Would you participate in a ”Grinch Santa” exchange or figure it too risky?

I have seen this done. I don’t really like it.

I’ve seen it done too. No good, in my opinion. There always ends up being one awesome gift that everyone wants, and one crappy one that no one wants. It ends up hurting people’s feelings unnecessarily.

I’ve never heard of this but I wouldn’t participate. That’s an awful lot of complication in order to just make someone feel crappy. I like the old fashioned way of giving gifts from the heart because I enjoy to try and surprise and treat someone.

I’m not sure how this is different then a white elephant gift exchange? Millions of americans (if not other places in the world also) Play this way every year….

I have heard this called “Dirty Santa” (which I personally think brings something completely different to mind.)

I have played several times – in clubs, at work and at parties. I think it’s kind of fun. There is usually a lot of back and forth, “stealing” and joking around. You might end up with a lousy gift, but you didn’t have any gift at all before you got there.

We do this at a holiday party with extended family, its never very good but it doesn’t bother me. I don’t really care about what (or if) I get…but other people in the family do…I just take something crappy and hope for less complaining from others

We do this at my family Xmas party every year. It’s always lots of fun and plenty of hilarious comments are made during this event. You only have to buy one gift, but then you get to play this fun game with the family. It’s a hoot! I guess my family just gives good gifts. No one has ever been upset about it. You’re not supposed to buy a gag gift, it’s supposed to be something that anyone could use. There’s usually lots of bottles of wine, gift cards and tools. Sometimes there’s a theme. Like this year the theme was gift cards. So everybody bought one $20 gift card from some place (like Barnes & Noble, Home Depot, itunes, Starbucks or whatever) then we bought, made or found some other item that cost less than $5 that was a “hint” for the gift card. So you would pick a wrapped “hint” item, open it up and you could either keep that “hint” gift along with the real gift (which would be opened after everyone picked) or you could trade it for another one, and then the next guy could either trade or steal yours or someone elses. So while the hint gifts are being opened, everyone is trying to figure out what the real gift was. Last year one person gave the hint gift of a pair of $1 reading glasses, the real gift was a certificate for See’s Candy. The more creative the hint gift is, the more fun the whole game is.

They did this at my work Christmas party last year and it was actually a lot of fun. For them, a gift could be “stolen” 3 times, so the third person to “steal” it got to keep it. It can be a lot of fun with the right group of people, but I could see it leading to trouble in other groups.

We call that a White Elephant exchange, and I don’t like it.

If all the gifts are gender-neutral and of approximately equal value, I think it sounds like a fun idea. I’ve never seen it actually done though. I think it would work well in my team at work. There’s 12 of us and we all know each other pretty well.

We’re supposed to do that this year at a party, but it’s being called “Dirty Santa.” I’ve heard it called a few things. This year we’re only supposed to go into a “regift” pile. Fess up, we all have that stash. It should be fine, no on will be taking it very seriously – at least not this lot.

My family exchanges gifts in this way. We decided to reduce the stress and commercialism by purchasing and wrapping only one gift, and then draw numbers. It’s actually lots of fun, and it’s helped to slightly de-Scrooge-ify me about the holiday.

At work, we have a “white elephant exchange”, wrapping up hideous items that we have received in the past. It’s amazing how one person’s trash is another’s treasure. (And the person who is voted as having the absolutely most atrocious gift wins a prize.)

We have done this on the 4th of July where everybody re-gifts or wraps up a choice piece of stuff you are dying to get rid of and have what is know as the White Elephant Great Give-A-Way!! For some reason the Thigh Master keeps making an encore presentation! XD

We call it a Yankee Swap.

This kind of thing depends entirely on the group of people participating. With a willing, adventurous group of folks, it can be quite fun! I don’t think kids should ever be involved in it, though. Their feelings can be hurt too easily.

Yeah, I’ve done a few of these. They’re really fun, especially if you and your group have already had a few drinks. Maybe I’ve lucked out, but I ended up with gifts I was really happy with.

knock on wood, now I’m sure to get that bronzed ear cleaner or something next time

You mean white elephant? It’s usually better for everyone if they are all good presents and there is no stealing involved – it makes for some conflict. Also, not many people are actually happy with the gifts they ended up with. Another version of white elephant is when everyone just picks a gift from the pile (without unwrapping it) all at once. Then a reader reads a story like this (http://www.partymerchant.com/gift_exchange_game.htm) with plays on the word ‘right’ and ‘left’, and whenever the people hear the word ‘right’, they pass their gift to the person on their right. Same for left. Then when the story is done, everyone takes turn opening the presents they ended up with! This makes for a lot of laughs and everyone just ends up trading when they are done.

@JessK You mean white elephant? More like an anti-white elephant.