One of the favorite games for Christmas time gatherings is secret friend. It is the dynamic played out between lifelong friends, friends from school, college, university, office colleagues and even between family members.

Basically, the activity consists of exchanging gifts between a group of people through a secret drawing (hence the name) known on the agreed day for the delivery of the gifts.

As the years go by, people who celebrate this custom may find it repetitive, but there are always ways to update the tradition and still have fun with your loved ones.

Special announcements for secret friends

Instead of revealing the secret friend on the date of the exchange, it’s more fun if we do it with some kind of interlude. Anyone who is going to deliver the gift can do so with mimes, with names of movie characters and even with colors, so that the mystery is not so easily solved.

To do it with mimes, the person who gives the gift to his secret friend will point to it without saying his name, but with the gestures that most identify him.

Another option is to choose a fictional character (from a movie or an animated quote) and name their characteristics until the person recognizes that they are the secret friend.

Finally, another alternative is to announce the secret friend on the day of the meeting by wearing a color that starts with the initial of their name. Most likely it will surprise you.

Last minute exchange

One of the charms of the secret friend is the mystery of who delivers to whom. And in the middle, more than one person will be overwhelmed with curiosity to know who got hold of one or the other person. To avoid this in a group with a lot of curious people (and in each group everyone already knows who they are), you can do the draw on the same day of the exchange. At that point, everyone brings a generic gift that works for both men and women and, if possible, is of equal value.

The 21 questions

Based on the classic guessing game (“guess the object I’m thinking of with 21 questions or less”). The twist to this dynamic for the secret friend is that everyone puts his or her gifts in the pile, and everyone takes turns picking up a gift. Only those who guess the inside of the package can open it.

The hot potato

This mechanic is similar to the chair game. Everyone puts their presents in a pile and sits in a circle. As the music plays, the gift turns from hand to hand. When the music stops, that person keeps the gift and leaves the circle. The last person gets the last gift.

Handmade gifts

For those who want to celebrate the secret friend without feeling obligated to spend too much, you can be part of this festive tradition and deliver something more personal and meaningful that comes from the heart. This could be the year in which groups can launch an exchange of handmade gifts, in which they can give free rein to their creativity and combine the joy of making crafts, all in the spirit of giving and also to let in this way see how much they know each other. other.

The pirate Santa (Yankee substitution)

This is the famous one Yankee change what colleagues do The office (2006–2013). For this exchange, participants do not draw their names, but each agree to bring a gift of equal monetary value that can be used by either gender.

The game begins with everyone taking turns picking and unwrapping a gift, or stealing a gift already in the hands of their partner. When a gift is stolen, that person can choose a gift from those still wrapped, or steal it from another player. When the round ends and returns to the starting player, he can decide to steal one of the gifts (yes, the starting player plays twice). And so the game ends.

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