At Christmas, Grandma's Gift Giving Games

by Janet McD
(Washington state)

My grandmas Christmas was the best Christmas growing up and the one I look forward to the most still. It is quite a large gathering with aunts, uncles, cousins, spouses, kids and always someone extra to share the holiday with.

We all bring a dish to pass usually a snack or finger food. The two main dishes we have every year is chili and oyster stew. Oyster stew is a tradition, it was my grandpas favorite. He has since passed.

My grandma is always full of surprises for the younger grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Some of the stunts she pulls for gift giving are:

Wrapping candy, money and gifts in rolls of toilet paper and placing them in a large bag (each time you unroll the toilet paper something falls out)

She places all the big and small gifts in a large plastic Christmas bag full of packing popcorn(she wraps the larger gifts and you have to dig to find the rest)

Another time she wrapped all the gifts in newspaper put them in the middle of the floor and everyone had to find their initials somewhere on the gifts to figure out whose was whose.

As for the adults, we play a steal the gift game. Everyone brings a gift. We do a $10 limit. Women and men each play separate games. Write down numbers of how many guests are playing. Mix them up and give each a number. Place all the gifts man or women whoever is playing first on a table or even the floor. Lowest number picks first. They unwrap their gift and show everyone. The next number can either steal that gift or choose from the pile. If the person steals the gift the person who is now gift less chooses another and so on.

The very last number is the best to get because you can chose from any of the gifts because you know what they all are!