Some good questions have been asked so answers are being posted here in the hopes they're helpful for everyone! If you have other questions that aren't covered here, comments, or concerns please don't hesistate to reach out!! Thank you to everyone who's asked so far :)
Do we have to make a new site for our page?
No, you can just make a page on your existing site! You don't have to link it anywhere on your site itself -- I'd actually recommend against it to preserve the secrecy LOL. On December 20 for the gift exchange, I'll be sending out the links that Santas send me, but for the gallery page and preserving the shrines after the event is over, I'm going to be make mirrors of all the shrines on this site (including images, etc.) so Santas don't have to keep hosting them indefinitely. These will be shown in the gallery section with credit to the Santa who created it and a link to their site, as well as the name and site of the giftee.
That being said -- if Santas will allow me a grace period of a week after the event to get everything downloaded and mirrored properly that would be hugely appreciated 😅🙏
Do we choose just one of the giftee's interests and make a shrine page for that?
Yes, that's the plan!! Santas have received a list of their giftee's interests. You'll be choosing one of those from the list and making a shrine page about it in the same spirit you'd be making a shrine page about one of your own interests! My hope was that along with having something to give each other (without spending money), this event would also be a way for people to find new things to enjoy.
You don't have to make shrines for every interest listed -- some have given pretty extensive lists so their Santas have lots of options. If you'd like to get ambitious and make more than one shrine I'm definitely not going to stop you!! Just don't feel obligated to. You can also use more than one interest and combine them into an extra-personalized page for your giftee. This is a creative exercise so as long as your giftee ends up with a shrine page related to one of their interests there's not really a wrong answer :)
Is it just one shrine per person? Yep, at least, that's the way we have it set up this year. This question prompted the idea that maybe next year I'll check in with Santas and see which of the interests they've chosen for their giftees, and then make a page with a pool of all the unused interests/prompts in case anyone wants to go Super Saiyan Santa and make a bunch more shrines lol. For our first round I think one shrine per person, and one giftee per Santa, is good! :) I know life can get extra busy around this time of year and I don't want anyone to stress about it. (There's a whole month for the creation period! You got this!!)
Are we making a template for our giftees to write in their thoughts on the interest?
Oooh. I had originally been thinking a shrine page as if you were making it for yourself/your own interest, BUT that is a very cool idea!! If you decide to build your page that way I'd just recommend to make sure it's clearly related to the interest you chose :)