After 95 Tries, She Finally Got the Secret Santa Everyone Wants

Ninety-fifth time's the charm. Per WLNS, that's how many RedditGifts exchanges a Michigan woman had to participate in before she got the ultimate Secret Santa this year, the one everyone fervently hopes they'll get: Bill Gates. Shelby—as the recipient of a Christmas package sent by the world's on again-off again richest man wants to be IDed—explains in a video that when she first got an alert that her Reddit Secret Santa gift had been overnighted via FedEx, she noticed the package was coming from Washington state. She also saw on the tracking page that the package weighed 81 pounds and, finally, that the person who'd sent it was indeed Gates. "Bill Gates is my Secret Santa, I just won Secret Santa 2019!" is how Shelby says she reacted. A Reddit rep confirms Gates sent the package, per CNN.

MarketWatch notes Gates goes out of his way to customize his Secret Santa gifts—and for Shelby, who "loves letting her geek flag fly," her presents couldn't have been more perfect. Included in Gates' give: Harry Potter and Star Wars Lego sets and other branded merch; Twin Peaks memorabilia; a Legend of Zelda handmade quilt; lots of Oreos; and a bound manuscript of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. The best gift of all, however: a donation from Gates to the American Heart Association in memory of Shelby's mother, who died earlier in the year just days before Shelby got married. "This year has been a complete rollercoaster of emotions for me," Shelby wrote to Gates on Reddit. "It has been hard to drum up holiday spirit this year, and this has been a taser of Christmas cheer." Check out what Gates got Shelby in this second clip. (More Bill Gates stories.)