Christmas Grab Bag Gift Exchange- Wampum Version

Our Christmas season kicks off tonight with our 4H Christmas party. It will the seventh one that we’ve hosted.

So – what exactly does a successful 4H Christmas party include?

Food – definitely food.

Seasonal is good. Lots of sugar is better.
Tonight we have homemade caramel corn to hand out, mini sugar cookies and a big batch of elf food to share.

A craft is always a good idea – something they can do to keep their hands busy and take home with them. Angel girl has a Christmas tree craft ready to share.

And of course – you need a grab bag gift exchange.

That’s when things will start to get a little crazy.

Every member will need to bring a wrapped grab bag gift and then you will need to find a way to exchange them.

Sometimes we play Bingo – similar to my our White Elephant Bingo Gift Exchange at my family’s Remix every spring.

And other times – if I’m feeling very adventurous and brave – we play Wampum.

It’s pretty simple and loved by kids of all ages.

All you need is a newspaper rolled up and taped together to make a club-like object that looks cool but doesn’t cause injury. We call it the Wampum stick. (Pretty creative – huh?!)

Choose one person to be It – everyone else puts their chairs in a circle and puts their wrapped gifts under their chair.

The person who is It can put their gift to the side.

Starting with the person who is It, go around the circle and have each person choose something from Christmas – Santa, shepherd, tinsel, lights, etc..

Everyone must choose something different.

Then give It the wampum stick. Choose one child to start things rolling by saying their Christmas item along with another one. For example: Tinsel likes snowman.

The person who is It must then try to wamp the person who is snowman with the wampum club (on the legs – of course!) before they say their Christmas item with another one – snowman likes star.

The game continues: star likes tinsel, tinsel likes manger, manger likes angels, etc… until It manages to wamp a person before they can finish.

If they wamp the person in time – that person goes to the center and becomes It while the previous It sits in their chair and starts the game with their item and another:  shepherd likes tinsel.

If they call the person who just called them – tinsel likes star, star likes tinsel – they become It.

And if they accidentally call the item of the person who is It – they automatically become It.

Things can get a little wild – depending on how much sugar you’ve served! 🙂

Then – when everyone is hot and sweaty and has moved into a different chair – you call the over and let them unwrap the gift under their chair they are sitting in.

Then I would highly recommend you send them home quickly with bags of homemade caramel corn, clean up the mess, grab a mug of hot chocolate with double whipped cream and curl up on the couch – thankful the 4H Christmas party is over for another year!