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Bring An Air Of Mystery Back To Christmas With 'Secret Santa'
Secret Santa is becoming more popular in today's social circles with friends and work colleagues choosing this fun low cost option. As budgets are getting tighter in the holiday period this alternative method and frankly funnier option is becoming the smart option allowing everyone to be generous but without breaking the bank. It also adds an element of mystery to Christmas again and furthermore there is the joy of trying to work out who gifted your present; besides having a lot of fun by trying to find the oddest, most amusing gift with your pre agreed budget.
The big question is how to come up with secret santa gift ideas? Budgets are small but ideas are big...well the beauty of the game is the basic vagueness of it; you can literally get whatever you feel within your budget. Also as it's starting to build in popularity companies are beginning to embrace this and stock and advertise specific secret santa ideas. So you can always have a goosy-gand on the internet for things as there is an abundance of sites that deal with it directly.
The other big question is which version to play! There are many versions of Secret Santa for instance there is 'Thieving Santa' which consists of all participants bringing one gift, each interesting enough so it could be enjoyed by any of the other participants. The gifts should be wrapped in such a way as to disguise its nature. Ideally, the giver of each gift should not be disclosed when setting up the game. Players take turns where they can either open a new gift, or steal someone else's previously opened gift. This game is also known as the White Elephant Gift Exchange, Yankee Swap, Dirty Santa, Devil's Santa, Nasty Christmas, Snatchy Christmas Rat or the Grinch game.
Then there is 'Casino Santa' in this version, each person buys a gift for a specified amount while making sure it's not for anyone precisely then each person additionally puts in a stated sum of money into a pot. Whoever goes first can be determined by the traditional way of 'names in a hat'. Upon being picked you have three options:
1. Choose a gift.
2. Choose a small token from the money pot.
Or
3. Put your name in another hat to win all the unopened gifts and money by those who went for option 2/3.
At the end, the gifts that were chosen by people who went with option 1 are opened then the draw for the winner of the money pot and leftover gifts is decided. It's a risky version as you could be left with no present what so ever or win big and get a load of money and a load of presents.
Personally I think the original concept is the best but giving these other options a go does spice things up a bit. So try it out in the office or with your mates and bring back that air of mystery and excitement to Christmas once more.
Jeffrey Nevil writes on a number of subjects including secret santa gifts ideas.
Article submitted Monday, November 28, 2011 & read 24 times.
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