We’ve talked quite a bit this season about “coming home” and how it can be just as wonderful an experience as attending a Minnesota Vikings game, especially for those of us who are a little further away from the Twin Cities. But the holiday season is upon us, and if you’re having friends and family over to watch football during this time of year, there’s a super easy way to combine the holiday spirit with football excitement.
The best way to do this in a way that can accommodate as many people as possible is by exchanging gifts. There are a few different ways you can do this that can bring some fun to the proceedings, the most popular of which is the “white elephant” gift exchange. Here’s how it works.
Each person attending your wedding brings a gift-wrapped gift to put in the common space. In the spirit of inclusivity, you should definitely set a gift price limit of around $10 or $20. You can also use themed gifts, be it “silent gifts” or whatever the case may be. You can even request that the gifts be soccer-themed if you’d like there to be a stronger connection between the game and the gift exchange. You will also need some kind of number that people can draw that will let people know the order in which they will pick their gifts.
When it’s time to start gift exchanges, you’ll want to put all of the gifts somewhere where everyone can see them. Whoever gets the first pick in the draft gift… look, another football connection… gets to pick the present they want. Then, whoever has the second choice can either go and choose a gift from the unwrapped gifts or steal the gift from the person who was chosen first.
Each subsequent person who chooses a gift has the same choice: either you take a gift from someone else, or you go to choose a new one. Anyone who has a gift stolen from them has the same option. This will continue until all gifts have been selected and everyone has received a gift.
You can add a few different variations to these, such as limiting the number of times a given gift can be stolen or limiting the number of times an individual player can have it stolen (eg if someone steals your gift three times, no one can steal it from you again.”). When all is said and done, everyone should have a gift in their hand, and when the exchange is over, everyone can open what they have, leaving your party with more than they arrived with.
Again, you shouldn’t expect people to break the bank to be part of your gift exchange, and if people don’t Wants To be part of the exchange, you can give them the ability to opt out. But who doesn’t love getting gifts, especially around the holidays?
If you want to add a little more Christmas spirit to your family gathering, you can change up some of your usual recipes into something holiday-themed. You can make some eggnog, whether it has a little adult “extra” or just a non-alcoholic version; You can serve ham as a main dish, and you can have holiday cookies as a dessert option. You can even encourage ugly sweaters, and maybe even run a contest for that too.
The holiday season is a great time to spend with friends and family at your home, whether it’s to watch football or not. But if you’re coming home during the holiday season, pulling off a few different holiday-themed twists is a way to bring something different to the party and give your friends and family something different to look forward to. Let us know if you added any of these twists to your holiday gatherings this year!