The Theatre Classroom — White Elephant Christmas

A fun activity for the Christmas season is to have each student find a white elephant (something that isn’t bought but found around the house that no one wants) and wrap it up so it looks very enticing.  The trick is to make it look like a super gift on the outside! (And every student must participate.)

The day of your ‘gift’ exchange, you may want to have a party — which, of course, has been cleared with the administration.  Gather all the gifts and let everyone look at them. Then each student draws a number from 1 to the number in the class.  The person with #1 gets to choose which gift he/she wants and then #2 gets his/her choice and so on until everyone has a gift.  No one is to open anything yet!

Then the gifts can be exchanged or kept, depending on each student’s want.  Lots of bargaining can go on.  Then each student tries to guess what is in their package — if you want, the person who brought it could give a hint. Then the students open their packages one at a time.  Bargaining might continue!  Lots of laughter ensues and it is great fun.  One year I invited my vice principal to the party and he got a bigger kick out of it than the students.

I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  Some improvisation ideas and sign mime activities are coming in 2012.