Super Secret Santa Party Game

Around this time of year, offices and families engage in an old tradition of secret gift-giving. These traditional games have widely varying rules, but there are some core similarities.

Usually, you're randomly assigned to give another person a gift. You may not know this person well, so you have to just investigate or guess at what they would like. As the receiver of said gift... Well, let's just say it's easy to get disappointed. This is so common, that a spin-off tradition called "white elephant" or "dirty santa" emerged wherein you're *not* supposed to consider what the receiver would actually like.

In either case, no one really gets something they actually want and you spend that time awkwardly chit-chatting while doing so. Honestly, it sucks as a play experience. Fortunately, a fellow named Brian Winkeler of Robot House Creative taught me the rules of a superior form of Secret Santa. I call it Super Secret Santa.

Stuff You Need
  • 5-30 players who kinda sorta know each other
  • One participant volunteers to be the Head Elf
  • A prize (a gift certificate, a bottle of wine, or some other generally nice thing)

Preparations
  • Each player sends the Head Elf a wishlist of three gifts under the price limit.
  • The Head Elf anonymizes those lists.
  • The Head Elf randomly assigns a list to each player.
  • Each player then must purchase one of the gifts on his or her assigned list. Do not wrap the gift!
  • The Head Elf prints prepares a list of numbered blank lines, enough for each player to get their own blank list.

The Party
  • The Head Elf arranges a display of all the gifts with numbers beside each one.
  • The Head Elf hands a blank list to each player as they arrive at the party.
  • Amidst drinks and food, the Players spend the party figuring out who wished for which gift. Debate and subterfuge is encouraged!
  • Later on in the party, the Head Elf then gathers all the players to one room.
  • The Head Elf picks up each gift and asks "Who wished for ____?"
  • The Players then shout their answers.
  • The Head Elf reveals the correct answer, to groans and cheers from the crowd.
  • The Player who guesses the most gifts correctly wins the prize.
  • Ties are rare, but if they can be broken by correctly answering trivia questions about the Head Elf.

Tips
When you wish for a gift, don't wish for something generic like a bottle of wine or a gift card. It makes guessing really difficult and no fun. Instead, pick a gift that says something about your personality, possibly that the rest of the group didn't know about you. This can also throw off guesses and reveals who knows who best. Plus: Everyone gets something they want!

Comments

  1. Jon McCarty IIDecember 18, 2012 at 1:08 PM

    This is awesome. Secret Santa within a family is fine, but in an office it can be rough. In our office Secret Santa I got the president of my company and it's a daunting task to buy a gift for him.

    ReplyDelete
  2. DanielSolisDecember 18, 2012 at 1:23 PM

    Yup! Everyone gets something they actually want this way, even the head honcho.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Steven DavisDecember 18, 2012 at 4:39 PM

    Really nice design that gets around a lot of Secret Santa problems and makes the whole thing fun. A clarification would be how much everyone should contribute towards the "prize".


    Great!

    ReplyDelete
  4. joeyheadsetDecember 18, 2012 at 6:50 PM

    Brilliant.

    ReplyDelete
  5. DanielSolisDecember 19, 2012 at 3:27 PM

    In all the years I've done it, the business itself has paid for the prize usually.

    ReplyDelete
  6. DanielSolisDecember 19, 2012 at 3:27 PM

    It's definitely fun!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Graphic Design and Typography Tips for your Card Game

Image
Chris Farrell of Illuminating Games just wrote a thorough critique of card games setting their body text to be so small that they cannot be read at arm's length, let alone across the table. Here's an excerpt, but the whole thing is worth a read for any would-be card game designers out there. (Myself included.) Break out your copy of the base set of Dominion, and look at the Chapel. This has a text box roughly 3.5cm by 4.5cm. It's got a single line of text. That line of text is 1 (one) millimeter high. 1mm! For me, it's only clearly readable at half an arm's length even in the bright light of day. (...) Compare this to a more sane game like Glory to Rome, where the font size is 2-3 times as large (text is 2mm high, keywords 3mm and usually highlighted). I can generally read Glory to Rome cards across the table, and can certainly see the important keywords. To heap insult upon injury, not only does Glory to Rome have far more legible text than Dominion it also has
Read more

Low-High Dice Game

Image
A dice game inspired by the stock market (and playing lots of Martian Dice). Roll a bunch of dice and choose which sets to keep. Choose your strategy wisely! Stuff You Need Two-to-Six PLAYERS A PENCIL and PAPER to keep score Thirteen standard six-sided DICE How to Play The shortest player takes the first turn. On your turn, first roll all thirteen dice. Several dice will have matching results. These are called SETS. (A single die result is a set, too.) You must choose a set to keep. For example, your first roll results are 111124445555 . The sets are four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, and four 5 s. After keeping a set of dice, lock them up in a row. This is called the GOOD TRACK. For example,  you could keep the set of four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, or four 5 s . You decide to keep the four 1 s and line them up in your good track. After keeping a set, you may end your turn or re-roll the remaining unlocked dice. When you re-roll, immediately set aside any results that ar
Read more

The Thousand-Year Game Design Challenge

Image
UPDATE: The submission period has closed and here are the entries. If you're an entrant, continue sending pics or vids of people playing your game. The first step to a game lasting a thousand years is for people to play it today. UPDATE 2: And here's the winner! To support games designed for longevity – that can be learned, played and shared for hundreds of years – we offer this challenge to any game designers, artists and imaginative people who also share this desire. Challenge Create a game. The game can be of any theme or genre you desire, but there is one restriction: You're creating a "new classic," like Chess, Tag or card games. So, create a game to be enjoyed by generations of players for a thousand years. Prize $1,000 to the winning entrant, to be announced and awarded January 1, 2012. Entry Deadline Entries must be submitted before midnight July August 31st, 2011. ( Update ) Entry Guidelines Enter by posting a comment below with a link
Read more