My wife's part of a craft group, and they have a secret santa also. This year a number had signed up to the list then waited till the last moment to pull out, maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it seemed to me they were just trying to get a free gift.
It made me think how easy everything is on this forum and how [by and large] folks get on and are just nice to each other - I was beginning to think that this was normal! As an example:- recently on the gift it on thread I claimed a triangia burner, which unfortunately hasn't arrived [I seem to be having some issues with the post at the minute...], the chap said he's got a few more in the shed and he'll pop another in the post recorded!