On Christmas Eve every year, my family plays this great game while we wait to get ready for the candlelight service at our church. It’s called the 12 Days of Christmas, and I want to share it with you!

In preparation for the game, everyone playing brings some gifts. They could be funny gifts, really good gifts, gifts from the dollar bin at Target, a Starbucks gift card….well you get the picture! This year, I am bringing some Bath and Body Works items, some funny head/hat lamps, some board games, some really good tools, and some funny things I found at the dollar bin. You then wrap up the gifts, so you can’t tell what it is without unwrapping. I like to wrap some very fancy, and some I just put in a gift bag and tape closed. This makes it a mind game on what kind of gift is inside.

When it comes time to play, everyone gathers together in a circle and puts the gifts they brought in the middle.

To play the game, someone will need to tear pieces of paper and write a word from the “12 Days of Christmas” song. You will need a piece of paper for each person playing. We like to put words on the paper that are from the 5^th day of Christmas or less. For example, we typically write the following words on our pieces of paper:

Christmas

Day

Love

Tree

Turtle

French

Four

Golden

On

Partridge

Hens

Birds

Rings

By using these words, the game starts faster and there are more opportunities for everyone to grab a gift.

Once you wrote on the paper, you will put all of the pieces in a bowl and have everyone playing draw a word.

-THE GAME WILL NOW BEGIN-

Then pull up the “12 Days of Christmas” song, and have someone sing (or in our case read) the song.

When the player’s word on their paper is said in the song, they go pick a gift from the middle of the circle. The song cannot stop, so there is no time to sit and pick each gift. Only one gift may be picked at a time. They also DO NOT open the gift until the song is over.

Once the gifts are gone in the middle of the circle, players must then steal a gift from other players.

The stealing keeps going until the song is completely over. Once the song is over, the players open all of the gifts they have. There are some laughs when opening, and of course trading when everything is said and done.

Our family always has a blast, and we have several memories from the game each year. Maybe this can be a new tradition with you and your loved ones! Have fun!