Roulette Man's guide to office Christmas Party gift exchanges

We have an annual Christmas Party where each of us are asked to bring a wrapped gift worth no more than $25.

At the party the gifts are put under a tree or on table. You should know your gift, but none of the others. Each person is given a number between 1 and the total number of gifts. The person who has Number 1 will select a gift and open it. The person who has Number 2 has the choice to take Number 1's gift or to take an unopened gift. If Number 1's gift is taken, then Number 1 will go back and choose a new gift. A gift can be taken up to three times.

If you have something like this for your office Christmas Party, here are some hints for trying to get the better gifts.


1. Hope you choose a later number near the end. You have no control over this, but if you get the later number you can take a good gift.

2. Avoid the big packages. There is nothing for $25, that is big and valuable. I got regifted green drinking glasses. I got lucky and had them taken from me because the person wanted to give them to his daughter who was going to college. I almost hugged him when he took them off of me.

3. Go for the packages that look like booze, especially the ones that don't look like wine bottles. If you get hard booze, you are fine. Some of the wines are not top shelf stuff. Generally guys will try to take these from you. Booze isn't imaginative but is much better than getting a white elephant.

4. Take the $25 Honey Baked Ham certificates.

Beware out there. A lot of people wrap gifts that they are regifting. In other words they got crap from some other party, didn't want it, and rewrapped it and gifted it.

Yeah, the small packages are the way to go. Small things dont cost as much to ship when you sell them on Ebay a day after the X-mas party..

We do this every year among friends and neighbors.

There are several gifts that show back up year after year. Just part of the fun.

we do this exchange thing but rules say no stealing once you've been stolen from. I give booze. One year I got a cookie jar. I regifted it to the woman I brought to the holiday party.

To add the original tips. You can't do much about your number but don't steal booze. Someone will surely steal it from you. Steal something you like but thing not many others will want. I got greedy last year and stole booze and I wound up with party streamers. I wasn't having a party. Great tip on the small stuff. Creative folks will attach a $25 gift card to a dollar store piece of crap.

You guys stealing the good gifts remind me of somebody...

I just take 24 different pieces of crap from the dollar store and attach then to a one dollar gift card

Buy a $25 gift card for your your favorite store.
Bring that and wrap it in a large box.
When it comes time for you to pick, chose the that you brought.

Nobody will take it from you because the others will;
1. "Avoid the big packages. There is nothing for $25, that is big and valuable."
2. "Go for the packages that look like booze"

You end up a big winner because you got something that is the full $25 value,
and you can use it to buy something that you really like at your favorite store

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!!

Rick

Where is the "fun" in something like this? Going in, everyone knows most of the gifts are crap, and they look at each other thinking "I'll bet so-&-so will be the cheap-ass we thought he or she was" at this stupid event. Then it turns into a luck-of-the-draw competition that most will bring home the experience and badmouth about it to their friends and family over the holidays. Bump up the gift value to a minimum of $100, and that'll change the entire event from an exercise in trivial nonsense to a meaningful game of one upmanship.....and everyone will go home happy with a good story to tell over the holidays while retaining good memories.

Al Bundy, do you ever find the fun in anything?

Yes. I especially enjoyed the non-indictments of the two cops recently. My kids are coming home from college for the holidays, and I find that a lot of fun. I won $3200 on my last trip to Mesquite and that was a blast!