Christmas games

[RedRocksU2]

Our family always does the "White elephant" game.

For those who don't know what a "White elephant" game is;

The white elephant gift exchange (also called Yankee Swap, Scottish Gift Exchange, Thieving Secret Santa, Dirty Santa, Nasty Christmas[1], Chinese Gift Exchange, or Thieving Elves) is a popular party game usually played during the Christmas season in the United States and Canada. The premise of the game is that each guest contributes one gift to the game, and ultimately each guest walks away with one different gift from the game. The type of gift is sometimes decided ahead of time (e.g., "something less than $10," "a used item from home," "a gag gift," etc.).

All participants bring their gift to “the pile.” Gifts are wrapped, but are not labeled to reflect a sender or recipient. Everyone then draws a number that determines the order of gift choosing. The person with the highest number picks last. The person who drew #1 unwraps a gift from the pile and then shows it to everyone. It is now person #2’s turn, and so on. Each successive person can either steal a previously unwrapped gift or open a new gift from the pile. If a person's gift is stolen, that person can immediately unwrap a new gift or steal another person's gift. After a gift has been stolen three times it is "dead". It cannot be stolen again. This is an optional rule.

 

[Mr. BAW]

Same as above but...the gift can either be a serious object or something totally 'way out there'...for instance, someone in our family handed out a box of pizza crumbs, box of mismatched shoes, a "The Man's Guide to Finding another Man"..just anything you could think of....

We did have a flower vase that's made it for the past 12 years or so...somehow, I believe that vase may have disappeared when an outsider (invitee) picked it and kept it...

This gift game is usually played following dinner when we need a good laugh over good drinks...we typically have at least 20 to 25 family members playing...and boy the arguing when it comes to trading the gift before its declared dead!!

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

We do the white elephant at work. This year I had an iTunes gift card for a hot minute, but ended up with candles. :gag:

 

[Mr. BAW]

Those gifts are too nice for our parties...while BOB has never shown up, it wouldn't surprise me...!

 

[UberBeaver]

We like to play the "Do They Know It's Christmas" game. You get blinded and point at various countries on a globe after spinning it and ask, "Do they know it's Christmastime at all?" and if the answer is "no" everyone has to sing, "WELL TONIGHT THANK GOD IT'S THEM INSTEAD OF YOU" and then drink. If the answer is "yes" just the pointer has to drink.

 

[DreamOutLoud13]

I've played White Elephant before at a party, and it was fun (I went away with a bigass bottle of bubble bath ) but I like the games my family plays at Christmas better.

My aunt sets it all up. Sometimes we play bingo, and if we do, she has a bag of door prizes set aside, and every time someone wins a game, they get a prize. The prizes are pretty cool, anything from a box of chocolates to a bath set to a snack basket containing a six pack of sprite and packets of cookies and stuff
But usually we do stocking trivia. My aunt sets up a stocking for everyone containing an equal number of wrapped gifts (typical stocking stuffer type gifts) and we take turns answering questions (we use the question cards from a Who Wants to Be A Millionaire board game), if you answer right, you get to unwrap one thing, if you answer wrong, you unwrap nothing. Whoever gets everything unwrapped first gets a special prize, akin to the bingo prizes.

I like stocking trivia better than bingo. I hope we do that this year

 

[Carek1230]

Those all sound like fun games. I like the White Elephant gift exchange tho. At my ex employer we did that every year and the gift that "kept on re-gifting" was the Ch Ch Ch Chia Pet! It would magically re-appear year after year in oddly shaped and wrapped packages or gift bags. Too funny!

 

[kafrun]

We're doing that at a friend's Christmas party. Now if I can just get my lazy arse to the store to buy something..

 

[Mr. BAW]

That's the fun of it...you should give them something you already have and don't really want...

 

[Carek1230]

Yeah and make sure you "wrap" your gift in a nifty way to camoflauge it well

 

[dsmith2904]

At a friend's house she wrapped up one gift with several layers of wrap, ribbons, tape and so forth. We all sat in a circle and got a few seconds to work at the gift and then passed it along. The first person to successfully unwrap the gift won whatever was inside.

And Mr. BAW, have you put "The Man's Guide to Finding another Man" to good use?

 

[MsPurrl]

We play the "white elephant" game at the annual gathering at my brother's house on Christmas night--we call it "Cut-Throat Merry Christmas." There are some decent gifts, such as DVDs and CDs, but there have also been some ringers, like Metamucil tablets. One year the thing that everyone wanted was a foot massage machine!

 

[Liesje]

We play the White Elephant game, but different rules. We have two rounds. The game officiant makes two sets of numbers, depending on how many people play. The first set of numbers goes into the hat and everyone draws their number. The second set now goes into the hat. The officiant draws a number and that person picks a gift out of the pile, their number is set aside. Once all numbers have been drawn and everyone has a gift, everyone opens their gift. Now, the numbers go back into the hat and the officiant draws again. This time, when your number comes up you can "keep" your gift or "steal" (trade) with someone else. Once a gift has been stolen/traded twice it is out of play and if you wanted it, too bad you have to keep or steal something else.

The best White Elephant gift played by anyone on either side of my family was my uncle's miniature Nordic Track, except it was a More Dick Track.


The game we play with my in-laws is called Telephone Pictionary. This is the greatest game EVER!! The only problem is the ideal number of people is seven. You must have at least seven people and it has to be an odd number. Typically, someone/a few people take turns sitting out so there's seven playing. Every person gets seven small pieces of blank paper and a pen. You start by thinking of a word or phrase (like "German Shepherd dog" or "Mary had a little lamb") and you write it down on the first piece of paper. Everyone passes their papers to the right. The next person reads the phrase, moves that piece of paper to the back, and draws the phrase on the next piece of blank paper. Then, you pass to the right again. Now, you look at the drawing, move that piece of paper to the back, and write what you see on the next piece of paper. You are either writing or drawing, and once all the papers have gone full circle, everyone reads aloud the last phrase written on the stack of paper and compares it to the original phrase. Hilarity ensues. It sounds stupid but it's so funny you will cry. I have some that I saved, maybe I will scan them.

 

[pepokiss]

why is that better with 7 people?

 

[Mr. BAW]

At a friend's house she wrapped up one gift with several layers of wrap, ribbons, tape and so forth. We all sat in a circle and got a few seconds to work at the gift and then passed it along. The first person to successfully unwrap the gift won whatever was inside.

And Mr. BAW, have you put "The Man's Guide to Finding another Man" to good use?

It was merely an example...

P.S. one last rule...if you touch the gift, you must choose it...no shaking or sizing it up!

 

[dsmith2904]

It was merely an example...

Oh sure

 

[Liesje]

why is that better with 7 people?

Because it goes around enough to get severely bastardized, but close enough to the original to still be funny. Also, you have to have an odd number (it should go write, draw, write, draw, write, draw, write, so it starts AND ends on a write, otherwise it doesn't work). Nine people could work, five would not.