Face it… Yankee Swap gift exchange is just terrible. I always hated playing them and was always looking for an alternative. You pick a number from a hat and if you get the magic number you get to pick the best present while almost everyone else gets stuck with some random thing they don’t even want. There are some variations that mix things up a little but in essence a Yankee Swap is basically a lottery with only a few winners.
Yankee Swaps are also hard to shop for. That’s why a lot of people don’t even put in the effort which leads to more junk nobody wants. You have to look for the perfect gift that everyone will be interested in and it has to be in a narrow price range to be fair. Some people may get lucky and find a good gift while others may treat it like an expense, expect to go home with something they don’t want… so then why spend hours searching for that perfect present that probably doesn’t exist anyway?
That’s why I came up with the gift auction game. With Tinsel Town Auctions, everyone should go home with gifts they like because you only bid on what you like! You may get a pile of gifts or just one but it should be something you like every time. PLUS it’s super fun and easy to shop for since you are not limited to one gift in a narrow price window. With Tinsel Town Auctions, there tends to be a nice variety of gifts and a lot of laughs. It’s not just an alternative to a Yankee Swap… it’s superior!
Tinsel Town Auction can be enhanced with a lot of different theme options, only limited by your imagination! Start by deciding what everyone should spend. It may be a small office party with a $20 gift limit or you may be a large family with a $500 target. It’s totally up to you! Some classic game themes are: One serious gift and one funny gift. Two gifts plus a re-gift, home made or cheap thrift store find. Five gifts all under $10 each.
If your budget is very large (say $500) you will probably want a higher number of gifts rather than just 1 high end gift each (with a few cheap fillers) because that will probably end with one person walking away with multiple high end gifts and a few people getting the short end. It will also discourage people from spending money on a cheap funny gift which usually comes with a lot of laughter and entertainment. Consider instead increasing the gift number and trying to keep all the gifts closer in value. For example you might want to suggest 5 gifts between $50 and $150 each.
Remember… unless the theme you choose limits your options, a gift can be a candy bar and a lottery ticket. So if you have a $50 limit and find a great gift for $49.95 just get something else small and simple. It is important to bring more than one gift since the game will not work with just one gift each. I usually like to aim for 3 to 4 gifts per person for a crowd of 10-20 people. If there are a lot of people, more gifts will create a longer game and that may not be desirable.
So this year, consider the alternative to the boring Yankee Swap… Try Tinsel Town Auction!