There are dozens of fun office gift exchange games people can play during the Christmas season. Officemates might have a “secret Santa” gift exchange or a popular “white elephant” gift exchange. All are popular and always fun, provided the rules are clear and everyone understands them.
The White Elephant gift exchange has always been one of the best and most interesting office games for all festive seasons. All games are guided and bounded by rules of their own and the White Elephant gift exchange game is no exception. However, there are no precise rules that must be followed exactly to maximize the fun value of the game. Variations can be incorporated into the games to suit certain conditions of the office such as number of participants, budget and so forth. Each and every one of the participants must purchase a gift not exceeding certain value such as a set dollar amount or within a range of values from ten dollars to thirty dollars; which depend very much on the policy or requirements of the team. The suggested gift selection should be an interesting object that can possibly amuse the team and something every one will enjoy, therefore, anything that is very practical will make a bad pick.
Everyone who’s participating in the exchange gets a number (the number should be the same as the number of presents). The numbers should be they drawn out of a hat or something else (perhaps a Santa hat, in recognition of the season?). So, the person who draws number “1” goes first and picks a present. They open it and keep it. The second person can either pick a different present or they can “steal” the first present. They can’t open a present until they are sure they are keeping their choice and not picking the first gift. This continues until everyone has a present. Any present that’s been opened can be subject to stealing, but a gift can only be stolen three times.
At the end of the game, the person who was the first to open a present can steal a gift if they choose, since they didn’t have an opportunity earlier.
In this gift exchange game, there is never a surprise if the gift ends up in the hands of its initial owner, who bought that gift for the game. To allow the game to live up to its interesting and fun factors, there must be that one gift which is so appealing to every participant who is looking forward to steal it times and again. Therefore, the excitement will arouse with the game when everyone is figuring who will be the final owner of that most popular gift.
As a means of regifting, the white elephant gift exchange is introduced with the idea of giving away a gift or something else that you received or bought but do not want it in the end. In the game, the decision maker in this gift exchange game can decide whether the participants are allowed to bring such a gift from home or they are required to purchase a totally new gift for the purpose of the game (within the range of the dollar amount set for the game).
There are plenty of variations of Secret Santa game created or altered by offices and have been made very popular. One variation of the games which you can adopt would be to limit the dollar value on the gift and get every participant to make a Santa list. With that list for Santa, you can determine a aforementioned gift value such as five or ten dollars and what this means would be that every participant must not list items more than that five or ten dollars on their little Santa list.
Everyone who is participating draws a list out of a hat, or some other object, and sets about shopping for that person. They know who they are shopping for, but the recipient doesn’t. On exchange day, the Secret Santas must deliver the gifts to their officemates’ desks without being seen. Those participating can decide if they want people to sign the cards attached to the gifts, or if the secret should stay a secret. If they choose the latter, gift giving can be interesting, since it’s anonymous, but many people choose to have cards signed so in the end, people who to thank for their gifts.
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