In December I like to give random items to people under their trees and of course to friends. I usually put stocking stuffer type stuff under the trees and send wish list items as wrapped presents so they don't have to wait until Luminaire to open them and can update their wish lists. I usually give at least 1 WL item to people on my friends list. I also save up scratch cards during the year and drop a ton of them in the donation center on Xmas eve and Xmas. I post on the forum when I'm going to do this so people know to get them. Only tried the Melody once and wasn't impressed so haven't tried it again. Not trying the new opponent, don't like those that cost $. Will be getting a new loyalty box any day now. In the past I've used them for pet slots but to get to the next achievement level I would need 20 more pets. Don't see that happening so not sure what to use the new box for.

Any Sharks need a 1 week gold account medal for getting more quests done?

Last December was the first Luminaire after I started being more sociable and making lots of Subeta friends. I truly love all my Subeta friends and have so much more fun doing things on Subeta with such wonderful people to share activities and thoughts and just anything with. I can't imagine being without them. But I have to admit that I found Luminaire to be completely overwhelming and very stressful. I loved that my friends were thinking of me and wanted to send gifts, but I then had to spend way more time than I enjoyed (or could afford) working at questing to earn sP to be able to make sure that I was able to send gifts to all of them. I know none of them would have been upset if I had not done that, or if I had spent less, but I am not poor and while I don't worry about trying to "keep up" with people or friends, neither do I want them to feel ignored, or me to feel like I haven't done my best to show appreciation and how much they mean to me. The gifting shouldn't be all one sided.

And then after Luminaire, when the trees opened, I felt like I really needed to continue working to make sure I sent individual thank you's for each and every gift and also to send a few more gifts where I was overwhelmed by the generosity of someone and felt that I really did need to send something more if only a little something as a special thanks.

I understand and respect that both Christmas and Luminaire are really important to many people. But for me it's too much to deal with. I honestly don't ever want to upset anyone, but I really would like to skip all the gift giving (especially with friends) and put the time into interacting with them instead, and the sP into gifting spread out through the whole year (both to friends - for a special occasion or just because and also to strangers} when I get some extra questing time, or when I see something that makes me notice, or when I find a new user I'd like to welcome to Subeta. And if I were given the choice, I would not have a tree at all (I don't select one, but people put stuff under the not a tree anyway.)

As far as receiving gifts, I much prefer to truly be excited by each one (because every gift is an expression of caring from someone else - regardless of what thing was sent). And to spread that out so that I am able to really fully appreciate each one and, more importantly, fully appreciate each gift sender.

Sorry. I think maybe I should stop talking about this particular topic. I really don't want to upset anyone, or lessen anyone else's enjoyment. Life is short and we should all fully appreciate every single blessing and every single precious moment of joy. The last thing I want to do is get in the way of that for anyone.

- one of the loyalty box choices is a large stat boost for one of your battle pets, if that appeals to you.

Yeah I know but I wouldn't want to waste it on just a stat booster. Maybe a 3 month gold account. I know there's no way I will ever get 20 more pets.

- I can understand that. A 3 month gold account is certainly a reasonable choice if you will use the perks. So far, I haven't figured out what to do with any of mine so they are still sitting in my inventory. Nice to have such a tough choice given to us each year. :-)

By the way, what achievement are you talking about? The only one I seem to be able to find is Massive Family which caps at 40 pets.

I spent one year buying a bunch of cute candy from the candy shop and then I dumped it all in the donation center before Christmas. It was way too much work for me lol. Scratchcards are a great idea :) I am sure people loved them! I should be getting a loyalty box in about 2 weeks. I always get a new pet. I can't help myself!

Everyone has different feelings about the holiday. You should never worry about sharing your feelings hugs we are all adults here (most of the time :P). I can understand and respect that. If someone tells me they would rather not participate, I don't take it personally. I would never want to make someone feel bad or feel like they have to give me a gift. I have a besty on here and her bday is a few days after mine. At first I would do a month of birthdays for her. I would send her a gift anonymously every day with a cute message or video. After a couple of years she asked me to stop and I did. I think it was a bit much. I was just so excited to do it lol. Now I just wait for her bday and send her a present and some cake :D If you would prefer if I didn't put a gift under your tree, I can understand that :) I just hope you can forgive me if I forget. I have a really bad memory. That is why at Christmas I try to gift everyone on my friends list at once. I start at the top and keep going until I am finished. If I don't, I might skip someone! Maybe within the Shark Tank we could do another secret Santa. That way everyone only has one person to shop for :) I had a lot of fun with it last year. Putting the themes together and coming up with new ones was the most fun for me and the main reason I even tried the Mysterious Melody. After putting all that effort into it and MAYBE getting some random dice in return was a let down. I would have been so thrilled to even get a cheap tree bauble in return. At least it would have been Christmas-y. Too many times I didn't get any response. I felt like I was just tossing gifts off a cliff. I will try not to participate this year, but there will be that one night when I am bored and can't sleep and I will sign up again lmao! I hope this mini wall of text made sense. Just know that I rarley take anything personally, and I am sure I am not the only one. hugs ~ Has anyone heard from Starless lately? Did I miss a post of hers?

- thank you for being so understanding.

I never mind when someone gifts me - I always look at it as a message saying they care about me and want to do something nice for me. I just feel there is too much pressure to do too much gifting all at the same time.. And I am afraid that others will be hurt or offended if I'm not as enthusiastic about it as they are.

