Want to Make Your Christmas Party Better?

It happens every year when the calendar page turns to December (or perhaps earlier if you spend a lot of time in department stores)… it’s time to start thinking about Christmas. There’s a lot to think about – gift giving ideas, travel plans, party arrangements, you name it. This time of year can overwhelm even the most tenacious tactician among us. This is why helpful blogs like the one you’re currently reading are so *valued* this time of year.

For example, I’m about to give you the solution to your holiday party hosting woes. Specifically, “How do I keep my party guests from getting bored and thus making my Christmas party an abject failure?” I’m glad you asked.

The answer is a traditional white elephant gift exchange, except that all the gifts are craft beer.

If you’re not familiar, in a white elephant gift exchange, each participant brings a wrapped but unlabeled gift and then the group takes turns unwrapping a gift from the communal pile of gifts. Draw numbers to determine who goes first. After the first person has unwrapped his/her gift, the next person can either steal the first person’s gift (causing the first person to have to unwrap a different gift) or choose a different gift from the pile to unwrap. The stealing and gift unwrapping continues until everyone has had a turn and all the gifts are unwrapped. It is customary to set ground rules limiting the number of steals per turn so that the game doesn't take hours to complete.

Now imagine playing this game with beer.

Here are some suggestions

Each participant brings a delicious craft beer of their choosing, wrapped and unlabeled, and puts it into the gift pile. Then, we all take turns opening beers and stealing beers from each other until we all have something delicious to take home and enjoy. What a great way to make your Christmas party awesome and memorable.

For planning purposes, I suggest you decide ahead of time on things like quantity and price so that all the gifts are of relatively equal value. For example, have everyone bring a 22 ounce bomber or have everyone bring a six pack. Perhaps set your maximum price at $10. This way, value is a non-factor when people decide to steal, and it’s all about the beer itself.

You can also determine a theme for the exchange, like a specific style of beer or a particular location of the breweries. You could make it a “local beer only” exchange, or even an “opposite side of the country” or “only Japanese beers” exchange.

There are, of course, other games and craft beer activities that you could arrange to make your party that much better, but trust me… this one will be a hit. Your guests will always be talking about that time at your house that so-and-so stole that great craft beer from what’s-her-name. You’ll be the toast of the town!

You might say, you'll go down in history... just like a certain red-nosed reindeer

More holiday craft beer advice to come. Free of charge. All month long.

Here’s to craft-brewed happiness… Cheers!