Secret Friend Gift Exchange

Christmas is round the corner and I believe a lot of workplaces are organising Christmas lunch or dinner for little celebration, to enjoy the holiday season.

My department is organising lunch on the 19th Dec (initially we wanted to be a dinner affair but some of my colleagues are not able to make it, so idea was given up) and I suggested the 'Secret Friend Gift Exchange' game to the organising committee, which I guess this is not so common here. I first experienced this game when I was 1st year in Brazil. Now come to think of the past, I do enjoyed that moment and I really miss my Brazilian colleagues. They are really so fun-loving and passionate.

This idea sounds great so the committees are keen in doing it. The game starts like this: -

1) Every participate will need to write down their wish list provided, with the budget given of course.
2) Drop individual wish list into a box and draw one list after everyone have given their list.
3) To buy the gift accordingly to the list.
4) On the day of the game, one person will start the ball rolling by introducing his/her secret friend, base on his/her expression, everyone presence will then guess who that person is. With the right guess, that person will present his/her gift to the secret friend. And this goes on till the last person got the gift.

Funny thing is, some people still have negative thinking on this idea (I wonder why) and ask why can't we just have the normal gift exchange, mean to have a number on each gift and have the lucky draw for it. I dont quite like the idea cos it is so difficult to buy a gift without knowing who will 'pick up' your present. That's why chocolate and photo frame become so common during this season.