Holiday Auction Rules
(Participation is not required)
Everyone Bring 2 gifts:
Gift 1: A desirable gift that is worth approximately $25 (up from $20 - inflation!)
Gift 2: Gag or undesirable gift. Make it funny, or something you have laying around the house you don’t
want anymore.
Gifts to go into center of Lrg. Conf. table and remain wrapped.
o Sneak it in, or use a larger bag to cover up what you bringing through the front door
Gifts are to have different wrapping paper or bag
o Pro Tip: Make the gag gift look deceiving (E.g. a Jar of pickles made to looks like a
bottle of wine)
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Auction Money:
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Each participate randomly select an envelope with fake x-mas bucks
Amounts in envelope vary, and will be used for bidding on presents
Ascending Auction Rules:
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A wrapped gift is displayed to the group by the designated auctioneer (probably Sarah again)
No contestant can touch a wrapped gift at any point in the day or during auction
Auctioneer starts at a minimum amount and participants bid openly against one another, with
each subsequent bid required to be higher than the previous bid.
The auctioneer may announce prices by gradually increasing them, or bidders may call out their
bids themselves.
Winning bid opens item immediately after winning participant hands the funny money to
auctioneer.
Winner will be asked if they want to keep the gift:
o If yes, move on to next present
o If no, the opened gift, good or bad, will go up for action. Highest bidder gives money to
seller directly. No bids - they are stuck with it. The seller may not decline a winning bid
and keep the item if they did not reach a dollar value they are happy with.
Pro Tip: Gifts in 2022 started cheap and escalated in price as the game went on
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Other Rules, Hints, Twists:
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If two or more bidders have the same amount of x-mas bucks, the person who bid the highest
amount first wins the item.
Participants may bid on and win as many gifts as possible.
Be aware, participants may walk out of the party with only undesirable gifts. On the other hand,
participants may end up with 2 or more desirable gifts!
Participants may not formulate teams/groups to pool money to outbid a co-worker. Passing out
money to co-workers is also prohibited without exchange of a gift.
Unopened gifts must remain anonymous
Opened gifts will remain anonymous unless participant wants be share
You may bid on your own gift to throw off other participants
Pro Tip: Gifts in 2022 started cheap and escalated in price as the game went on