A remote team exchange across time zones

In a room, the gift is a wrapped thing. Across borders, a wrapped thing means customs, delivery windows and a courier in one country that cannot reach a flat in another. Decide the form of the gift before anything else, and make it one of these.

• Digital only. A gift card for a store that works in the giftee’s country, a subscription, a game, a course. The budget is the budget and delivery is instant. This is the default for a team spread across more than two countries.
• Local delivery, bought remotely. The Santa orders from a shop in the giftee’s country and has it delivered there. Works well between two countries you know; the wishlist does the heavy lifting by naming local shops.
• Physical, shipped. Only for a team in one region with reliable post, and only with a shipping deadline three weeks before the reveal.

Write the budget in one currency so there is one number everyone can quote. Then say that people spend the equivalent in their giftee's local currency, rounded to a sensible local figure. $25 becomes about ₱1,400 in Manila, which you would round to ₱1,500, and about €23 in Berlin, which you would round to €25.

Do not try to make the amounts equal in purchasing power. Nobody can agree on that and the attempt makes people feel measured. Equal on paper, rounded locally, said once.

In an office you can watch what someone drinks. Remotely you cannot, and a bad guess is a bad guess shipped across the world. Make the wishlist a condition of joining, with three items minimum, and ask people to add a link for each one from a shop that delivers to them. A link to a local store is worth more than a description, because it tells the Santa where to buy, in what currency, with what delivery.

Give the wishlist a deadline a week after the draw and send one reminder. Anyone with an empty wishlist on the deadline gets a message from the organiser, not from their Santa, because the Santa messaging them gives the game away.

Pick the reveal time by the person furthest from the middle, not by the organiser. For Manila, Austin and Berlin there is no hour that is office time for all three. Nine in the morning in Berlin is four in the afternoon in Manila and two in the morning in Austin. The honest choice is a time that is awkward for the organiser and fine for everyone else, usually early morning in the Americas, afternoon in Europe and late evening in Asia.

On the call, open gifts one at a time, in a fixed order, with each person guessing their Santa before the Santa unmutes. Digital gifts are opened by reading them out. Keep it to ninety seconds a person; twenty people is half an hour, which is the limit of a good call.

If no hour works, record it. Each person posts a short video of their opening and their guess to the team channel over one day, and the Santas reply. It is slower and it is still a reveal.

Keep people with the same manager away from that manager, as in an office. Add one more: keep the two people who are alone in their country away from each other if the gift is physical, because they are the pair most likely to end up with the worst shipping.