A mosaic of the various faces, caught mid-song, throughout the years.
Welcome to Karaoke Secret Santa
Karaoke Secret Santa was created for several reasons, but it essentially is an experiment in love and music. Its mission is to celebrate the Christmas spirit throughout the world and to do it through song (or some variation of it). It celebrates the creativity and joy in all of us, no matter our backgrounds, nationalities or level of skill or talent. It is essentially free and no money is being made from it. Instead, music, love, joy, laughter, respect and admiration is shared and experienced.
If you're interested in joining us this year, please check out our RSVP link, located on the home page top menu. There you can find the sign-up deadline, which is normally two weeks before Christmas or Christmas Eve.
You can also email karaokesecret@gmail.com with any questions. Keep in mind that an expectation of joining and participating is to follow through with the commitment. This includes signing up for Elfster, which is how we draw names for each other, and YouTube, which is how we upload our video gifts. Check our blog, as well as the How to KSS link on the home page top menu, for tips on how to make and deliver your gifts for Karaoke Secret Santa.
Thank you and enjoy!
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The year was 2009 and I had recently met the love of my life (though we would not make it official until June of 2010). The catch is I met her online as she lives in Australia and I live in the United States. Christmas was coming up and I wanted to involve her in some way. I also wanted to get to know her better, do something sweet for her without explicitly telling her and... hear her sing.
At the same time, I wanted to do something special and unique for Christmas, in general. Since I love going out and performing Karaoke, one idea was to invite a whole bunch of people that I knew to a local Karaoke joint and do a drawing throughout, creating random duets and having people perform together. The list of friends who actually enjoyed doing karaoke as much as I do is minimal, but I thought it'd still be fun.
So, I combined the two ideas and broadened the Secret Santa reach to the entire world. Why only share the random gift of giving to just a group of friends or a group of office colleagues? Why limit the possibilities to physical merchandise that you have to ship across continents? I mean, attempting to pull off a worldwide Secret Santa, without boundaries and open to anyone, is an arduous, maybe impossible task, especially considering the varying degrees of shipping costs and delivery times.
However, inspired by the soaring popularity and accessibility of YouTube, the surprising success of online singing sensations, and my personal love of Karaoke, I've found a way to kick the Secret Santa up another notch, while being realistic about the ability of people around the world to follow through with it.
So, I devised this plan to be involved in this uber-special secret santa where the gifts are karaoke videos made and sent online. This way, anyone with an email (or now, an Elfster account) can be involved, including my lovely friend in Australia.
I called it, "Karaoke Secret Santa" (or KSS, for short).
KSS Over the Years
Karaoke Secret Santa - 2009 Playlist
Though one of the inspirations for the original KSS back in 2009, Pamela Andrews did not get her own gift video until 2011.
It started off modestly. There were six videos made. A seventh video should have been made, but that participant was not able to follow through.
But, the next year, in 2010, it grew twice its size. Twelve videos were made. At least two participants didn't follow through, but one other participant did twice: she made a make-up video which ended up being the most creative Karaoke Secret Santa video in its young history:
Ann Squires performs a creative dance to "Fireflies", 2010.
That year, we also lost someone very close to Karaoke Secret Santa who was a big influence to its creation:
Armand Barbone sings "The Middle"...through Rock Band, 2009.
His name was Armand Barbone and we shared the same passion for doing karaoke at McGillin's for the past few years. That passion also led to the original KSS idea when I wanted to do something special for Pam back in '09.
For the first two years, Pamela Andrews was included in the list of participants left out of a video, due to another not following through. In 2011, that changed:
Alexandra Griffin performs "Blackbird", 2011.
2011 saw the first time Karaoke Secret Santa having 100% participation. Every participant gave a video and every participant received. That is the goal we have each year.
2012 saw our first viral participants, or what I like to call new participants that stumbled onto the Karaoke Secret Santa pages without connections from original KSS vets. It also saw the first collaboration between KSS participants:
If you're interested in participating in this year's Karaoke Secret Santa, check the front page for the RSVP link and the deadline, usually two weeks before Christmas or Christmas Eve. You can also email karaokesecret@gmail.com with any questions.
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