Come on Down to PlayThe Strategist Gifting Game
A little like secret Santa. A little like white elephant. Better than both.
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Here’s the thing: We’ve played all of the gifting games before and we think they could be better. With white elephant, you often get a bunch of junky gag gifts that just end up in the trash. With secret Santa, the great fear is that you’ll be revealed to not actually know your partner that well (or, even worse, at all). So we present to you our very own solution:The Strategist Gifting Game.
Test Run
The Strategist Gifting Game
To incentivize people to try harder and also make it easier for you to come up with really good gift ideas, we’ve developed a game where each player is given three descriptors that are both specific and direct but also very much open to interpretation. Because in our own experiences, it’s the focused imagination that can truly run wild. All of the descriptors fall into three categories: The Place (living room, bedroom, office, etc.), The Form (big, small, hard, soft, etc.), and The Wild Card (sexy, highbrow, a little “basic,” and so on). EveryGifting Gameplayer is randomly assigned one of each. Combine all three together to determine the gift you’ll ultimately buy. Rest assured that whatever three adjectives you’re allotted will yield something fun, surprising, and delightful for the person receiving your present. (You can even use our very handyGift Scoutto help inspire ideas.) And then for the exchange, well, we’ve got a little Strategist spice there for you too.
Read on below for the full rules of the game, and feel free to comment if you’ve got any questions.
How to PlayThe Strategist Gifting Game
The Set Up
- Select your group of players (co-workers, cousins, high-school friends, whoever). Any number of players works, as long as you’ll be able to get together in person to eventually exchange the gifts.
- Agree on a gift budget.
- Choose one group leader to fill out the form below with everyones email addresses, including their own.
- Each player will get an email with three gift criteria assigned. Use these criteria, along with the price limit, to pick and buy your gift. (OurGift Scoutcan help!)
- Make a date and a location to get together for the in-person gift exchange.
The Exchange
- Everyone brings their wrapped gifts and places them in the middle of the room. On the outside of the wrapping, visible to all, each gift is labeled with its three categories. You can print outour gift tags, below, for this!
- Players take turns choosing one gift each from the pile. You can start in age order, youngest to oldest, or any other predetermined order.
- No one reveals who bought which gift!!!
- Once everyone has chosen and opened their gifts, the entire group votes on which present is the best.
- The person who purchased the most beloved gift gets to steal any present they want!
The Strategistis designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read abouthere. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
