The tradition of True Santa began late in 2010 in response to the dearth of quality corporate holiday games. Traditionally there have been three types of games. One type, sometimes known as Yankee Trader or Christmas Pirate, involved opening gifts and stealing from one another. Stealing gifts? Is this the true spirit of Christmas? No. More like the true spirit of Satan.
Another type, sometimes known as White Elephant, was one where you brought a gift and did a random gift distribution. Despite the nickname, rare was the party where a white elephant was actually shared. The problem was that people would bring stuff they didn't want, hoping that it would make someone else's day. Party-goers secretly called this game Trash Dump. While some party-goers would find treasure from the trash others, most would leave with a different type of trash than the trash they had brought.
The last type of game was known as Secret Santa. One would draw another person's name and secretly buy a gift (or gifts) appropriate for them. Yet, soul-searching questions arose:
- How much should I spend?
- What do I get for my giftee?
- What will I get from my Secret Santa?
- What if I hate my giftee?
- What if my Secret Santa gives me something I hate?
- What if my boss is my Secret Santa?
- What if my boss is my giftee?
- What if my name is Michael Scott?
The spirit of True Santa comes from the spirit of the true Santa:
He knows when you are sleeping, He knows when you're awake, He knows when you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake.Santa knows you. He would never give you a gift that doesn't fit you. In True Santa, Santa gives you the gift that is true to you. The only frustration, anger, or discouragement that one might face is if one does not truly know oneself. In this case, I recommend spending time in junior high, high school, or college. Or perhaps all three. At the same time.
Preparation
Everyone participating in True Santa needs to bring a gift. There are different strategies of buying a gift:
- One can pick out a gift with a specific person in mind. Even if two people do this for the same person, it is ok. The gift that is best suited for that person will be given and the other gift will be given to the person that's next best suited.
- One can select a general gift.
- One can buy a present for oneself.
In any case, True Santa will have the gift magically go to the correct person. Any type of gift is welcome: hand-made, home-made, store-made, Minute Maid. There are a couple of caveats:
- DO NOT just bring something that you don't want. If you're thinking: "Well I know Samantha Joanna Lau will really like this." then I encourage you to just give it to Sam J. Lau. The game is called True Santa, not Trash Dump.
- DO NOT bring something and tell everyone: "I don't want to go home with this." At the end of the game we will reveal who brought the gift, not at the beginning. The game is called True Santa, not Trash Dump.
- If you buy a gift, the host ought to establish a base amount.
Gameplay
- Everyone playing places their gift in some central location.
- Every person playing receives a set of tickets with all the other players' names, two for each participant. So if there are 5 people playing each person will receive 8 tickets (you don't receive tickets for yourself). Each ticket constitutes one vote.
- The host will decide on a gift selection order. Each person will get to pick out and unwrap a specific gift. Some selection orders might be in order of birthdate, in order of height, in order of nose hair length (longest goes first of course).
- After all the gifts are unwrapped, people will vote for who should receive what gift. They will cast their votes anonymously.
- The host will tally the votes.
Gift distributions follows these rules (in order of precedence):
- After totaling all the points, if a player has one gift where he has the most votes, that player will receive that gift.(After receiving a gift, that player becomes ineligible for all other gifts.)
- If a player has more than one gift where she has the most votes, that player will receive the gift that she has received more votes on.
- If the number of first-place votes are the same for a gift, the player with the most next (second, third, etc. depending on eligibility) place votes between the gifts will receive that gift and the original first-place player will receive the other gift.
- The host will decide how to distribute the gifts.
- The gift givers will reveal themselves.
- (optional) People can explain their votes. They don't have to if the reasoning is too embarrassing (or hurtful).
End game
The game ends with everyone having a gift that truly fits them.
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