This year has certainly had some peculiar tricks up its sleeve—with one of the most bizarre occurrences being the unanticipated demand for tiny doodled Santa hats.

After festively dressing up my beloved bean/peanut/potato man (who has loyally been my representative on several platforms—as a mascot, one might say), I started receiving messages from people who expressed interest in obtaining a Santa hat of their own. Requests for updated profile pictures incorporating the headpiece ultimately flooded my DMs as more people joined the fun.

It's been an absolute pleasure handing out the accessories and delightful to see how such a simple concept can bring former strangers together to share a laugh—or at least feel like cool kids in a secret club—VIP if you will.

Neat derivatives have been made independently by creators to out-cool other hats. The Exclusive-Non-Exclusive-Red-Hat-Peeps-Club now has roughly 200 members—only counting the ones I've personally handed out to. It's impossible to know how many people have sported the hat since I've encouraged people to steal them and slap'em on themselves if they are capable.

The hats have always been free (still are and will continue to be). Now, due to a surprising number of people asking to tip for their hat and some intense peer pressure, I've decided to mint the original Santa-hat-wearing character to act as a holiday tip jar.

So if tipping is what you desire, you have the option to do so here, with however much you want to give, and in return, you'll own a piece of the original.