Secret Santa

How To Play Secret Santa

In advance of the Christmas event, set a rough dollar value for the gifts so participants will all be able to buy a gift of a similar value to bring along. You could also set a gift theme if you'd like (something to eat, something to read, something funny etc.)

Collect all the gifts as participants arrive and mix them up. When it's time to exchange gifts, hand out the Secret Santa gifts so everyone has one. Now the fun can begin!

There are a few different ways to play from here:

1. Standard

Players take it in turns to unwrap their gift and then guess who they think brought it. There can be a bonus prize (candy cane?!) for a correct guess.

2. Personalised

Taking a couple steps back, in advance of the event the participants could be secretly assigned a person to buy a gift for so they can tailor their gift to the recipient. Then follow it through, ensure the gifts are handed out correctly, and continue playing the standard rules.

3. Yankee Swap

Randomly assign an order to all the players.
The person who is first will unwrap their gift.
The next person can then choose to steal or unwrap. If they steal, their unwrapped gift is swapped with ther other person they stole from.
Play continues until everyone has had a turn and unwrapped a gift. The person who goes last will be able to choose to steal any gift they'd like!

4. Switch, Steal, Unwrap

This version involves a dice.
Randomly assign an order to all the players.
On their turn, each person will need to roll the dice and then carry out the action associated with the number rolled. The actions are listed below:
1 - SWITCH gifts right
2 - SWITCH gifts left
3 - STEAL any wrapped gift
4 - STEAL any gift
5 - UNWRAP your gift
6 - UNWRAP your gift

Themes

giving

Added by
Joel
on 22 November 2020