At our company’s holiday party we had the most wonderful spread of pot luck foods and we played a game called “Dirty Santa.”

Everyone was told to buy and wrap a Christmas gift. We could spend up to $50.. We were not to buy for one particular person – every gift went under the Christmas tree in our reception area until we started the game.

Dominque passed around a hat with numbers written on little pieces of paper and to start the game the person who drew the umber 1 got to go first. That person could pick any present under the tree and then had to unwrap it in front of everyone. Then the fun begins. The person who drew number 2 could either steal the gift that someone else had unwrapped, or choose an unwrapped gift from under the tree. Once a gift was unwrapped, it was fair game for anyone with the next number to steal it if they wanted it. If your gift is stolen, then you go back to the tree and choose another wrapped gift to replace it. Then the next number gets to choose, and on and on.

Some people put a limit on how many times an unwrapped gift can be stolen, but we did not do that. The very last person to choose had their pick from all the unwrapped gifts – and there were some hard decisions to be made! Do you want to steal the desired gift from the person who is your boss and risk upsetting your boss? Do you steal the desired gift from someone you know can really use and appreciate the gift they chose? Do you want to appear greedy or selfish to your coworkers by stealing a gift from someone – or do you take your chances with an unwrapped gift? Will someone else steal the gift that you wanted?

Well, it was great fun and everyone took the stealing in good spirits. I drew number 5 and stole a gift that was unwrapped, but then the very next person stole that away from me! The bum!