follow up

[auntiemeesh]

For those of you who weren't familiar with either of the names for the things I mentioned:

Yankee swap (chinese auction) -- everyone brings a gift and they are all piled on a table or other surface, and each person gets a number through a random drawing of some sort. Whoever has number one, picks a gift, opens it and everyone sees what it is. Person number two can choose a gift off the table, or the already opened gift, etc, until the last person goes. He/she can choose whichever gift he/she wants. The details may differ slightly when run by different people, but that's the jist of it.

Sheppard's pie (chinese pie) -- a dish made of beef and vegetables, covered with mashed potatoes. Mm, yummy!

Comments

[shirebound]

They *both* sound yummy!

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

*sends Frodo to Shirebound with a steaming hot platter of sheppard's pie*

[ctegan.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh .. I never knew that Yankee Swap and Chinese Auction were the same thing. I'd never even heard of Chinese Auction before today. Very cool. :)

I've always done Yankee Swap like the rules here: http://www.yankee-swap.net/
#1 chooses a wrapped gift, opens it so everyone can see. #2 chooses a wrapped gift, opens the chosen gift then decides whether to keep it or swap it with #1. #3 chooses, unwraps, then decides whether to keep the gift or swap with the gifts that others have already unwrapped, etc. It's a little different than having to first choose between taking someone else's gift or unwrapping a new gift; in this version, you unwrap and *then* make the decision to either keep it or swap.

Also, once the last person goes and either chooses to keep the last gift (after unwrapping it) or swaps it for anyone else's (if she likes someone else's gift better than the one she just unwrapped), the first person gets to either keep her gift or take her pick from anyone else's. So, drawing #1 and going first is actually best as you get to swap after everyone else has had her turn. (hee!)

But yeah, it'll differ slightly depending on who's running it. :)

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

It's been about ten years since I last did a chinese auction, so I may be a bit fuzzy on the details, but it's essentially the same. My aunt tells me that when her work used to do it, no one opened the gifts, and you chose what you wanted based solely on the wrapping, lol.

[ctegan.livejournal.com]

Yes, everyone does it a little differently, but it's essentially all the same. :)

[ansostuff.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this! Now I know that I have eaten Shepard's pie and I do believe I liked it. I also believe that I have participated in that type of gift swapping or something like it at least several times.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I do love the Sheppard's pie. My mom used to make it when I was a kid (not a really good one but I liked it anyway - beef and potatoes, what's not to like?) :)

Chinese Auction et al

[(Anonymous)]

Wow, it has been almost 3 weeks since I read your entries. What HAVE I been doing? Anyway, to me a Chinese Auction is where all the items (usually donated to some good cause) are out on a table and people either put tickets in a bowl and the winner is drawn out or they put bids (in writing on a sheet of paper) on the things they want keeping ahead of whoever else might want them until the time is up. How is that for a runon sentence? We used to do our Holiday gift exchange in the manner you are describing at work. There was one difference in that we didn't open the gifts until all were picked so the swapping was based on what they looked like or whatever. It got pretty riotous and some people got to not liking it so we do something different now.
BEE

Re: Chinese Auction et al

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

What you call a Chinese auction is what I call a Silent Auction. We used to do one every year at work, during the Staff Appreciation dinner. All the parents would donate stuff to the auction and then everyone would bid during the meal. It raised a lot of money for the school each year.