Billionaire Bill Gates once again participated in Reddit’s “Secret Santa” game, sending gifts weighing 37 kilograms. Microsoft founder got to wish Merry Christmas to a Michigan resident
Microsoft founder Bill Gates (No. 2 in global billionaire rankings; $96.5 billion in wealth) became a “Secret Santa” to a 33-year-old Michigan resident named Shelby. The billionaire sent her gifts, the total weight of which was about 37 kilograms, writes MarketWatch.
The game was organized by Reddit. In a track dedicated to the campaign Secret Santa, people from different countries each year can send gifts to each other for Christmas. Users leave requests to participate, and then are randomly assigned the address of someone to whom they should send a gift. In turn, someone has to surprise them in return.
The platform has been hosting Secret Santa since 2009, and Gates has been involved in the game since 2013. This year, the billionaire scrutinized Shelby’s social media pages and picked out gifts she liked.
From Gates, the American received sets of constructor LEGO with the castle Hogwarts from the “Harry Potter” universe and the robot R2D2 from “Star Wars”. The billionaire also sent the girl a handwritten copy of Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, packages of cookies, souvenirs with a Twin Peaks theme, and several gifts for her cat.
Gates also made a donation to the American Heart Association in memory of Shelby’s mother, who died in March of this year. Shelby herself showed Gates’ gifts in a YouTube video.
Gates and his team choose gifts for Reddit users responsibly each year by analyzing their interests. For example, in 2016, a user nicknamed Aerrix received from the billionaire a box with an Xbox One Minecraft console with exclusive joysticks, as well as a Nintendo Classic Edition, several game discs, slippers, a blanket, a cookbook, mittens, dog shoes based on The Legend of Zelda, a photo of Gates, and a note.
