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Bay Area Man Brings Secret Santa Idea Online

ALAMEDA (CBS SF) – A Bay Area man has taken an innovative approach to connecting people around the world with others who want to give during the holiday season.

Dan McComas of Alameda is taking the idea of a Secret Santa gift exchange to a whole new level with RedditGifts.

It is affiliated with the social news site Reddit and started up back in 2009.

KCBS' Mark Seelig Reports:

"It's a site where people sign up and we do an online Secret Santa," said McComas. "You sign up and give us your address and we match you up to another person. And you figure through an online stocking what the best gift for that person is and you send it. When that person receives the gift, they post videos and pictures of it online."

Participants are supposed to spend about $20 on the gift, but some have taken the concept to another level.

For instance, one woman said on her profile that she was saving for a computer and her Secret Santa ended up buying her a laptop. Another man wrote that he loved bacon and received some of the savory breakfast meat ready to be cooked.

McComas said there was even one person who gave their Secret Santa a four-day trip to the Bahamas.

And while it's too late to join this year, there are other opportunities.

"Through the rest of the year, we have interest exchanges," said McComas. "We had a book exchange, a snack exchange, things like that. We're going to be doing another book exchange for charity in January."

McComas said RedditGifts has more than 37,000 members from 110 different countries.

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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