Dirty Santa/White Elephant

If you have a large family, or a big group of friends, the game "Dirty Santa" or "White Elephant" is perfect, especially for Christmas parties.

The only thing needed for this game is for each individual person to bring an inexpensive gift, or even better, a gag gift, and each gift needs to be wrapped, whether by paper or by bag. It just needs to be hidden. The person hosting the holiday event needs to make sure they purchase a few extra gifts, in case someone doesn't bring one, or extra people show up.

Now, the host needs to count how many people there are, including themselves. Once the number of people is tallied, then numbers need to be put on slips of paper and put into a hat.

Whoever has number one, is to go first. Then on out, in order.

In this game, the person up chooses a gift. If they don't like the gift, they can switch with someone else (the other person has to render their gift) OR they can pick another gift to open. But if they choose to open another gift, they have to keep that gift, whether they like it or not, unless another person wants to trade them. When my friends and I are playing, we like to throw in the rule that no object can be traded more than three times.

It's a really great game to play, and it gets a lot of laughs because of the gag gifts and the reactions of those who have to trade. It really brings a group together, and it's a lot of fun.