Practicing tongue twisters at parties can be lots of fun. See who makes the fewest mistakes!

• Blitzer bobbles a billion brilliant bells.
• Bobby brings bright bells.
• Candy cane cookies keep kids coming.
• Chilly chipper children cheerfully chant.
• Comet cuddles cute Christmas kittens carefully.
• Crazy kids clamor for candy canes and Christmas cookies.
• Eleven elves licked eleven little licorice lollipops.
• Hal had happy holiday holly.
• How many deer would a reindeer reign if a reindeer could reign deer?
• Kris Kringle clapped crisply.
• Kris Kringle crunches candy canes.
• Prancer presents pumpkin pies and presents.
• Pretty packages perfectly packed in paper.
• Santa’s sack sags slightly.
• Santa secretly sips sugary syrup.
• Santa’s sleigh slides on slick snow.
• Santa stuffs Stephie’s striped stocking.
• Santa’s super sleigh slips so swiftly through the snow.
• Seven Santas sang silly songs.
• Ten tiny tin trains toot ten times.
• Ten tiny toy soldiers tinker with twenty toy trains.
• There’s chimney soot on Santa’s suit.
• Tiny Timmy trims the tall tree with tinsel.
• Two trains travel together to Toyland.

You will need

• A group of participants
• A hifi or other means to play Christmas music (note: there must be an easy way of starting and stopping the music abruptly)
• A selection of Christmas songs, carols, or even instrumental Christmas music
• A non-player to be in charge of the music

How to play

1. The person in charge of the music should play a small snippet (e.g., 4 seconds) of Christmas music.
2. The players have to guess what it is!
3. Repeat the above steps for as long as people are interested in playing.

CDs with a selection of Christmas songs and carols by various artists are ideal to use for this game.

The longer the music snippets are, the easier the game is. The game can therefore be played at children’s parties. Do make sure that the Christmas tracks are fairly well known, so that the children have a chance of guessing correctly!

Variation

The game can also be played by having participants each sing a snippet of a Christmas song or carol, instead of using recorded music. Only do it this way if you think that everyone present knows at least a few words of a few carols or songs!

You will need

• A group of participants (the larger the group the better)
• Portable chairs (you’ll need to start with one for every player, except one)
• A hifi or other means to play Christmas music (note: there must be an easy way of stopping the music abruptly)
• Christmas music and a non-player to be in charge of it

How to play

1. Arrange the chairs in a large circle or in a line. If you put the chairs in a circle, have the chairs facing outwards. If you put them in a line, you can have a single line of chairs with them alternately facing opposite directions. Or you could make a double line of chairs, with them arranged back-to-back. Another option would be to have the chairs arranged facing outwards around the dinner table! This is good is you have limited space. Remember that there should be one less chair than there are players.
2. Have everyone stand around the chairs. If the chairs are in a circle, people should be on the outside of the ring.
3. The person in charge of music now needs to set the Christmas music going.
4. While the music is on, everyone playing needs to walk or skip around the ring of chairs.
5. After several seconds, the person in charge of the music needs to abruptly stop it.
6. When the music stops, the players need to sit themselves down on the chairs as fast as possible. Some players may have to run quite a way around the circle.
7. The person left without a chair is out of the game. If two people are perched on one chair, the one who is occupying the most of the seat stays in the game.
8. Once someone is eliminated, everyone should stand so that a chair can be removed. This keeps the number of chairs one below the number of people playing.
9. Repeat the cycle of steps 3 to 8 until there is only one person, the winner, left in the game. The person in charge of the music should play the music for random amounts of time each round, so that the players are caught unprepared!

Variations

Instead of using a hifi, the music in the game could be performed live with a musical instrument or by singing. Most people can sing Christmas carols, so the latter option may be easier to arrange. Just print out the lyrics of some popular Christmas carols and your music is sorted!

A non-competitive version of musical chairs involves removing a chair but no player each time the music stops. All players must sit or perch on the remaining chairs without their feet touching the floor. This version will promote teamwork amongst the players. This version sounds quite dangerous to me, as people might fall and hurt themselves. Therefore, you might want to put a soft mat and cushions under and around the chairs.

How to play

1. Make or acquire a large drawing of a reindeer that has no tail. Draw a clear X where the tail should be.
2. Hang the picture up on a wall. To prevent your wall from getting pin holes in it, consider placing a cork pinboard or a thick piece of cardboard between the picture and the wall.
3. In turn, each player is blindfolded, spun around a few times, and then given a “tail” with a tack poked through it. Whilst still blindfolded, the player then needs to pin the tail where they think it should be on the reindeer. Whoever pins their tail closest to the X wins.

Another Christmas variant of this game is “Pin the Nose on the Snowman”!

