Top Workplace Holiday Gift Exchanges
Workplace gift exchanges are a fun and unexpected way to add some holiday cheer to your office. There are many types of gift exchanges that you can incorporate into your office party, ranging from traditional and practical to silly and unpredictable. These four ideas work great with both large and small workplaces and can easily fit into your budget if your boss and coworkers agree to establish a spending limit and a few ground rules. Get ready to celebrate the season with these top-rated workplace gift exchanges.
Cobweb Party
While most of us think cobwebs relate specifically to Halloween, this silly search exchange works great for workplace gift exchanges as well. In order for this game to work though, you'll need one designated room in your office to weave and wind multiple colors of yarn throughout. Each color of yarn connects and corresponds with a particular wrapped gift and each player is assigned to a different color. You can make your cobwebs as intricate as you wish; zigzag them under desks and chairs, weave through cubicles and loop over curtain rods. The goal is to create a challenging cobweb that eventually leads to a present tied to the yarn.
White Elephant
Sometimes known as a Yankee Swap, a White Elephant gift exchange is great for a relaxed workplace filled with a sense of humor as the gifts typically given involve unusual and silly items or re-gifted presents. Each employee contributes his or her wrapped present to a central spot in the office and draws a random number to determine the order in which each person will pick a gift from the pile. As each person chooses and unwraps a gift, subsequent players then have the option to "steal" a particular present from a previous player or choose and unwrap a new one from the pile. Players whose gifts are stolen have the opportunity to pick again. The White Elephant gift exchange is complete when every employee has a gift.
Musical Gifts
This gift exchange game is a quick and nostalgic way to distribute holiday presents at random. Think of it as a twist on the traditional musical chairs. To play, have all employees sit in a circle holding their gifts. Choose a seasonal holiday song to play while each person passes their gifts to the left. When the music stops, each person opens whatever gift they are holding. The fun lies in not knowing which gift you'll end up with!
Coffee Cup Exchange
Look on nearly every desk in your office and you'll likely see a coffee cup. This morning essential provides inspiration for the coffee cup exchange in which a price limit is set and recipient names are randomly assigned to each employee. Each person then wraps up a seasonal mug and fills it with little goodies like hot chocolate packets, small chocolates, candy or other holiday treats before exchanging it with their assigned recipient. A coffee cup exchange is one of the more useful and affordable office gift games.
Post Author: Jessica Wasik.
