What happens when the IT dept. organizes your office gift exchange
This e-mail fell into my inbox this week. You can tell that I work with a bunch of engineers and IT geeks. It’s not that I don’t love them, they’re great, especially when they send stuff out like this:
WHITE ELEPHANT GIFT EXCHANGE
Players: [company name] Corporate Staff personnel
Objective: Open, exchange and steal inexpensive, fun gifts and hope your get something good!
Categories: Christmas
Game type: Passive. Little or no movement is required.
Players: 3 or more players.
Needed: Everyone attending the party needs to bring a wrapped gift.
Rules: Everyone brings a gift already wrapped. No one should know which gift you brought. Make up slips of paper with numbers on them and have each person draws a number. People choose gifts according the numbers that are drawn. [we use cards]
To start, the person with #1 picks out a gift, opens it so all can see what it is. Then the person with #2 get to “steal” any unwrapped gift or chose from those not yet chosen and opened. Then person #3 gets to “steal” any already opened gift or chose one of the ones still unopened. This continues around the circle. [we draw cards instead of following a number sequence]
Rules: The game continues with the following rules:
A) If someone steals your gift, you can steal someone else’s gift (see rules below)
B) Continue until everyone has had a turn for a gift. A turn is ended when an unopened gift has been opened.
C) A gift can only be “stolen” once during a turn.
D) Once a gift has had 3 “owners” the 3rd owner of a gift gets to keep it, it can’t be stolen again (until ending the game, see below).
Ending the game: After the last turn, the person who started (since he didn’t get a chance at the beginning) can put back the gift and “steal” and gift according to the rules. This starts the gift exchange again (following rules A & C above) and ends when someone chooses or is forced to take the gift given up by the first person.
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I am sure there’s an engineering schematic that will come out next week, lest anyone be confused.
I’ll let you know what I get.
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That is definitely the most well defined set of rules I’ve ever seen for the game. I’ve usually been a part of it when people kind of make up the rules as we go with people wondering and almost arguing about how many times it can be stolen and whatnot. Too funny. Hope you get something good!
I LOVE that game. We do it every year at a girlfriend’s party and then again at our holiday jazzercise party. Let me tell you – it can get NASTY!!
This would be easy to chart out using some 3D Cad software, so the creators of the game can further explain the rules in more detail.
Yep, I did this just last friday. Confusing, but good times. Mostly, anyways, I got shafted, my gift got stolen, but luckily, I didn’t get the gift that NOBODY wanted. (there’s always one)
What? No Powerpoint presentation? Maybe Sales should do it? Nah. Then you’d just have an arrow, a cloud, and a picture of presents.