- A Michigan woman named Shelby received an 81-pound secret Santa package from the billionaire Bill Gates.
- Gates has been participating in the annual r/SecretSanta gift exchange on Reddit for years and makes it a point to find thoughtful gifts for each recipient.
- Shelby said Gates’ most impactful gift was a donation to the American Heart Association in honor of her mother, who died earlier this year.
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A Reddit user from Michigan was the lucky recipient of a massive holiday package from Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates. A Detroit-area woman named Shelby signed up for a gift exchange organized by r/SecretSanta and RedditGifts.com and received a 81-pound box from a user named “thisisbillgates” on December 18, along with a donation to the American Heart Association to honor her late mother.
Shelby has participated in 95 gift exchanges on RedditGifts and told MarketWatch she’d always thought it would be interesting to be matched with Gates. The billionaire philanthropist has been participating in Reddit secret Santa exchanges for more than five years and makes a point to find personal gifts for each recipient based on the gift questionnaire they fill out at the start of the exchange.
In a post on RedditGifts, Shelby said Gates’ donation to the AHA was the most meaningful gift she received after her mother died unexpectedly in March. The 81-pound box was actually too big to fit in her car, so Shelby and her husband instead cracked it open at the FedEx location where it was being held.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgyk44G_WGk
Inside the box, she found a personalized placard with a written message from Gates and a collection of thoughtful gifts based on her interests.
Here's everything Shelby got in her secret Santa package from Bill Gates:
- A collection of books published in 2019 personally recommended by Gates
- A Harry Potter-themed Santa Claus hat
- Hylian Shield earrings, inspired by "The Legend of Zelda"
- A handmade "Legend of Zelda" quilt
- A hammock with a bug net
- Candy - almond rocca, mint chocolate from Seattle Chocolate Co., and jelly beans from Jelly Belly
- Seven packs of different-flavored Oreo cookies
- Cat toys for Shelby's cat Emmy
- A cat-themed logic game
- Eight hardcover books
- A manuscript copy of "The Great Gatsby"
- A candle inscribed with a passage from "The Great Gatsby"
- Two adult Lego sets, one based on the Hogwarts castle from Harry Potter, and the other based on R2D2 from Star Wars (Shelby said she already had both of these sets.)
- A set of memorabilia inspired by the show "Twin Peaks," including a shirt, a sweatshirt, a jacket worn by the show's crew members, a book by the director Jonathan Sanger, and multiple scripts from the show's second season
