looking for. This community is super friendly and everyone that I messaged during the last exchange was super willing to help. You can either work with the owner to have them sell the horse to your giftee or you can post on the forum looking for a go-between that has the needed licenses.

Deep breaths, don't panic! Last year my giftee asked for straws and horses from licenses I didn't have and I panicked at first too before realizing the options I had. I actually had a TON of fun shopping for all the fancy genes and coordinating gifts. I'm actually a bit bummed I didn't get fantasy requests this time around.

Feel free to PM me with your giftees specific requests. I absolutely love shopping for the exchange and would be happy to help you brainstorm! :D

ETA: This was all assuming your giftee was asking for horses they already had a license for. Also like Chateau mentioned, show ponies are always a great option too! They make our HJ world go round :)

Do we have a list of Elves yet? I have some questions regarding my assignment that I would like to ask but of course I can't ask my giftee directly.

Not sure what that entails, but if I qualify, I’d love to be an elf! I love helping people and making them happy :)

Plus I’m a mythical creature already, haha!

I would be very happy to help out in anyway that I can since unfortunately I didn't really have the time to join the exchange this year but would still like to participate and can also help out with holding/ sending gifts with license genes for anyone! :) Just PM me if you need anything!

1 week of anonymous gifting, one week of open gifting. Everything must be sent by the end of the year.

Thank you both :)