You’re probably wondering, What on earth is the Xmas game? And what does being set for it involve? The Xmas game transformed our family Xmas and made it less stressful.
Imagine a family Christmas with 20+ people, and imagine you’re the kind of person who feels that need to have a gift for everyone. Feeling stressed yet?
And then add a dynamic where some people want to buy for everybody, and some only want to buy for the kids. Someone always ends up feeling offended.
Enter the Xmas game. I was introduced to it at a work Xmas lunch, and it was such a hoot that I suggested it for the family Xmas.
How it works
Everybody just buys one gift, for a pre determined value. At the work lunch, it was $5; for family Xmas it’s $20. And we put two in each, instead of just one.
This game is for the adults. Everybody takes a playing card from a deck of cards, and whoever has the highest card goes first. You might think that would be a good thing, but it’s actually not.
Person 1 picks a present from the pile in the middle of the floor, and opens it. Everybody gets to have a look. Going clockwise round the circle, person 2 has a choice. If they love what person 1 picked, they can nab that, and person 1 picks again. Otherwise, they pick from the centre. Now person 3 can nab either of the previous two gifts or pick from the centre. And so it goes on. Some gifts get nabbed more than once, and a lot of hilarity usually ensues. So the later you get to pick, the better your chances of getting a goodie.
To make it a bit fairer, we then go round the other way, with the previous last person being the first to pick. That’s why we each put it two. You can only nab something from the current round. When round 1 is over, those gifts are then safe.
Once it’s all over, there is sometimes some negotiation involving swaps.
Lots less gift buying
So now for family Xmas, all we buy is:
• Presents for the kids / teens – which is now only 1 of our nieces, and @andysantics48’s three grandchildren
• Four x $20 presents (2 each)
• And maybe a little extra something for Mum
Isn’t that easy as pie?
If you have a large family and Xmas costs a fortune in time, money and stress, I can highly recommend this as a fun alternative.
So are we set for it?
Yes, 3 of them are already in a box in the wardrobe, and as long as all our online purchases turn up in time, we’ve got #4 sorted too. I can’t tell you what they are though, cos Miss @andysantics48 will be reading this ;-) I’m guessing her two will be lovely packs of her gorgeous products.
I think my all time favourite $20 pick is the Xmas owl, who has graced our living room every Xmas since.
Alcohol is usually popular. Though surprisingly, not chocolate. I think by that time on Xmas Day, everybody is full of food, feeling guilty and thinking about how they need to start dieting tomorrow. A $20 collection of scratchies aka Instant Kiwi tickets (don’t know what they’re called in other countries) always goes down well.
Possibly our most popular contribution was the $40 kitchen knife set, that we got on special for $20. Everybody was fighting over that one!
Does anyone else have similar family traditions?
• Day 1 – Carol singing with the NZ Symphony Orchestra
• Day 2 – Kilbirnie Santa Parade
• Day 3 – Posting overseas Xmas cards & a Xmas themed exercise class
• Day 4 – Last minute book buying
• Day 5 – Last choir rehearsal for the year
What is Day 7’s little surprise??
Thanks for reading and listening
Top pic from Pixabay (photoshopped by me), others from our family archives.
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