The OSA Christmas Card Exchange!

Hi everyone.

Great news: to commemorate the beginning of the holiday season…back by popular demand, the OSA Christmas Card Exchange is making a return this year!

For those of you who don’t know what the OSA Christmas Card Exchange is…back in the early days of OSA, when our community was nothing more than a handful of fellow Nightwish fans, we started an exchange of Christmas cards during the holiday season as a way to share the goodwill of the holidays, as well as to further cement our bonds of friendship. Over the years, the card exchange has not been implemented as much; but this year, so many people asked about it that we feel inclined to bring it back to the forefront!

How this works: you will send us your name/address, and then once all of the names are collected, you will receive an e-mail from us of all the names on the card exchange list. Just as you do with all the other people on your Christmas card list, you send cards to the people on the list, and they will send one to you! Because this is a voluntary activity, OSA does not provide anyone with holiday greeting cards or stamps. Everyone participating will provide their own stamps and cards; so please do not volunteer if you only intend to get cards without sending any in return. Because the holiday season is all about giving as well as receiving!

For our Oceansouls outside of North America: the sooner you send in your information to us, the better; as it takes a little longer for mail to send overseas.

If you are interested in getting on the card exchange list, you may send us a message via our Facebook or Tumblr pages, or you may use the Contact OSA tab on our website to send us an e-mail, or you can send me a message here via PM.

Please include the following information: your name (if you have a forum username that fellow OSAers know you by, please include this as well), and also both your snail mail and e-mail address. Once all of the addresses are collected, you will receive an e-mail with all the addresses on the card exchange list. These are all the people who you will be sending cards to, and who you will receive cards from in your mailbox!

There is no criteria as far as what kind of cards to send or what to write in the cards; you may include a personal message inside the card if you wish, or just simply sign your name—the choice is yours. This is a good opportunity for friends here to catch up on each other’s lives over the last year, as well as a great opportunity to make new friends in the community. The only rule is to have fun!

The deadlines to send in your information to us: December 1st for residents outside of North America; December 3rd for North American residents. This leaves everyone with enough time to send in their information, as well as enough time to receive the list of addresses with plenty of time to spare to make sure they get out in the mail well before December 25th! So if you want to take part in the spirit of the holiday, send in your information as soon as possible.

Happy holidays from OSA!

 

So far we've only had a few people participate. We haven't done this in a long time, and our group has grown pretty big since then.

This idea was originally implemented by Snowy Owl, so I can ask him if maybe we can consider "regional" options, for people who may not be able to afford postage to our friends overseas. However, so far, the only person outside of the U.S. that has volunteered is from Mexico. Besides that person, there's about 4 or 5 other folks on the list so far, all of them located here.

Hmm, maybe what I can do is give people the option to mention that they want to remain "local" and only receive cards from the U.S. I really don't see a whole lot of overseas folks participating, as the cost for them to send cards here is just as expensive for them as it is for us.

 

LOL, maybe someone on the list will be kind enough to provide that for all of us!

 

Nope, the deadline to send in your address (for U.S. residents) is December 3rd. Everyone else outside the U.S. must send theirs in by December 1st.

For folks in the U.S., please specify if you would like to remain on the "local" mailing list, meaning you will only exchange cards from within the U.S. Please also give your e-mail address so that after the deadline, we can e-mail you the list of other card recipients. Thanks a million!

 

Just a quick reminder to folks outside North America...the deadline for sending in your addresses for the card exchange is tomorrow!

Everyone else, you have until Friday. I extended the deadline date a little since we were still waiting on addresses to come in.

And yes, you can "opt out" of mailing internationally; just type the word "local" next to your name when sending in your info. The list is growing quite nicely!

 

OK folks, today is the deadline for sending in your info! You've got until midnight tonight, for residents of North America. If you want to be on the mailing list for North American addresses only, please type "local" next to your name and address.

Thanks to everyone who has participated so far! This is going to be fun!

 

Addresses were e-mailed last weekend and cards have started going out...who has received theirs?

 

LOL, I loved it!

Too bad you missed the card exchange, but don't feel bad. Taimi had to take her name off the list due to financial problems and not being able to get online to receive the list even if she could send the cards.

We'll have another one next year!

 

Well, you can always send the info early for next year, just to be on the safe side.

 

Oh good, glad you got them! Sorry they took so long to get there, but money was tight.

 

Just wanted to let Snowy, Ray, and Oceansoul Troll know that their cards did arrive...I was out of town over the weekend and just got my mail today, so they *did* arrive on time; I was just not here to get them. Thank you so much!!!

 

You never got your shirt? Let me talk to Ray and see when he sent it off; I know money has been tight for him especially over the last few months, so let me find out if he was able to send it before the holiday rush.