Secret Santa Stealing Game

Secret Santa (or Kris Kringle) is an annual tradition that takes over offices all over the country, you either love it or you loathe it. Whether you get Andrew from Accounts or Kathy from Admin it can be an absolute nightmare finding a gift that's either funny, thoughtful or useful within the nominated dollar value, especially if you don't know them very well.

At a Christmas lunch a few years ago my large extended family tried a new version of this game which turned out to be a whole lot more fun, mainly because you could steal 'good' gifts and end up with something you really like, rather than something you thought about regifting the moment you saw it (we've all been there). This game is so much fun it has become an annual tradition in our family and the only way we play Secret Santa - This is how it goes:

Each person playing purchases 1 gift. You can nominate a dollar value for the gifts just like normal Secret Santa if you want to, the difference is the gift you buy can be anything, for anyone, and could even be something you like for yourself.

You could find a gift that is something that you would really love to have (because you might end up with it!), a joke present or something someone else would really love.  I like to get something people would choose if they had a choice of all the gifts on the table - a really nice beach towel or a bottle of wine have always been winners in our family.

All the gifts are wrapped and placed together in the centre of the table. Someone needs to write down numbers on pieces of paper and put them in a bowl. There should be a number for every gift - ie. If you have 10 gifts on the table and 10 people playing write down the numbers 1-10.

Each person picks a number out of the bowl and this is how you determine who goes first. The players take turns in chronological order starting with number 1. The highest number in the group goes last. And last is the best position to be in this game!

The person with No.1 can choose absolutely any gift from the pile. Once chosen, they unwrap the gift for everyone to see and then it's No.2's turn.

No. 2 can STEAL the gift from No. 1 if they like it OR they can chance it and choose any gift from the pile. If No.2 steals No.1's gift, No.1 must choose another gift from the pile.

No. 3 then has the choice to steal any of the already chosen unwrapped gifts, or choose any from the wrapped pile. 

The fun really starts to ramp up when the first gift is 'stolen', the person who has their unwrapped gift stolen can then also steal an unwrapped gift from another player or pick a new gift from the pile.

The only rule is that if your gift is stolen you can't steal it back in the same turn.

The gifting ends when the last present is chosen and unwrapped from the pile and everyone has a gift to take home (or re-gift or keep for next year).

A fun new take on Office Secret Santa, play it with your co-workers this year for a laugh and shop our range of Secret Santa Gifts that everyone is going to want to steal!