Sharing books might be your cup of tea...

People are very creative in the ways that they share gifts during the holidays.

I discovered what the book bloggers and the tea enthusiasts are doing, and it is very cool…
They use an online Secret Santa format to spread the joy of the season with their respective networks.

Bonnie at Red Lady Reading Room and Gwendolyn at Sea of Books both participate in a blog-based book swap.  This event was started a few years back by some passionate book readers who describe the party as: “a way for book bloggers to connect and celebrate the holiday spirit by sharing gifts. It’s done secret Santa style; all of the participants are randomly assigned a blogger to send a gift to, and these assignments are kept secret until the gift has been delivered. So no one knows who their gift is coming from”!

I did a little exploring around, and it seems that there is a large group of bloggers who share the gift of reading through this online party.

But, the book readers are not the only online community that swaps gifts using  internet tools…  The tea crowd is in on the action as well…

Theirs is also an online Secret Santa format and is titled The Tea Round Table’s Holiday Gift Swap.  It is organized by the World of Tea.  Those who are a part of the world of tea online forum can use an online registration to join and share tea with randomly selected “gift buddies”.

These connected groups of users  find many ways to share with each other. So during the holidays they use the web to facilitate their effort to share gifts.  We  see groups like book bloggers and tea drinkers also using the online white elephant party system to share as well.

In fact, it would add the extra dimension of a common game play page and extra banter into their events.  The online yankee swap/white elephant party would connect club members, societies, sororities and gift-sharers of many persuasions.  What is more social than a party?

We salute the Blogger Book Swap and the Tea Holiday Gift Swap for moving the party online!

What other groups do you know who could benefit from these ideas?

Thanks to HolidaySwap for the image…