How to Run a Secret Santa with a twist... A Yankee Swap
I think the value was supposed to be around $5. All gifts were placed on a table, and numbers drawn for order of choosing. When your turn comes, you pick a gift off of the table and open it. The twist is that you then get to go to anyone who has opened a gift before you and exchange your gift for theirs. In this game, you definitely want to go last! Strategy plays a part... if/when you exchange your gift with someone else, and you're not last or close to it, you don't want to take the most popular item, because you're sure to lose it. If you ARE near the end, you look at the people still to go after you, and try to guess for what they are likely to exchange and not take that, etc. It was actually quite amusing. The problems came becuase it was on the honor system, and not everyone who was supposed to bring a gift did.  |
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| Hi Ron,
I've played it that way before at some party and really enjoyed myself. Another thing I have seen done is everyone makes a hand made ornament for a Christmas tree and hangs it up when they arrive. When a guest leaves they take one made by another guest. I should mention one of my most embaressing moments was years ago when I was in University and worked weekends in the coat check at a very exclusive "supper club" located in a fancy smancy hotel. Time after time I saw the guest ...gasp! stealing the Christmas ornaments! Yikes..how to handle this delicate situation..I fretted about it as it kept happening..finally had the nerve to say gently to one person...hi, I'm glad you really love that ornament and it's certainly beautiful..but truthfully it does look pretty as well on that tree too". She burst out laughing..and said "oh they didn't tell you!", then proceeded to explain about the trade. Turns out she was the very well to do wife of the fellow that rented the supper club for the evening for all his employees (must have cost a lot of $). I died! 
My face turns shades of red and she reassured me it was quite allright..whew luckily I didn't say "hey lady stop stealing!". Her hubby was amused too and left me a hefty tip. So the moral of the story I guess...is make sure everyone knows about it , should you decide to play any game. |
| hahaha
Hey, I just remembered... it was called a "Yankee Swap", not "Secret Santa"... oooops! |
| We call those "white elephants" and it's really fun if you do it with stuff you're trying to get rid of. We had one at work and someone brought in a beaded satin evening purse that a big burly guy ended up with. Another hot item was the smiley face cookie jar. |
That's the way we play it too. It's always lots of fun! 
Very funny story, Marianne! I would've been embarassed too! |
Ron wrote: When your turn comes, you pick a gift off of the table and open it.
The twist is that you then get to go to anyone who has opened a gift before you and exchange your gift for theirs. In this game, you definitely want to go last! We played this too but our rules were slightly different. We played that when it was your turn you could either pick a new, wrapped gift or pick something that someone had already opened, so you had to take the risk of whether something unopened was better than something that had already been opened. If someone took your opened gift, then you had the choice of whether to pick a new one or take someone else's. . . and so on. Fun! |
| In my family we managed to continue getting together for Christmas until last year when my mother passed away. As the family grew larger with all the grandchildren and great grand children, it became too expensive to do gifts for everyone but none of us wanted to stop altogether. We drew names until several years ago when we decided to do the "Yankee Swap". Gifts were to be under $10 and were frequently something you wanted to get rid of. Everyone picked a number and you had the choice of opening a gift or taking one that you wanted from the ones ahead of you. This always created a lot of fun and joking around, but mostly we tried to be sure the little ones had something they would like.
A lot of times the white elephant gifts were the best - we had one "Billy Bass" that returned for several years - don't recall what finally happened to it. Boxes of computer paper were often appreciated by mom's with small children and one year I put in a large box of yarn that had accumulated from all my projects - my nieces daughter thought that was the greatest thing going. Anyway, it was a lot of fun for everyone and highly recommend it. |
My mil plays that game with us on Christmas except she buys all the gifts.  I guess that's a bad (good) thing, but she's wonderful like that!! Luckily, most everyone ends up with something they wanted. The boys don't want the gift certificate to sephora (my FAVORITE site for shopping!), and I don't want the one to Golfsmith. |
| www YankeeSwap com is a spamming lowlife company. Never do business of any sort with such a company<del> the site dedicated to the swap where you can download the Yankee Swap rules and find great gift ideas.</del>
[spamming link to Amazon.com removed] I hate spammers |
| I went to a supper called "girls night out" there was about 20 of us and we each brought about a $10.00 xmas ornament and we played that game, the rules were the same as what Valerie said , lost my first pick which I loved but the second one was nice too :and I got to keep it and then I won a door prize also lol: all in all it was a great evening, good companions, good food, good drinks and good conversation.Guess this would be called a Canuck swap |
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