Disclosure: This is an unsponosred post. Not sure if this game exists, but we used the idea of an old game and made it ours for the holidays. This article does contain affiliate links, which means that if you purchase our recommendations we make a small amount of money.
This year even though we are a STRICT no Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving family, I decided to start sharing ideas with you now. Why? Because we could ALL use a little sunshine and fun this year, and I am planning to share things that you can do even contactless, which is one thing we are all adapting too. We are sad and missing our “Normal” too…
If your family is ANYTHING like ours, you have everything. No one needs anything. A few years back we were trying to decide what to do for the holidays, because of course, despite not needing things, its always fun to open a gift. My brother and sister in law (Shannon) host my side of the family’s gift exchange and they love to make it fun. The idea of a “white elephant” exchange was thrown around, but we didn’t love the name. That’s when (A) said, what about a “white deer”?
Loved this idea, its more festive for us. Then we thought about the idea of the exchange, although super entertaining, no one in our family needs more “stuff” either. We wanted it to be kind of meaningful, not just funny. Those “funny” gifts are amusing, then what do you do with them? We didn’t want to “waste” money on things that would be tossed out or aside after a few days.
Then (A) threw out the idea that it would be themed every year. He would decide the theme and let my sister in law know. One of the gifts would be a statue of a white deer. We got ours from Homegoods, but I love this one too CLICK FOR LINK .The person who won it would display it like a trophy each year, sign it (in permanent marker) and wrap it back up for the next year.
We set a price limit ($25) and each person goes out and buys something “On theme” to wrap and bring to the party.
The evening of the celebration, we follow typical rules that Shannon made, you get a number, then when its your turn, roll the dice and follow the rules on the sheet.
Even my kids play. It makes for some super fun stuff, and its actually the way we got our AWESOME tabletop smores maker that we use and adore. The more “outside of the box” and useful the better. Once everyone has chosen, we all open simultaneously.
Shannon the “Hostess with the Mostest”
Themes we have done:
- Red and Green
- Something Warm
- Favorite Holiday Movie (this year’s theme)
This year will obviously be different. We are following the COVID guidelines very carefully as we have loved ones to protect. We are still brainstorming how it will work, BUT I think we are going to have a randomization site pick our numbers over ZOOM. Then display the gifts we purchased (or we may do a door drop for randomization before hand) for people pick over the computer. People at each place then still get to open something and react. After the game, we will drop it at each others homes (contactless of course).
Special thanks to Shannon for allowing me to share her game, and for the pics <3
