Who will win the cash, who will win the gifts, and who will go home with the brick in this fun brick gift exchange game? It’s a gift exchange combined with let’s make a deal and an absolute blast! Once you’ve played this brick gift game once, you may never go back to traditional gift exchange games!
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My family loves gift exchange games as much as anyone but we get bored of playing the same ones over and over again. That’s why we’ve been coming up with brand new gift exchange ideas (and Christmas party games) every year for the past ten years!
At this point we’ve created at least twenty different gift exchange games (and hundreds of Christmas games) and this is the newest in our list and maybe one of the funnest! Who doesn’t love games with a little risk and reward element?
Try this brick gift game at your next Christmas party for a fun variation that everyone will love! It’s fun for a girls night, family party, adult Christmas party, or even an office party. Have people bring themed gifts to make it even more fun then watch as people risk their gift for the chance to win big!
Why people will Love This Brick game
- Unique style of game – It combines a traditional gift exchange with some non-traditional elements to make things that much more fun!
- Risk & reward – There’s an element of risk and reward (kind of like in our don’t eat Santa game) that people absolutely love!
- Fun to watch – a lot of gift exchanges get stale but this one is fun until the very end because you just never know who’s going for a brick and who really wants something another person brought!
Supplies
The supplies for this game may sound a little bit odd but you’ll understand it after you’ve read this entire post and figured out how to play the game.
For this game, you’re going to need:
1 – Bricks
I say brick but really you just need twenty of something that is the same that you can wrap up with money and people won’t be able to tell the difference.
You could do boxes, envelopes, LEGO bricks, whatever. We did real bricks because well, it’s funny. You can do either one brick per person if you have a group of 10 or under OR do one brick for every two people if you have a larger group.
2 – Cash prizes for half the bricks
This could be any amount you want, but I like to do a variety from like $5 to $50. You want the amount to be enticing enough that people will consider bricks without it being a no-brainer (like $250) so that people aren’t only choosing gifts.
Half of the bricks mentioned above are going to get money and the other half aren’t, which is why you need enough for half. This is what makes this game fun – choosing a brick can be risky but also bring a huge reward!
Tip!
If you’re not sure how many people will be playing, try to get a good estimate and then assume a few more people when you’re figuring out your bricks and money. You always want to be able to include more people than exclude people because you didn’t prep enough for the game!
3 – One unwrapped gift per player
I’ve included details about this below to give you more information about the kind of gift you want for this particular game. It’s important to get this part right or it’s not going to be fun because everyone will just choose bricks!
Here’s what I recommend for gifts.
Choose a fun theme and a budget and have everyone bring a gift that they personally would actually really want to win. No white elephant gifts – you want real gifts that would make people consider choosing the gift over straight cash. And no gift cards or gift certificates.
I have tons of gift exchange themes on my site but some that could work really well for this game include any that people will be personally connected to the game and be able to talk about the game in some way for the show and tell portion of the game. Here are a few ideas:
- Their favorite thing (kind of like at a favorite things party)
- Something local (and they’d explain where they got it and why they love it)
- A specific theme (for a specific group) like a Chiefs themed or Taylor Swift themed or a Friends themed for a group of friends who loves any of those things!
You get the idea – you want something themed, something fun for people to explain, AND most importantly, something people will actually want to go home with!
This is actually a big part of the game and a lot of fun to see what kinds of things people come up with.
Tip!
The reason you want people to bring real things is because you want people to actually be tempted by the gifts, not just the cash behind the bricks. If all of the gifts are simple or things people will just throw away, this game is just going to be people trading gifts for cash loaded (or not) bricks and that’s not the point of the game. It’s supposed to be a gift exchange with bricks as an option, not the only option.
How to setup the brick gift exchange game
Start by wrapping up your bricks. Place cash very carefully with half of the bricks then wrap all of them (the cash and non-cash ones) so that they all look pretty much the same or at least you can’t tell which ones have cash and which ones do not.
Place all of the bricks on a table at the front of the area you’ll be playing. Make sure they’re all visible to everyone playing.
Write down the names of everyone participating two times, cut them out, and place them into two separate bowls or bags so you can draw them. (You’ll have two bags – each will have the names of everyone playing.)
Have everyone sit down in the area you’ve designated for the game with the gift they brought.
Once everyone is seated, you can explain the game and get started playing!
How to play
The basic idea of the game is that everyone is going to get a turn to decide if they want to take another gift that’s out there or choose a brick. The brick may have cash or it may just be a brick, so it’s a risk to take a brick but could also end up with a huge reward!
Here’s how it works!
1 – Show and Tell the Gifts
This game starts with people showing off the things that they brought and then giving them to other people before the true exchange portion of the game starts.