I understand completely how you feel about Mysterious Melody. If someone signs up for that, or for Secret Santa - or makes any other sort of commitment then they should actively participate and not leave others just hanging. I can understand if some users don't think they can afford to participate, but then they should not sign up.

No prob Hun :) I never get hurt or offended if someone doesn't gift under my tree or anything. To be perfectly honest when all the gifts are dumped into my inventory I can barely keep track of who gave what (if anything at all) lol. I have tried to go through and thank everyone personally, but most of the time I just give a blanket "Thank you" to everyone cause the holiday is a rushed time and I just don't have the time or energy to. I am sure it is the same way for everyone else. It goes by in such a blur that at the end of it all I can barely remember who gave what to who (or whom?). I just want everyone to enjoy the holiday in whatever way that works for them ❤ I was always taught that if you make a commitment you stand by it. Not enough people do that these days sigh Know your personal limits and never make promises for anything more than you can handle!

unlurks I totally get your feelings. I love gifting people during Luminaire. While I also enjoy receiving that's not important to me. I get a lot more joy from putting WL items under my friend's trees and the tree/anon gifting like .

Must have read that wrong, I thought it was 50 pets. OK guess I'll keep trying to get 10 more then. Costs a lot to keep that many in the lodge and in training constantly though. My next loyalty box should come through tomorrow. But I have NO idea what pet to get. :( I buy a scratch card every once in a while in between doing other stuff then put them in the vault when I have more than a few. But I always keep a few on hand in inventory for the stealing RE. I figure scratching them gives people something to do. Which is why I always put a few under trees as well. Usually by end of December I have hundreds of them in my vault for throwing in the DC. Right now I have over 600 but I've been slacking off this year. Will have to start getting more.

Hey and Hi Hun hugs

To me 600 is a lot! Do they still have the stealing RE? I thought they got rid of it. I haven't had that in a really long time.

I don't know if they still have the stealing RE or not but I figure keeping a few scratch cards in inventory can't hurt just in case. Along with lizard minion trap & repellant too of course. I usually throw the cards into the DC 100 or so at a time, a couple times on Xmas Eve and again on Xmas. I have no idea what pet to get with the new loyalty box though. The only thing I don't have doesn't come in the color I want (Reborn Mahar). Ideas?

i want that new Nostalgic Ontra. I just need to figure out what Star Wars character he could be lol.

Maybe they will come out with one. You could always make the mahar with the name you want and then hopefully soon they will have the color you want.

I did that. Made him a Sun Mahar. But he's been waiting for years to be Reborn. Honestly, it's a dragon, reborn should be the default color. Finally gave up and made him a Reborn Endeavor. Maybe the nostalgic ontra could be an Ewok.

I have a harvest chai named after Wicket W. Warrick. He is my favorite ewok :)

Great, spending all this time trying to get quests done for the contest and now we have to battle constantly to get damage totals? sigh don't think so, not this time. Just don't have time to do both, battle and do all the quests. :(

Turns out I was sick, still am. I rested most of the day away and did only Shinwa's quests. I'll respond when my head's back on right.

That's interesting. I don't like brushing because of the squeaking you mentioned and it feels weird on the gums. My gums are easily overbrushed, I get pink in the sink often even though I'm not aggressively brushing. It's almost as if my gums receded because the tooth feels larger just after brushing but that's neurotic. 😯 I had one cavity but that was between an old YA (not baby,) tooth and a new one I didn't know was growing out from underneath. No fillings.

I love chicken strips, I'd get them all the time if a could but there's isn't enough meat to them compared to bone piece items.

Poultry farms need to start breeding saggy chickens. Hear me out, the fast food world could use them to make just chicken skins, yum 😝

Oi I've been using a personal group bank since maybe the last quest-a-thon.

I did theme gifting as well since I didn't have enough to sP bomb. There was "Snow"day, Sugarplum fairy day (sweets), brightminions, sweaters and getmugged day; coffee, chocolate, ice cream and mints' prices skyrocketed during that time 😉 You got me on the baubles, I'd open boxes and try to make them look as unrandom as possible like -dinothemed --space themed ---minilights only ----colorthemed

Someone did song lyrics so I replied with s s s s but that wasn't lyrical so I went with s x3 x3. I hope they got the message x]

Do get better :)

- thanks for unlurking. It's really good to hear that other people understand.

I also love the joy that giving can bring. It makes me so happy when I am able to make someone's day a little better.

- I know it is expensive to lodge and train pets, but you don't have to lodge or train all of them. They're just pixels so nothing bad will really happen to them if you just leave them alone for a while.

- take it easy and take care of yourself. Real life is always more important than anything on Subeta - even Quest-A-Thons. Hope you feel better soon.

- after the last Quest-A-Thon there was a big discussion and a new staff decision. Group forum banks are definitely not allowed.

By the way, could you explain those song lyrics? I think I get Do (like do re mi)? and GGBB (like notes)??? But I don't understand the lyrics part?? (But then I don't know any recent popular song lyrics.)

Just checked out the Nostalgic Ontra, that's an easy one, C-3PO. He'd look as tidy as he could in clothes, if he ever cared for them. Pompadour from Babar is their middle man.

not even close sharing KPOP!@#$%^&* :] excuse me links 1 & 2

- thank you, I knew it was probably some popular lyric I never heard before.

Stlll don't understand the genie plus stars??? Or