Lately, Elizabeth and I have been having a lot of fun putting together two "Secret Santa" boxes for people on one of the Disney Trading Pin forums. You receive a filled out questionnaire from someone and get to make up a Christmas package for them. They don't know who is sending the package to them (until they open it . . . if you choose to identify yourself), and you will receive a package from someone totally different.
We'd never done this before, but it's been really fun, and we thought we'd share photos of what we put in. Maybe it will provide some ideas for someone else working on a project like this!
For the first box, the recipient really liked Stitch and Star Wars, so we collected things to match -- and made some things!
You have to include at least one real Disney trading pin in your box, and the questionnaire asks what types/themes you collect and if you have any "grail" pins (super special "wants"). Our Secret Santa partner had listed the "I Heart Gaming" pins as grail pins . . . and Elizabeth and I were SUPER thrilled when we were actually able to get two of them!
- A Disney Parks Mickey Ear Headband
- A Mickey Mouse Pin Trading Lanyard
- A Star Wars metal Christmas ornament from Disney Springs.
- A Lilo & Stitch Squished Penny from Disney Springs.
- Hand-painted and decorated Stitch Keepsake Box (more on this farther down).
- Sticker-backed photo frame with Disney Princesses.
- Hand-engraved Stitch heart stone.
- A flashlight that is shaped like a Star Wars lightsaber handle. It's pretty neat, because it has six different "filters" to put on which cause the light to shine in the shape of basic characters and Star Wars symbols.
- Star Wars pencil and mini magnet.
- Hand-made Trading Pin storage box made from vintage VHS case.
- Two "I Heart Gaming" pins (Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid).
We also had a Star Wars mug in there, but I couldn't fit it into the group photo. Here are some pictures of it by itself . . . it's got lots of characters on it!
The engraved stone was made by Elizabeth. She put "Stitch" on one side and "Ohana" on the reverse. She engraved those onto the stone and then inked over the engraving to make it dark.
Once we had everything made and collected, it was time to wrap it all! That was a lot of fun. We even got Minnie and Mickey wrapping paper for the occasion.