Make it shorter!
This is a really fun part of the game because people are selling the gifts in an effort to get other people to not pick bricks (leaving them more options). However, if you are short on time or you have a larger group, you can skip this part and go straight to the actual game play section below!
Choose one person’s name out of the first bag of names and put that name aside for now. Whoever you choose comes up to the front and shows off the item they brought and gives a little description. The goal here is to really sell the item so people will want other people to take it (instead of the bricks).
After they’ve done their show and tell, they should choose a name out of the other bag and whoever’s name they choose is who they give their gift to.
Pick another name out of the first bag and they show off their gift, choose a name and give their gift to someone else in the circle.
Keep going around until everyone has had the chance to “sell” their gift to the group and give it to someone to start with. This will complete the first part of this game, which is mixing up where the gifts start!
Put all of the names back into the bag – you’re going to need those for the second part of this game!
2 – Play the Brick Game
Once gifts have all been explained and swapped, it’s time for the actual gift exchange and game play.
Choose a name out of the bag. That person will go first and they have three options:
- Swap their gift with anyone’s else’s gift.
- Swap their gift with a brick from the table.
- Keep the gift they have already.
If they choose to take a brick, they leave their gift on the table. They then unwrap the brick and if there’s money, keep the money. If there’s just a brick, they get just the brick (they’ll get something at the end of the game but not right now). Once you pick a brick, your game is over as no one is able to steal the cash or non-cash brick.
After they’ve made their choice, their turn is over. Choose another player’s name out of the bag and they now have four choices.
- Swap their gift with anyone’s else’s gift.
- Swap their gift with a brick from the table.
- Swap their gift with a gift that’s on the table.
- Keep the gift they currently have.
If someone’s gift is stolen at any point during the game (whether they’ve had their name called yet or not), they have the choice to swap their gift with a brick or swap with a gift that’s on the table. They cannot swap with someone else (or the game will last forever).
What happens if someone gets a bogus brick?
If someone picked a brick with no money, set their name aside. You’re going to put all of those names back in the bag after everyone has a turn so they can choose one of the leftover gifts.
The Brick Game Video
Want to see a visual of how this works? Watch the video that shows the game in action!
How does the game end?
Continue going through and choosing names from the bag until everyone has had at least one turn (associated with their name draw). Some people may have had multiple chances to make decisions if their gift was stolen but everyone will only get one single turn.
Once everyone has had a turn, finish the game by doing the following:
- Everyone who has a gift keeps the gift they have at the end of the game.
- Anyone who chose a bogus brick (one without cash) will have their name put back in the bag. Choose them out one by one and those people can choose one of the gifts from the table in order.
- Leftover gifts go to the host as hostess gifts. Or if you don’t love that idea, you can always let people who chose a brick with cash choose one of the gifts (start with lowest to the highest) from the table to go along with their cash.
Game FAQs
What happens if someone steals a gift from someone?
If someone’s gift is stolen, that person can then choose to swap their gift with a brick or swap their gift with one from the table. They cannot choose to swap with a gift from someone else.
Do I have to use bricks?
While we used bricks because they’re fun (and part of a classic game show), you can use anything you want to hide the cash – cereal boxes, gift boxes, envelopes, gift bags, etc. Just make sure you can’t tell if they have cash in them or not!
Do people who choose bricks also get gifts?
If someone choose a brick that doesn’t have any cash in it, they’ll get a chance to choose from the leftover table gifts at the end of the game (see the how to end the game at the top). You can also choose to let people who chose cash bricks pick gifts at the end of the game as well, but we just had them stick with the cash they won.
What happens to leftover gifts?
Any gifts that are left on the table after everyone has had turns and you’ve given out the gifts to people who picked bogus gifts can just go to the host as hostess gifts (since they provided the cash and the party). Or you can give them to the brick choosers – but I don’t recommend letting them know this is going to happen early or it takes away the risk part of the game.
How does the game end?
Once everyone has had a turn (their name chosen), the game is technically over. You can give out gifts to people who received non-cash bricks but otherwise the game is over.
More Gift Exchange Games
If you love gift exchange games like we do, try out one of these next!
- Dice gift exchange – this fun one has you rolling dice to try and keep your gifts! Or try this December dice gift game that’s like a dice version of a left right Christmas game!
- Deck of cards gift exchange – this viral gift game using playing cards is so much fun!
- Rock paper switch – this fun gift game has people playing rock paper scissors to try and steal gifts!
- Chews your gift – a super simple gift game that uses colored candy to determine your fate!
- Holiday hustle – the fastest gift exchange you’ll ever do!
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