We played “Gag” Dirty Santa with my extended family on my Dad’s side on Sunday night. If I counted correctly, we had 36 people there (21 of whom were old enough and played Dirty Santa), so you can imagine how interesting that huge of a crowd made the game.
Plus, the twist was that everyone put $5 in a pot, and then whoever was voted as having brought the best gag gift won the pot. So obviously, that added some motivation to bring some pretty crazy stuff.
My theory on gag gifting was “gag presentation” – a potentially desirably gift packaged in a gag way. My thought process was that the “realness” of the gift would make it stealable, while the packaging would make it funny, resulting in a winning gift.
Gift #1: I started with a beautiful, sparkly, gold glass bowl:
Then Chris and I borrowed some (unused) diapers from Ali. We put some water in them to give them some heft, and then used some year-old Choxie Chocolate Flaky Truffles for garnishing to create Bowl a la Poo:
The odd part was, while Chris and I were putting the deco in the bowl, he mentioned, “the power of suggestion is really strong. This actually SMELLS like poo.”
A second later, I said, “you’re right – it does.”
A few seconds later, the smell had escalated, and we were both a bit weirded out by the apparent voo–doo power of old Choxie packaged in diapers.
Then I realized that the cat had just “restroomed” in her litter box in the basement in an extraordinarily unusually putrid manner worthy of the visual that we were beholding.
Our cat has a knack for timing.
It became QUITE gaggable as the minutes passed. . . so much so that I thought our gift might actually soak up some of the aromas to add to it’s authenticity.
Gift #2: We bought the card game “Slamwich“,
And packaged it like so:
After finishing our presentation and wrapping the presents, we gathered Ali from her nap and headed off to the get-together.
After the 9 kids opened their (non-gag) gifts with the calmness and complacency of a herd of Chihuahua’s sedated with Red Bull,
We started our game.
My brother, Nick, was quick to open Gift #1, and was none too pleased with his find:
However, that didn’t deter him from trusting me for some reason and also opening Gift #2 later in the game, which again he wasn’t too excited about:
I do love his bemused looks.
Other interesting gifts included Anti-Monkey-Butt powder packaged with a skunk,
Two live goldfish, which had the accompanying accessories of spices and a book on how to make Sushi,
A battery powered twirling spaghetti fork,
And Chris’ ultra-romantic find, a crushed velvet elf set, including below sexy hat,
And boxers with jingle bells on the end.
But the winning gift (no, it certainly wasn’t one of mine by a long shot), was originally opened by my mother:
A limited (to one) edition, professionally matted, signed photo of my Cousin Nathan from my Cousin Nathan:
. . . and when you lifted up the frame, those blue jeans he had on? They were shoooort and “stylin‘” cut-offs that he borrowed from his wife.
Hot stuff.
Anyone else have any gag gift stories from this year or years past?
Oh my goodness! That looks like it was a lot of fun! And I love your gifts! I can’t believe you didn’t win, with either of them, especially the diapers! That was hilarious!
Why on earth do you have year-old Choxie???
I planned ahead last Christmas for this gift.
Okay, not really. I really liked the chocolate flaky truffles the first time Chris bought them for me. But then by the third time or so, I quit liking them as much. And they are very messy to eat. And not especially appetizing looking (as is noted in the picture). . . so they just never got eaten.
What do you mean no one will read your blog this week?!? Dan and I laughed the entire time. :o)
~Heather Woosley