Santa’s Grab Bag Game

You only need a few things to get this game started, here is everything you will need.

• Gifts – it’s up to you if you want everyone to bring their own or you want to provide them. I recommend gifts that actually wrapped in wrapping paper rather than in bags or boxes that may get opened while the bag is passed.
• Bag – this cute Santa bag worked perfectly, but any large bag will do. It needs to be able to fit the gifts.
• Printer – you’ll want to print out the prompts to tape onto the gifts.
• Music and speaker – I found that a phone speaker was too quiet, so I recommend using a speaker for this game. I got my dad one of these for his 50th birthday, and it still works great!

You’ll love how easy this game is to set up, leaving you with plenty of extra time to make delicious treats like this Christmas bark.

1. Wrap all those presents. In this game, you can win more than one present, so I suggest getting at least a handful of extras. It’s also important you wrap each one – you won’t want them falling out of their bags inside Santa’s sack.
2. Print and cut out the prompts. You can get the prompts at the bottom of this post or you can make up your own. The prompts are just categories, and I borrowed a handful of mine from my The First Noel Christmas game (don’t tel!).
3. Tape one prompt onto each present so that that can be easily seen. I like to tape both the top and the bottom of the prompt onto the present so it doesn’t accidentally get torn off during the bag passing.
4. Place all the presents into Santa’s bag.

5. Choose one person to be in charge of the music. The music needs to be stopped randomly throughout the game.
6. Have everyone in the group sit in a circle and give one person in the circle the bag.

1. The person will start the music and while the music plays people must pass the bag clockwise around the circle, just like in hot potato or musical gifts. (Make sure the person playing the music isn’t facing the circle to keep it fair).
2. After playing a short clip of music, the person in charge of the music should stop it.
3. When the music stops, the person holding the bag will pull one present out without looking and read the prompt taped onto the present out loud.

4. The player then has five seconds to name THREE items in the category prompt. Once they have finished reading the prompt, the group can begin quietly counting to five (or loudly if your group likes real pressure and obnoxious games) to give them an actual timer and a little pressure. For example, if the prompt was Christmas colors, they would need to name three Christmas colors before the group finished counting to five.

5. If the player correctly responds to the prompt in the allotted time they get to open and keep their present and remain in the game. If they cannot, the present goes back into the bag still wrapped, with the chance to be won by another player.
6. The person starts the music again and the bag moves around the circle again until the music stops.

How does the game end?

Keep playing this same way with the bag going around the circle and people winning (or not winning) gifts until all of the presents inside the bag are gone and handed out to people!