How to play Pass the Parcel, Christmas style

You will need (for one game):

• A main gift (try to avoid fragile gifts because the parcel will get tossed and dropped repeatedly)
• Lots of Christmassy wrapping paper (recycled/recyclable paper if possible!)
• Adhesive tape
• Scissors
• A cardboard box that is larger than the gift (optional)
• Christmas sweets, e.g. candy canes and chocolate coins (optional)
• Small gifts (optional)
• Pieces of paper with jokes or mini-tasks written on them (optional)
• A hifi or other means to play Christmas music (There should be an easy way of stopping the music abruptly. To make it easier, there is party music available that is specifically designed for the game. With this you don’t need to stop or pause the music yourself. See the Amazon links below.)
• Christmas music
• A space where a group of people can sit in a circle

Preparing the parcel

Start this well in advance of the party! If you want to increase the final size of the final parcel, consider putting the gift in a cardboard box before you start the wrapping process. Wrap the gift or boxed gift with several layers of wrapping paper. In general, the more layers you add, the longer the game will last. Do not stick the layers of paper together because the aim when playing the game is to remove one layer of wrapping paper at a time. Varying the colour/pattern of the paper from layer to layer will also help the players to only unwrap one layer.

You may want to incorporate sweets or several small gifts between the layers of paper. This will make the game more fun for everyone, as there will be more to “win”. Alternatively or in addition, you could incorporate little pieces of paper with either Christmas jokes that can be read aloud or mini-tasks for the unwrapper to do (e.g., sing a Christmas song in front of everybody).

Playing the game

1. Set up the music player and allocate someone to be in charge of it. Note that this person will not be playing the game and will not have a chance to win the gift!
2. Get all of the participants to sit in a circle on the floor. Provide cushions if needed!
3. Give the parcel to a random person in the circle.
4. The person in charge of the music should start it playing. While the music is playing, the parcel should be passed around the circle.
5. Preferably without looking at where the parcel is in the circle, the person in charge of the music should abruptly stop the music.
6. Whoever is holding the parcel when the music stops, gets to unwrap one layer of paper. If there is a gift or sweet under the layer that they have taken off, this is theirs to keep. If there is a joke or task, they should read it out loud. In the case of task, they should perform it, however embarrassing they might find it!
7. Steps 4 to 6 are then repeated until the central gift has been uncovered. Note that when only two players remain in the game they should sit back to back while passing the parcel.

Pass the Parcel as a means of exchanging gifts at a Christmas party

If everyone going to a Christmas party brings a prepared Pass the Parcel parcel, the game can used to exchange gifts. Note, however, that the random nature of the game may mean that some guests leave with no gift. The person whose parcel is being passed around should be in charge of the music for that round. This way, they won’t end up with their own gift.

If you want everyone at the party to win a gift, the music could be stopped at calculated moments. Some may think that this spoils the fun of the game. However, people will still end up with a surprise gift. Alternatively, it could be stated at the start that people winning multiple gifts will have to share with those who have won nothing. The latter will probably happen anyway, without the need to state it formally.

Since there will be several parcels and therefore several rounds of the game to be played at the party, there should not be too many layers of paper on each gift. Unwrapping each parcel would otherwise take too long. Alternatively, you could have multiple parcels being passed around at the same time to save time. This may mean that someone gets their own present back though!

Ideally, gifts that are suitable for everyone should be purchased. On the party invitation, the organiser could set a maximum budget that people are allowed to spend. The budget should be reasonably low so that all can afford to play.

“Hot Parcel” version

The game “Hot Parcel” is a modified version of Pass the Parcel. In this game, the parcel is only wrapped with one layer of paper. It is therefore relatively environmentally friendly compared to the original game. During the game, the person holding the parcel when the music stops is eliminated. The final surviving player gets to open and keep the gift. Playing the game this way means that the players will want to hold the parcel in their hands for as little time as possible! Since they will therefore virtually throw the gift to the next person and since there is very little (wrapping paper) padding around the gift, it is especially important to have non-breakable gifts!

“Left right” version

The following version of Pass the Parcel is sometimes referred to as a “left right” game. Instead of playing music during the passing of the parcel, you can have a reader reading a (Christmas) story out loud. The story should frequently contain the words “left” and “right”. When the word “left” is read out, the parcel should be passed to the left, and when the word “right” is read out, the parcel should be passed to the right. The player holding the parcel when the story ends gets to keep the parcel or just unwrap a layer, if there are multiple layers of wrapping paper. You could have several parcels being passed around at the same time. Suitable stories to read out loud are easy to find on the Internet.

How to play Secret Santa in a traditional way

1. As Christmas approaches, everyone who wants to be involved should gather in one room. The names of the participants are then written on similar pieces of paper that are folded and placed in a hat or sack.
2. Without looking, each participant grabs one of the folded up pieces of paper. They should briefly check that the paper does not have their own name on it before the next person’s turn. If the piece of paper has their own name on it, they should pull out another piece of paper and then place their original piece of paper (refolded) back in the hat or sack.
3. The name on the piece of paper is the person for whom they should buy or make a gift.
4. Before everyone leaves the room, a maximum price for the gift should be agreed upon. This is normally quite low so that everyone can afford to play and because it is really nice to see what amazing gifts people can find or make on a low budget. The participants may all want to decide on an interesting or funny gift theme.
5. Typically, participants get about one to two weeks to buy or make their Secret Santa gifts. It is more fun if participants keep their gifts and the names of their receivers a secret. People can choose either one gift, worth up to the maximum price limit, or several smaller gifts. When choosing several smaller gifts, it is important for the buyer to keep track of the total cost of the gifts added together.
6. The exchanging of the gifts usually takes place before Christmas, unless all participants will be together on Christmas day. The way that the gifts are exchanged can vary significantly.

