By: Tim Scronce
The Holiday Season is here and that means office Christmas parties, tree trimming, covered dish lunches, ugly Christmas sweater contests, and any other fun activity you can cram into the season. “But you forgot to mention the most important Holiday Season activity…”, says the peanut gallery.
Hmmm…what could that be? Ah! Yes, DIRTY SANTA!
Indeed, no office Christmas season would be complete without a friendly, knock-down-drag-out dirty Santa game.
Below are the rules as I know them, but you can spice up the game with add-one rules.
Picking order is very important. The higher the picking order, the more opportunity you have to steal a cool gift from some poor soul that has already picked or stolen a gift.
Someone is going to pick number 1 out of the hat, so in fairness, that person will get a chance to steal a gift after the last picker has stolen or picked a gift.
When a gift is stolen three times, it is deemed off limits. The third person does not have to worry about losing that gift. Generally if a gift is stolen multiple times, it is a primo gift and there are at least three ticked off participants that wanted it and had it snatched. I have witnessed Bed, Bath, and Beyond products damn near cause a fist fight. At some point in the game, you are likely think, "...Wow! that escalated quickly"
You can tell right away who the savviest Dirty Santa strategists are. People will strategize and build secret alliances as each gift is opened. Since steal-backs are not allowed, one strategy is to build an alliance with someone and if your gift is stolen, you steal your partner’s gift and they steal your gift back from the person that stole it from you and at the end of the game you swap gifts in secret. But beware of the offer to ally with a player. You may be lured into a double-cross.
Have fun and a Merry Christmas from Tim Scronce and the staff of Scronce & Associates, LLC Private Equity.
The Holiday Season is here and that means office Christmas parties, tree trimming, covered dish lunches, ugly Christmas sweater contests, and any other fun activity you can cram into the season. “But you forgot to mention the most important Holiday Season activity…”, says the peanut gallery.
Hmmm…what could that be? Ah! Yes, DIRTY SANTA!
Indeed, no office Christmas season would be complete without a friendly, knock-down-drag-out dirty Santa game.
Below are the rules as I know them, but you can spice up the game with add-one rules.
- Instruct all participants to buy a nice $20 gift. Remember to remind everyone that the better the gifts, the dirtier the game (not everyone is a creative at gift buying, so enlist the help of a creative person in your office to compile a list of cool $20 gifts and email that out to all participants). You can make it a bit easier by declaring a theme. Restaurant gift cards and as-seen-on-TV gifts are two of my favorite gift themes. Most every gift in those categories are winners and perfectly priced.
- All gifts must be wrapped--Very Important.
- Determine the picking order having everyone to pick a number out of a hat.
- Whoever draws number "1", picks first, opens their gift, and shows everyone…hopefully to a chorus of Oooos and Ahhhs. The next person has the choice to pick a gift from the pile or if any previous picker's gift is too awesome to pass up, they can steal that gift.
- Here is where it can get dicey. If someone steals your loot, you get to immediately pick a gift from the pile or steal from someone else, but they can’t steal back from the person that just stole from them.
Picking order is very important. The higher the picking order, the more opportunity you have to steal a cool gift from some poor soul that has already picked or stolen a gift.
Someone is going to pick number 1 out of the hat, so in fairness, that person will get a chance to steal a gift after the last picker has stolen or picked a gift.
When a gift is stolen three times, it is deemed off limits. The third person does not have to worry about losing that gift. Generally if a gift is stolen multiple times, it is a primo gift and there are at least three ticked off participants that wanted it and had it snatched. I have witnessed Bed, Bath, and Beyond products damn near cause a fist fight. At some point in the game, you are likely think, "...Wow! that escalated quickly"
You can tell right away who the savviest Dirty Santa strategists are. People will strategize and build secret alliances as each gift is opened. Since steal-backs are not allowed, one strategy is to build an alliance with someone and if your gift is stolen, you steal your partner’s gift and they steal your gift back from the person that stole it from you and at the end of the game you swap gifts in secret. But beware of the offer to ally with a player. You may be lured into a double-cross.
Have fun and a Merry Christmas from Tim Scronce and the staff of Scronce & Associates, LLC Private Equity.