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At a distance

A group that never meets can still open something together

Everyone gets a private card wherever they are, in whatever time zone. What takes planning is not the draw — it is the parcel and the moment, and both are settled before you send.

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The two hard parts, and neither is the draw

A draw across four cities takes exactly as long as one around a table. The parts that take planning are the ones nobody thinks about until December: getting a parcel to somebody and finding a moment when everybody is awake.

Postage is the first, and it is the one that quietly doubles the budget. A twenty-euro gift with twelve euros of shipping is a thirty-two euro gift where a third of the money bought a cardboard box.

The moment is the second, and it is the one people skip. Without a fixed hour, an exchange at a distance becomes eleven people opening a parcel alone on different evenings — which is a delivery, not an exchange.

How to run one

  1. 1

    Draw early

    Three weeks rather than one. Somebody is shipping across a border, and a customs form is not a thing to discover on the twentieth.

  2. 2

    Set the shipping rule in advance

    Either postage comes out of the budget for everyone, or it sits on top for everyone. Mixing the two makes the person shipping furthest look mean.

  3. 3

    Fix one hour, in one time zone

    Name it in the invitation — "19:00 Brussels time" — rather than "that evening". Everyone can convert an hour; nobody can convert a vague one.

  4. 4

    Open together on a call

    Parcels stay unopened until the call. It is the whole reason the exchange exists, and it is the part that makes an evening of it.

Worth agreeing on first

Who pays for postage
The fairest version, and the one that avoids arithmetic: everybody buys under the same ceiling and pays their own shipping. The person sending furthest spends more, so keep the ceiling low enough that it does not sting.
What counts as a gift
If the group spans continents, allow something that does not ship: a book sent from a local shop, a subscription, a hand-written thing scanned. It is not a lesser gift, it is a gift that arrives.
The deadline is the postmark, not the date
Say "posted by the twelfth" rather than "arriving by the twentieth". One is something a person controls and the other is not.
Addresses stay between two people
Whoever draws you needs somewhere to send it. Agree how that gets shared — directly, in one message — rather than putting eleven home addresses in a group chat.

Common questions

Can people take part from different countries?

Yes. The card is a link and works anywhere. What crosses borders slowly is the parcel, which is why the draw wants three weeks rather than one.

How do people exchange postal addresses?

Outside the draw, between the two people concerned. Pindao holds an email address and nothing else — no postal address, no phone number.

What about time zones?

Reminders go out on the event date you set. For the call itself, name one city’s clock in the invitation and let everyone convert from that.

Do my guests need an account?

No. Each person gets a private link by email that works straight away. Only you sign in, and by email link rather than a password.

Will I see who drew whom?

No. The matches are encrypted and never displayed, including to you as the organiser. Your dashboard shows progress only.

Is a digital gift acceptable?

It is if the group says so before the draw, and it is the only thing that works when somebody is twelve time zones away. Decide it up front so nobody feels they took a shortcut.

Four cities, one evening, one gift each

Add the names, set the date, and let everyone scratch wherever they are.

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