Christmas gifts are often exchanged on Christmas Eve (December 2), Christmas Day itself (December 2), or the last day of the twelve-day Christmas season, the twelve-day night (January). Musical gifts work when there are several people who are going to exchange gifts. You need music (Christmas carols would be a nice touch), all the gifts ready and a person to play the music to start. When it comes to playing the gift exchange game Hot Bow, you need music, a person designated to perform the music, and a big red ribbon.
Swedish children also believe in an alternative to giving Santa Claus the jultomten, a small gnome with a red cap that hides under the floorboards or in the attic until Christmas Eve, when he goes out to hand out gifts to children. The hustle and bustle of the season sometimes hide the reasons for the tradition of giving at Christmas. The custom of giving at Christmas was a natural adoption of these and other seasonal customs, such as the ceremonial lighting of candles, songs of celebration and the celebration of big holidays. Each person starts with a gift in their hands, and gifts are passed back and forth as each question is answered.
The battle for Christmas focuses on tensions between New York's elites and their working classes, but during this same period, a middle class began to emerge in New York and other northern cities, and the reinvention of Christmas also served its purposes. For this gift exchange, you need the gifter to create 5 to 6 clues about the type of gift inside. Like so many other Christmas traditions, carols have their roots in the pagan rituals appropriated by the nascent Christian Church when, in the 4th century, it officially called Christmas the celebration of the birth of Christ Jesus. You can configure it so that everyone has a particular person to give a personalized gift to, or so that each one makes a universal item that can be given to anyone.
At the party, ask everyone to place their gift wrapped for their matches under the tree, with the top of the gift tag filled but the top part blank. The first person to go opens the gift they chose and the next person has the option of stealing the gift from the previous person (in which case that person would have to choose another one) or select a new one. Instead of everyone buying a small gift for a co-worker, collaborate on a larger gift that benefits everyone, such as a new coffee machine or wall decor for the office. Sometimes these gifts are in the form of money, like a Christmas voucher; other times, in the form of gift vouchers.
If none of the above ideas surprise you, consider sending the gift recipient on a treasure hunt for their big surprise, whether you're sending it around town or just inside your house, using clues and perhaps including one or two smaller gifts along the way. Understanding why giving gifts to children (and, by gradual extension, to adults) became part of this new Christmas tradition requires expanding the story of Nissenbaum. If newspaper advertisements from the early 19th century that promoted Bibles as Christmas gifts for children are any indication, parents of this time seem to have maintained a similar approach to providing spiritual value to their children.
