Barely two weeks into self-quarantine, my friends and I were already getting antsy and looking for home-bound activities. On what might have been our 100th FaceTime group call, we decided to treat ourselves with a little COVID-19 Pollyanna — think Secret Santa, but less cheer.

With everyone looking for something to do and online shopping as everyone’s new favorite hobby, our friend started an Elfster event and invited each of us to include our mailing address and wish list for fun activities, games, etc., we could do at home. The site randomly chose a gift receiver for each of us and we had one day to find their Amazon wish list items and have a few surprises shipped to their house (within a $20 limit).

We chose Amazon Prime items for expediency, but given the long wait times for everything regardless, I would definitely choose a different online shopping outlet next time. Elfster offers plenty of options, but knowing each item would take a week or more to ship anyway, I’d suggest anyone signing up for a COVID-19 Pollyanna go with a local online shop or small business instead. They have far less orders to fill and nearly the same items to ship — not to mention, they need the business more.

With the Stay at Home order extended to April 30, we might just do another round of gift giving, and this time I will definitely shop and ship from a small business. In the meantime, I now have a new book to read, as displayed by my new coworker.

— Angelique Platas, associate editor