With GOG forum search being what it is (and seemingly not going to improve in our lifetime) I believe it would be neat to have a thread to keep history records of one of our most beloved forum events known as Secret Santa.

Fellow GOGers, here are the links to corresponding threads and some additional info for each year:

Secret Santa 2010 - 21 participants - hosted by nmillar
Secret Santa 2011 - 39 participants - hosted by nmillar
Secret Santa 2012 - 63 participants - hosted by nmillar
Secret Santa 2013 - 71 participants - hosted by nmillar
Secret Santa 2014 - 96 participants - hosted by Momo1991
Secret Santa 2015 - 63 participants - hosted by trentonlf
Secret Santa 2016 - 44 participants (+4 Secret Elves) - hosted by trentonlf
Secret Santa 2017 - 31 participants (+10 Secret Elves) - hosted by misteryo
Secret Santa 2018 - 33 participants (+4 Secret Elves) - hosted by BeatriceElysia
Secret Santa 2019 - 25 participants (+5 Secret Elves) - hosted by BeatriceElysia
Secret Santa 2020 - 33 participants (+4 Secret Elves) - hosted by trentonlf
Secret Santa 2021 - 26 participants (+4 Secret Elves) - hosted by zeffyr
Secret Santa 2022 - 36 participants (+3 Secret Elves) - hosted by zeffyr
Secret Santa 2023 - 34 participants (+2 Secret Elves) - hosted by zeffyr
Secret Santa 2024 - XY participants (+Z Secret Elves) - hosted by zeffyr

It's well known that in our community we have users who like collecting and sharing statistical data, so if anyone have spare time and would like to investigate some interesting fact about the event (for example how many participants there were each year), just share your findings and I'll implement them in this post. You'll be credited accordingly, naturally.

Main purpose of this thread is to have everything in one place, but if you wish to comment something about the event in general, you're free to do so, of course.

Thanks to all the people who were ever part of this lovely forum tradition.
May the merry flame of Secret Santa event burn forever! :)

Folks who helped this thread shine like a star on top of a Christmas tree:
mrkgnao - found missing links for years 2011-2013 and a "bonus goodie" event
nmillar - counted number of participants for years 2010-2016

https://www.gog.com/forum/general_archive/gog_secret_santa_2011
https://www.gog.com/forum/general_archive/gog_secret_santa_2012
https://www.gog.com/forum/general_archive/gog_secret_santa_2013

You might also want to record the alternative for posterity:
Secret Satan 2015 - 5 brave participants - hosted by CarrionCrow

It ran for only one year, but perhaps it's time to revive it?

I'm thinking treating it as a "bonus goodie" for those who will read past the OP will make its case a more special one. xD If this thread was a "spartan proactive company" I would say "hey, you found the problem, you find the solution", if you catch my drift. ;)

Number of participants each year (not including elves):

2010: 21
2011: 39
2012: 63
2013: 71
2014: 96
2015: 63
2016: 44

Unfortunately, from 2017 onwards, a list of participants is no longer available in the original post.

Thanks for the data you gathered. If someone else don't do it first, I'll count the participants for years 2017-2019 when I'll have more free time. :)

Since this year's Secret Santa event is approaching I've finally taken some time to manually count the participants for years 2017-2019, updated the OP accordingly and now we have all the data (we could think of gathering at this point xD).

Why are you upside down?

A new GOG bug:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/anybody_else_with_their_avatar_showing_upside_down/page1

Well, I was practicing my going down the chimney, you see, little exercise before the event. But, even after 7 years of being a Secret Santa, I still can't figure out how the original gramps does this trick...so here I am...stuck upside down.

No thread yet for 2020, right? I'd like to jump back into it. I can't remember what year I did it, but it was a fun time.

Here you go. :)

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/secret_santa_2020

That's right, still no thread for 2020. The one nmillar posted above was created by mistake, trentonlf will create a proper one when he's ready and I'll update the link in OP here accordingly.

Doing the Lord's work here

the new fad of santas! :) Thank you for all the hard work everyone!