It’s that time of the year to give and receive. Have you thought of how you will give your gift to your friends, family, or co-workers?
Of course, you have to think creatively about it, this holiday only comes once a year!
Although receiving gifts during the holidays feels great, whether it’s cash inside an ang pao (red envelope) or an item from your wishlist, what can enhance that feeling is spending quality time with your friends and family through these creative and exciting gift exchange activities:
Guess Challenge
Starting with the most unconventional; This game requires a host to plan out the game questions and gifts of equal value, usually funded by the whole group or by the host.
Players must line up and guess the right answer to a question. If one fails to answer, they will go to the back of the line and the next will take a turn to answer. Players will then move forward until someone gets the right answer or the line goes back to the start and the players have to guess a new question.
The thrill of the game comes from the promise that the players who get it right the earliest will be able to choose gifts on the table, labeled by the most valuable to the least. A possible twist is that the players do not know the gifts are all of equal value.
Note that this can be just a side gift-receiving event for your whole party. Aside from this game where everyone will receive a gift, you can still give your special gifts to your loved ones afterward.
Scavenger hunt
This method is a fun and thrilling way to exchange gifts randomly. Just prepare enough room space so everyone can run around, and a host to prepare the setup beforehand.
It all starts with every member offering a gender-neutral gift of the same values. They will declare briefly what the gift is and will label a number on the gift box.
Starting the hunt, players will be given 5-10 minutes to look around the venue for pieces of paper with a number label hidden by the host. Each participant must only look for one to keep. These papers with numbers indicate the corresponding gift, which you may claim according to what number you got from scavenging. Note that players may dismiss the number they find if they don’t like it; they can simply not pick it up and continue looking.
The enjoyment from this game comes from running around the place to look for these numbers, and the thrill to find the number you want from the declaring of gifts in the beginning.
White Elephant
Take the thrill up another level with this method of exchanging gifts that will bring out everyone’s naughty side or generosity.
The game starts with a person opening a wrapped gift, and the turn ends. On the following turns, other players have the choice to either unwrap a new present or steal another player’s unwrapped gift.
When a player’s gift is stolen, that person can either choose another wrapped gift to open or steal from another player. All players can only steal once and unwrap a maximum of two times if they have been robbed, and gifts can only be stolen thrice.
Make sure to keep a note of the rules, because it can get confusing with the tension!
Secret Santa (Monito Monita)
The Secret Santa method, also known traditionally as Monito Monita, takes the plain anonymous gift exchange to a more interesting turn.
The game starts with all participants writing down a code name for themselves, and a wishlist of the gifts they want to receive.
Once everyone has passed their anonymous nicknames along with an email to a game master, it will be coded on a Secret Santa generator website like Secret Santa Organizer. The website will sort out the code names and randomly match who will be exchange gift partners, and will notify yours through email.
Consequently, you have to input your wishlist on your own when you receive the email for your partner to check on the website and vice versa.
Grab Bag
A simple way of randomly exchanging gifts, with all participants having the freedom to choose what they want.
Gifts contributed by all participants will be placed on a large bag and everyone takes turns to reach out into the bag or feel the bag and pick up the present they want.
This is a simple and silly gimmick to imitate Santa Claus giving away gifts through a bag, which will be more exciting for an audience of children.
Do keep in mind to consider the opinion of every participant in these exchange gift games, as some methods may not work for their intention this year.
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