What makes this party different, getting the guests involved!

Making your guests the “party” is what does it, first I set aside about $30.00 to go off to the dollar store, you have no idea what you can find there.. It’s incredible & cheap fun! I individually wrap the 30 gift; I buy gifts for both men & woman and they can fight after they open them. I also scour the countryside looking for a gift that perhaps is A White Elephant or just Stupid, something someone doesn’t want, and that’s the booby prize for the guest that arrives the latest…

During the party there are games, yes games, not the bridal shower type – interactive games. As the guests arrive, they each get a sticker; the stickers are marked 1, 2, 3 & 4. Every 10-15 minutes, I pull out my little bag of questions. Group 1 gets the first shot, and the questions I come up with are similar to the old Let’s Make A Deal Television Show – i.e.

Who is the first one that can produce a $50.00 bill out of their wallet?

Who has belly button fuzz?

Who has an American Express Card & A Master Card in their wallet?

Who has on more than 1 ring?

Who has on Christmas Socks..



Following me? Okay, whoever is the first to react, get’s to dig into the bag of the 30 gifts – at half time – we do the Trivia Questions as well as What’s in the Bag – Trivia questions for all ages and sexes, I throw in Football Questions, History Questions, Questions about the Host & Hostess. Along with the trivia questions, I take items I find around the house and put them in brown lunch bags, there are cheaters and I had to start double bagging and stapling them shut, I number the bags 1-15, the guests have to feel their way to an answer.

i.e –

A telephone cord

Easter Grass

A Pack of Gummy bears

A Condom made



Following me? So, during half time they all get something to do, some separate into teams – and guess what, the winners get to reach into the bag of goodies for their prize. I take the guest that had the most questions answered for trivia and the one with the least.

There is plenty of food, I make only appetizers, and I make about 3-4 dishes, have everyone bring either an appetizer or a sweet, you’ll be amazed at how much food comes through the door.

After the football game is over, we do our grab bag, where people fight for what they want. Count the gifts that were brought – and use slips of paper and number them separately with the number of gifts you have – you can do this several different ways, I’ll start with the easiest. Number 1 goes first

Number 1 picks a gift and opens it

Number 2 can steal number 1’s gift or take a new one and open it

Number 3 can take number 1 or 2’s gift or take a new one and open it …. And so on…

If number 3 takes number 2’s, (they give the unopened gift to number 2) number 2 in turn can take number 1’s opened gift or open the unopened.

As the gift exchange goes on, number 20 goes and wants something someone else has, number 20 takes an unopened gift from under the tree, and gives it to the person with the opened item they want, whoever is now standing with the unopened gift has their pick of all the previous players 19 and under and can steal any gift they want, so say they take a bottle of booze and give the unopened gift to that person..that person can turn around and take number 20’s gift as well, this can only happen 5 times a round with the same item. This is round 20 – so the gift number 20 stole, can now only be traded up for 4 more times, if you have a hot item look out.

I change my numbering system on occasion so number 1 does not always go first, I start sometimes with the last number in the bunch, so that the “guests” don’t get to self assured they are number 1! No one wants to be number 1 .

I have taken 2 sets of identical numbers…pass the first set out, crumple up the second set and put them in a hat, and than call on number 1 or any number in the bunch, maybe the first guest to arrive, last guest, oldest guest, youngest, etc… they than pick a number out of the hat, say number 17 – they are the first to start the grab bag than, similar to being number 1 – and once they open, they pick a number out of the hat, say it’s number 39, they than get to follow…

Hope you have fun!