Tips on Hosting a Mystery Christmas Gift Exchange

If you are looking for a fun and different way to exchange gifts, a mystery Christmas gift exchange may be perfect. A mystery Christmas gift exchange is a way to exchange gifts with friends and/or family and is also a fun game to play. For tips on how to host your own mystery Christmas gift exchange read on.

First you will need to contact family and friends to find anyone who would be interested in participating in your mystery Christmas gift exchange. Once you've contacted everyone you will need to decide on a day and time to host the gift exchange. Write out invitations for your party and send them out at least a week ahead of time, though two weeks would be preferable. For ideas on making your own invitations, you can read my article on Homemade Christmas Party Invitations.

Next you will need to write each guest's name on a foldable gift tag. Once all the names have been written, fold the tags closed and place into a bowl, bucket, or hat for random drawing. Invite everyone to your house to choose a gift tag so that they can know who they have to shop for. While you have everyone in your home you can go over the ground rules.

First Rule: Don't show your gift tag to anyone. If you show anyone your gift tag you ruin the surprise, or the mystery, which is the main focus of the game.

Second Rule: Set up a spending limit. Make the search for the perfect gift more fun by limiting the amount each guest can spend on their Christmas gifts. Keeping the gifts under $10 a piece is a great choice.

Third Rule: No names are to be written in the "from" portion of the gift tag. The mystery in the mystery Christmas gift exchange is who gave who what. After everyone opens their presents they have to guess who bought them their gift. Once all guesses have been made the gift giver can then make themselves known.

All of the gifts will need to appear the same to confuse your guests. To keep the gift giver a mystery you can hand out wrapping paper to your guests from the same design and gift boxes that are all of the same size. You can pick up inexpensive gift wrap at your local drug store or dollar store and cut out squares or rectangles from the wrapping paper, fold each of them, and then hand them out to your guests to use. This option is much cheaper than buying multiple packs wrapping paper meant for single gifts. You can give the boxes and wrapping paper to your guests after they have picked out their gift tag.

On the day of the party have a special hiding area available such as a closet or spare bedroom. You will use this space to hide the gifts that each guest brings. This way guests won't be able to see whose present has been placed where, taking the guess work out of who brought what. Once all of the guests have arrived you can slip off to the hiding place to mix up the gifts and then bring them out.

Opening the presents at your Mystery Christmas Gift Exchange doesn't have to be the only source of entertainment. You can play other mystery games as well to fit your mystery theme. A game of Clue can be fun to play with your guests. You can also have a jar filled with Christmas candy as a special prize for whichever guest can guess closest to the amount of Christmas candy in the jar. You could also hand out cocktails, virgin cocktails for the younger guests or for those who don't drink alcohol, and have them try to guess which ingredients the drink is made from. Keep recipes for the various drinks on hand to give your guests as parting gifts.

A mystery Christmas gift exchange can help keep gift giving interesting. So why not try hosting a mystery Christmas gift exchange of your own? You never know, you may have found a new Christmas family tradition.