Indoor game: Pass the Present

Posted On May 28, 2013
As I was looking for rainy day ideas, I came upon one called ‘Pass the Present’.

The idea of this game is to pass around a wrapped present and have one person open one layer at a time and do what that layer says.  This game does have to be set up in advance, and I originally thought that it wouldn’t be very practical at camp when it rains because we never know when it will rain!  After thinking about it for awhile I realized that I can make this in advance and keep it ready if I make it small. So here is my version of the ‘Pass the Present’ game.

Rules: Have everyone sit in a circle to pass the present around. You can do it one of two ways: 1) Everyone takes turns around the circle in order to open the present; or 2) use music or songs or singing and pass the present around until the music stops, once it stops that girl opens the present, repeat.

Tips: If you do option 2, make sure you have the boxed wrapped in about one and a half times the amount of players you have, e.g., 20 girls should have 30 pieces of paper.) Step in to make sure everyone gets to open the present at least once if you need to.

Materials: One 32 count matchbox (empty) or other similar small box (cardboard jewelry boxes for example); 1″ strips of paper, pen, a prize.

To prepare:
  • On the strips of paper write down something for the unwrapper to do. These can be as simple or crazy as you want them to be.  I have a list of what I put at the bottom of this post.
  • Put one prize in the box. I didn’t want one girl to get an ‘item’ and have everyone else left out, so I put a slip of paper in that says “Everyone give me a big group hug!”. You can also put something that will be given to the entire group such as “Enjoy the cookies!”, but make sure you have the prize ready for them.
  • Wrap the box one strip of paper at a time taking care not to tape any pieces to other pieces so it is easy to remove without destroying the next layer.

Here is my present ready. Colored paper works too and can make it quite pretty!

Here is the list of things I wrote:

Play air guitar
Spin in circles three times
Do four pushups
Give your counselor a high five
Sing a camp song
Borrow a bracelet from someone
Lend something to the person on your right
Whisper the name of your favorite color
Say something nice about the group
Say two nice things about yourself
Nudge the person beside you
Yawn
Untie and retie your shoes
Make the noise of an animal and have everyone guess
March around the room
Scream
Cover your left ear for 2 turns
Kiss your elbow
Pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time
Reach to the sky as high as you can
Walk like an Egyptian
Wiggle
Waddle like a penguin
Pretend to drive a car
Pop like popcorn
Melt like ice
Howl like a wolf
Do six jumping jacks
Dance
Run in slow motion
Tell a joke
Spell your favorite counselors name
Count backwards from 20 to 7

I mixed them up and don’t know what order I put them in. Some are silly and I may need to step in to help. “Kiss your elbow” can’t be done, but it’s fun to watch them try! After they try, they should be instructed to move on. Others may need to be eliminated depending on the age. “Untie and retie your shoes” may not be the best for all young dasies!

Do you have any more ideas? Please share!

~Zigg

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