We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.
If you are in charge of a holiday party, you may be looking for a unique gift exchange game. This version is great for family, office, church, and any other party but is especially a great gift passing game for situations where people might want to get to know each other better.
I have included info on this Christmas Gift Exchange Game (or any holiday gift exchange) below, plus a free printable of cards to use during it.
Why Choose A Unique Pass-The-Present Game
As my siblings and I have gotten older, we have gone to having a family Christmas party a week or two before Christmas.
Most of us have our own families and traditions we are starting, or we are splitting time between our family and our in-laws, so getting everyone together on Christmas Eve or Christmas day was getting too hard. The party prior to Christmas has been a great solution.
For the last few years, I was in charge of our family Christmas Party. We have 26+ people in attendance. Each year we do a white elephant-type gift exchange.
We have done several different versions, but a few years ago I wanted to do something new. So today I am sharing with you a Free Gift Exchange Game Printable of the game we did for our party.
In years past we have done a traditional exchange (steal a present or pick a new one, etc), one that involved dice and if you rolled doubles you could steal, and even the ones where you tell a story and you pass the presents left and right and open them at the end.
This year we decided we wanted something different. I made this printable for us to use as our gift exchange game.
How To Play This Unique Gift Exchange Game
I came up with a bunch of different conditions for exchanging gifts with someone, such as “swap presents with the oldest player” or “the player with the shortest hair.”
There were even some that said something like “Lucky you, you get to keep your present or swap it with any player.”
We cut them out and folded them, then put them in a Christmas-themed canister. At the party, we then handed out random presents to every person from the gift pile. We had everyone open the present so they knew what they had.
You could keep the gifts wrapped for this gift exchange game, we just knew we had a few gag gifts that people would get pretty intense about trying to discard (but the joke was on them, they were just fake product boxes with awesome gifts in them).
PS- If you also need a fun game, we have a free printable Danger Word: Christmas Edition based off Ellen’s Game of Games for you.
I then chose a random way to pick who would go first. For me it was whoever had the next birthday, but you could choose the tallest player, the youngest, or anything you want. Once you have decided how to start the gift exchange game, here is how to play.
That person then drew a slip of paper and followed the instructions. Then the player they swapped with would draw a piece of paper.
This did make it so some people (myself included) never got a chance to swap so you can do it this way, or go around the circle and make everybody choose a piece if you want to make sure everyone gets a chance to draw.
This gift exchange game is not only great for family gatherings but also for work, church, or anywhere else with large groups. It kind of has a “getting to know you” feel to it as well.
I love that it isn’t a traditional “steal the present” game, or a gift passing game using a poem. Those are fun, but have been done at many parties I have attended. It is nice to have something unique.
I have a free printable of this gift exchange game for you below.
Get A Free Printable Gift Exchange Game Here
I am happy to share this free gift exchange game printable with you today, but before I do, a few guidelines you should be aware of:
- Printables are for personal use only. Do not sell them or claim them as your own.
- If you want to share this printable- AWESOME! Just please do so by directing people to this post.
- To download, Click on the link, then when the preview comes up, click the download button. You may then choose to “open with Adobe (or your PDF viewer of choice) and then print. If you simply hit print from the preview, the sizing will be way off!
- Enjoy!
You may download the printable by CLICKING HERE.
Please note this post was originally published under my old site – Love Our Crazy Life.
