entertain-tip #10... the white elephant in the room

thanksgiving has passed and wherever you look, trees are being decorated, holiday music is playing 24 hours a day, lights are being strung, and day by day it's beginning to look a lot more like christmas...


i love and look forward to getting together with friends and creating a festivus among us.  a cozy fire, christmas songs, the smell of mulled spices mixed with a spattering of cookies and peppermint martinis...it screams merry merry!


if you're looking to host a holiday soiree, i highly recommend a white elephant exchange of some sort. it's the perfect mix of surprise, fun, and always ends up with some friendly holiday haggling.


it's easy, you pick a theme or a price limit. anything will do... ornaments, to stuffed stockings, different cookies to different bottles of wine, beer or alcohol, funny hats to winter scarfs, just think of something fun and have your guests get shopping.


rules are:

• everyone who comes brings a gift
• draw numbers. one for every person 
• #1 goes first. they pick from the pile
• #2 goes and has the choice of stealing from #1 or picking from the pile... so on an so forth until everyone has gone
• once every # has pulled or stolen a gift, #1 gets to decide whether he/she wants to steal or keep the gift that's in their lap
• only other rule is that a gift cannot be stolen more than 2x's after it's been open

after a few holiday cocktails this game is sure to bring your guests together and leaves everyone feeling warm, cozy and a wee bit merrier when they head back into the cold.

**some of you might be wondering about the pickle ornament... let's just say it was quite the conversation piece at last year's ornament exchange. it can be found here and actually is part of a cute german tradition: An age-old German good luck tradition, this realistic, handpainted glass ornament adds a touch of pickle personality to holiday decorating. The last ornament placed on the tree, whoever finds it first gets an extra gift from St. Nick