Here are giving methods that require all participants to gather together:

• The participants all gather around a table on top of which are all the gifts. The gifts are marked with the names of the receivers but not the givers. The gifts are opened one at a time. Participants will have fun trying to guess the giver of each present. If they don’t guess correctly, the Secret Santa should eventually confess!
• Again, the participants all gather around a table on top of which are all the gifts. This time, each giver has written and attached a poem to the outside of the gift describing their receiver, without the receiver’s name. This method promotes creativity on the giver’s part and again results in a fun guessing game. In such cases, the giver can either sign their name or leave everyone guessing. Again, the gifts are opened one at a time.
• When participants all exchange gifts together, a really party-like atmosphere can be created with music, decorations, and food. This is a great way of celebrating Christmas and the end of the year with work colleagues or school friends.

Here are giving methods that don’t require a large gathering:

• The gift giver personally gives the recipient the present, thereby revealing their identity immediately.
• The giver secretly puts the gift on the receiver’s desk when he/she is not there. The giver may choose to leave clues as to their identity.
• When each gift consists of several smaller items, items can be given over the course of several days. Every day or so, one of the small gifts is secretly delivered to the person. By spreading the gift giving over several days, people’s curiosity as to exactly who their personal Secret Santa is grows. When Secret Santa is played in this way, the small gifts are often personally created by the giver. A homemade card, homemade sweets, a poem, or even a small piece of artwork are all possible gifts that could be given. The gift given on the last day of the activity usually reveals the identity of the Secret Santa.

Variations to the game

Besides differences in how the gifts are exchanged, the game is sometimes modified as follows:

Including a wish list

It is sometimes decided that, along with their name on the piece of paper, each participant may also submit a short wish list of items from which the gift giver can choose. In such cases, the budget should be agreed upon in advance so that no items on the wish list are unreasonably expensive. Although this method will minimise the number of people receiving unwanted gifts, it limits the buyer’s chance to be creative and thoughtful.

“Thieving” versions of the game

There are what are known as “thieving” versions of Secret Santa. These are rather more complicated and time-consuming than the traditional Secret Santa games. The two main “thieving” versions are called “Yankee Swap” and “White Elephant”. In these versions of Secret Santa, participants each bring a gift (costing no more than an agreed price) that is likely to be suitable for any of the other participants. If the game is being played by both males and females, it is probably best to buy gifts that are suitable for both sexes! The gifts should be wrapped in a way that makes guessing what they are difficult. The giver of each gift should ideally be kept anonymous. All participants draw a number (e.g., from a hat) to determine their order for the opening of gifts.

The person that was randomly allocated to go first picks a gift (not their own!) from the pile and opens it for all to see. During the selection of a wrapped gift, the participant may pick up and/or gently shake the gifts.

In the Yankee Swap version, the person allocated to go second then chooses a gift and opens it. He/she must then decide whether to keep it or swap it for the first player’s gift. Each subsequent player then gets to select a gift, open it, and decide whether to keep it or swap it for any other already opened gift. The opening of gifts and swapping continues until all of the presents have been chosen. Finally, the person who picked first gets to swap gifts with anyone or keep what he/she has already received.

In the White Elephant version, the person allocated to go second can either choose the first player’s unwrapped gift or select a wrapped gift. If the second participant steals the first participant’s gift, then the first participant must choose and open another gift. Each subsequent player gets to either select an unwrapped gift or take someone else’s already opened gift. Any player whose gift is stolen is allowed to either choose a new wrapped gift or take an already opened gift from another player. Note that no gift can be immediately stolen back from the player who just stole it. The third owner of any gift gets to keep it. The gift exchanging ends when the last wrapped gift is chosen and opened. At this point, the person who started (chose first) can put back their gift and steal someone else’s (according to the rules just described). This starts the gift exchange going again. The process ends when someone chooses or is forced to take the gift given up by the person who chose first.

Secret Santa in films and TV series

Friends

In the episode entitled “The One with Chandler in a Box” (Season 4, Episode 8), the characters decide to play Secret Santa as a cost-saving measure. After picking names out of a bowl, they continuously try to swap who they have to buy gifts for.

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman

The “Daily Planet” employees in this 1990s TV series can be seen playing Secret Santa in the episode entitled “Season’s Greedings” (Season 2, Episode 9). Things don’t turn out quite as they should because, while under the influence of chemicals sprayed from the new and fast-selling Atomic Space rat toys, Daily Planet photographer Jimmy Olsen (Justin Whalin) rigs the Secret Santa game so that he will receive all the presents! Angela (Denise Richards), the new girl he is trying to befriend, is less than impressed when she finds out, and takes back the gift she gave him.

Screen captures from the episode “Season’s Greedings” of “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman”.