The holidays are long behind us, but we couldn’t miss the opportunity to recap one of our favorite activities in the history of Creator’s Studio: Secret Santa Workshop.
When we first concocted this activity, we thought it MIGHT be popular with our trusty Creators...but we couldn’t have anticipated the thoughtful, heartfelt, and stunning DIY creations that members exchanged amongst themselves! Secret Santa gang: throughout the festive season, you had our Rust-Oleum team buzzing and popping in the community frequently to see your Christmas treasure posts.
We put out the call for participants and in no time at all, 27 enthusiastic members signed up! To keep everyone guessing, we matched each giver with a different recipient (in a hypothetic example, @Lisa L would have made a gift for @AndreCharitat, but @Lisa L would have received a gift from @Katy ... while @Katy would have made a gift for @Carly the Elf; and @Katy and would have received a gift from @Nicole 🎅🏽).
Secret Santa creators got in the spirit early, with teasers about the gifts they were making. Colors, Gia2018, Wild Bill, and mrsblackstone were just a few of the members who got the ball rolling by submitting photos of materials and in-progress DIY gifts.
And then the 'gift-received' posts started rolling in – can you say woweeeeeee?!!! (We sure did 😉).
“I was SO excited when I saw that Mary was my Secret Santa, I've been admiring all of her pretty photos on social media!...her packaging, the card, all the pretty little touches, made this gift over the top! She is literally the Cricut queen! Lol I would buy the items she makes! Thank you so much Mary, I adore it all! Happy Holidays to you and yours!”
“I love the handcrafted sign and trees! It all fits so nicely in my Christmas decor. Thank you so much and Merry Christmas! I loved the secret Santa idea! It was fun to share our love or creating within the community. I can't wait to see what everyone shares. A huge thank you to the Creator's Studio family for all the support and encouragement throughout the year. Merry Christmas, RaLee”
“I got my Secret Santa gift just minutes ago. It’s so great and I’m thrilled to get it. A lot of neat detail I especially love the Santa watch. It’s a Christmas scene inside a tin box. I really love it. Thank you so much!!:) It’s awesome!”
“I received my Secret Santa gift today! I was so surprised and my heart was filled with absolute joy when I opened it. The gifts were wonderfully made with so much effort and love put into them…. I’ll cherish each of these gifts for years to come. There’s truly no greater gift, than that which is made by hand. ❤️🎄”
“Let me just say that when I opened this gift I was completely overwhelmed! I may or may not have teared up as I went thru taking item after item from the box. Everything was individually wrapped and a card requesting that I open it last, I was like a kid on Christmas morning!....There’s even a lil “snow globe” in a jar with RUSTOLEUM SECRET SANTA 2019 and it’s adorable!”
"First off, I want to thank my Secret Santa, Sandi Allen!!! The ornaments are absolutely adorable, and they are proudly displayed on my tree, and the Bingo card gnome is on the wall next to my favorite Santa! I must admit that Sandi pegged me and my likes 100%! To say I am beyond thrilled with my gifts is a huge understatement!"
"I absolutely LOVE my gift!!! I received a BEAUTIFUL set of ornaments for my Secret Santa gift!!! I was so excited to open and thrilled with what I received!! These are all perfect and now have their very own dedicated tree so I can show them off!!! Thank you so much!!! ♥️♥️♥️"
“…I saw this BEAUTIFUL HAND SEWN PILLOW! …. from the bottom of my heart I thank you so much for the PILLOW!...I love that PILLOW ❤”
“Wrapped so nice, I didn't want to open. I was so excited and pleased with my beautiful, thoughtful gifts!”
“It’s a tiny rose made of wood shavings! Glued onto a block. It’s beautiful!”
There are so many more beautiful items in this activity; we couldn’t possibly list them all in this post but we sure hope you check them all out (and we’re guessing a few of you have already filed these project ideas away for Christmas 2020!).
Were you a participant in this activity? Please share your sentiments about the experience below. And if you didn’t participate, let us know if this is something you’d want to be a part of next time around. Happy 2020, Creators!