This Christmas the ritual of opening presents will occur just as it does every year. However it can be a bit boring after doing for several years. You probably need to look for a way to spice it up and make it more interesting. One way to do it is with games like Secret Santa. This is a way to upset everyone’s expectations and provide some pleasant surprises and entertainment. Here are some great suggestions to help you get started.

The original version of Secret Santa is very straight forward. The idea is to assign each person in your family with a person to give a gift and a budget. The budget is to make sure that the gifts are nice but reasonably priced. It is normally up to the “secret Santa” to decide what gift to get. However it is a good idea for the person to take into account the person that they are buying for so that the gift that will be well received. On Christmas day every one opens their gifts. The fun will be in guessing who bought the gift as well as the surprise of seeing what it is.

Another game that can be played is Dirty Dice. In Dirty Dice everyone buys a random assortment of gifts. Like in Secret Santa it is a good idea to set a budget but everyone should try to buy something nice to make the game more appealing. The game is essentially a gift grab. He who gets the most presents wins. To start with every one rolls the dice. If a person gets doubles they get to choose a present. After the dice has gone around once the second phase of play begins. A fifteen minute timer is set and the dice is passed around again. If a person gets doubles the can pick a gift from the pile or steal a neighbors. If a person gets double sixes they can steal any gift without getting it stolen. For younger players make sure that everyone gets at least one gift at the end of play.

You can also play Naughty or Nice. It is the gift version of Hot Potato. In the game gifts are randomly purchased. However there are some gag gifts mixed in. The main gift to avoid is a lump of coal. As everyone knows, this is what Santa gives naughty children if they misbehave. So the person who receives it is the loser. The fun is that it can be anyone. The other gag gifts are basically for laughs. You can also deliberately split gifts to make play more interesting. In this case players will then have to barter and trade to complete their gifts.

You can also have a holiday trivia game. Have everyone one answer a set of questions on various facts about Christmas. The person who answers the most questions gets first dibs at choosing presents. To make sure that everyone gets something ranked by who gets to pick next by who placed next after the winner and so on.

Another great thing you can do is have your kids receive a call from Santa Claus. Since it will be someone else on the phone they will have no choice but to believe it’s him and will a magical and memorable experience.