[Note: I don’t know any of the people in the above image (click on it to see it where I first did, in its original form). I found this Santa quite unnerving, though.]
The RAMH regular who goes by the handle “whaddayamean” commented yesterday on a post from back in November. She referred there to a game called a Yankee Swap, which I gather to be the same one enjoyed by The Missus’s family for many years. Down here, though, it’s called the “Dirty Santa” gift exchange.
The idea is that everyone attending a holiday get-together brings a wrapped gift. But you don’t know who will get your gift; indeed, you might even wind up with it yourself.
All the gifts are piled in the center of the room, and everyone draws a number from a hat or bowl. Then you go around the room, in numerical order, as follows:
Aside: in the instructions below, I’ll drop for readability’s sake my usual obsessively gender-neutral practice of s/he-ing all the pronouns. It was starting to make even me crazy.
Player #1 picks any gift at all from the pile, and opens it. Everyone oohs and aahs, or laughs, and then things get really interesting…
#2 may also pick a gift from among those remaining in the pile. In this case, play moves to #3. But #2 may choose instead to “steal” the gift which #1 opened. In this case, #1 returns to the pile of gifts, and opens another.
Okay, now it’s #3’s turn. She may pick from the pile (you’re seeing a pattern, right?). OR, if desired, she may steal either #1’s gift, OR #2’s. The stealee can now steal someone else’s gift, or return to the dwindling mound of gifts for a fresh one. And so on, and so on.
As with any good game, some caveats are in place to keep things (haha) civilized:
- No one can immediately steal back something which someone stole from her. She can, however, steal it back later. (For example, on #2’s turn above, if 2 steals from 1, 1 has ONLY the option of selecting a new gift. But if 3 then steals from 1, the latter is free to take back whatever 2 stole from him.) (You’re following this, right?)
- No gift can be claimed by more than three owners: the third person who acquires it (even if she has stolen it back) keeps it, for good.
- After all gifts have been opened from the pile, player #1 can then force someone to trade gifts with him.
- Finally, at least around here, they cap the value of each gift: it can’t have cost more than $15.
Part of the fun of the whole thing, for me anyhow, is actually acquiring the gift to bring. You can go practical — bringing a kitchen implement or set of screwdrivers, for instance. Or you can go wacky or enigmatic. (One year, I brought a carved wooden hand, a sort of ornament or decor item, which stood on the wrist. It didn’t do anything. It just stood there.) Or you can opt for the fun approach — bringing a game or childhood toy, even if none of the participants are children.
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