Santa has already been to my house this year, with gifts galore for the Twin Cities Tarot Meetup Group. On Saturday, everyone who comes to our meeting will get a free gift -- either a tarot deck or a tarot book.
To determine who gets which deck or which book, however, we're going to play the "Dirty Santa" game.
You might have played this game at an office party or family reunion. It's a lot of fun. If you've never played -- or if it's been a while since you played -- here are the rules.
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THE DIRTY SANTA GAME
First, we'll start with all of the gifts on a table. They'll all be wrapped and topped with a festive holiday bow, so you won't know what's inside. (Dan and I did most of the wrapping on Wednesday night.)
Every player will draw a number to determine his or her turn.
Player #1 will choose a gift from the table, open it, and show it to everyone else.
Now Player #2 will enter the game. Player #2 may choose a new, unopened gift from the table ... OR take the gift that Player #1 has already opened.
If Player #2 chooses an unwrapped gift, he'll open it and show it to everybody else.
If Player #2 takes a gift from Player #1, then Player #1 gets to take a new gift from the table. As before, Player #1 will open that new gift and show it to everybody else.
Now Player #3 enters the game, and he has two choices: he can either take an unopened gift from the table, or take one of the open gifts from Player #1 or Player #2.
Once the game gets going, every player has two choices: either take a new, unopened gift from the table, or take somebody else's opened gift.
As the game proceeds, gifts go back and forth a lot. You will probably find yourself holding many different gifts before the game is over. That's what makes the game exciting!
There are two important rules to keep in mind when another player takes one of your gifts:
1. If someone takes your gift, you may not turn around and take it right back. You must choose a new unopened gift from the table, or take a gift from a third person. Later on, as new players enter the game, you can steal a favorite gift back. You just can't take it back the minute it's taken from you.
2. A gift will be yours to keep once it has been in your possession three times. If there's a gift you really, really want, keep track of how many times it's actually "yours." The third time's the charm.
Please note that a gift won't be taken out of play simply because it has been exchanged three times, or held by three different people. The same person has to get the same gift three times, and then it's retired.
You probably won't know which gift is really yours until the end of the game. That happens when the last player to enter the game either takes the last unopened gift on the table or chooses an open gift from one of the other players -- which begins a final round of "stealing."
At the end of the game, the gift you have in your hands will be yours to keep.
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I love this game. It's always fun to see which gifts people want most ... Although I have to tell you, all of the gifts Dan and I have wrapped so far are really pretty good.