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The Christmas left right game (w/printable story)

By: Autumn Updated: 12/10/21
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Filed In: Christmas| Christmas Crafts| holidays

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclaimer.

In today’s post: The LEFT RIGHT game is so much fun to play at your Christmas gift exchange! It’s easy and will have everyone laughing. Free printable story included!

A white elephant gift exchange is a staple at just about every Christmas party, right? Each person brings an inexpensive (or gag) gift wrapped up in pretty paper, and then people take turns selecting a gift. Some versions of the game involve opening gifts right away, and then the gifts can be stolen a certain number of times. It’s usually a ton of fun, but with large groups it can end up taking a long time, and sometimes younger kids get pretty disappointed when the gift they’ve opened is stolen from them. The LEFT RIGHT game is a great alternative to the standard white elephant gift exchange. It’s fairly quick, doesn’t involve stealing (so no one gets sad), and is absolutely hilarious!

Find 25 more funny Christmas party games here

Left right game printable story and kids playing the left right game

How to play the Left Right game for gift exchanges

The premise is simple: Everyone sits in a circle holding the gift they brought. Someone reads the story out loud, and every time you hear the word “left” everyone passes their gift to the left. Everytime you hear “right” everyone passes their gift to the right. Sounds easy enough, right?

The Left Right Game printable story

Well, the story is written with LOTS of lefts and rights in it so there’s a whole lot of passing going on. If you get behind, or happen to forget which is left and which is right, you might try to pass your gift the wrong way, which leads to lots of laughs. The left right game works for all ages but is especially fun for kids who think the whole thing is pretty hilarious.

Here’s a quick video that shows how it works:

Free printable Christmas story for the left right game

Click here to download the Left Right Christmas story. It prints out on 2 sheets of 8.5×11 paper. All the “rights” are in red and all the “lefts” are in green to make it easier for whoever’s reading to make sure the group is staying caught up.

The Left Right Game story printable with Christmas gifts

Before you play, count how many people are in your group. There are 17 more rights than lefts in the story, so if you have exactly 17 people playing, everyone will end up with their own gift. If this happens, just say this at the end: “All that’s left now is to open the present you’re holding.” And everyone will pass once more to the left.

The Left Right Game story printable with a Christmas gift

The story for the left right game will take about 5 minutes to read, allowing for a little waiting time for the group to catch up on the passing. If you’d like to make the game longer you can have everyone open their presents and then go around giving each person a chance to trade their gift with someone else. Or you can even read the story again so everyone can see what they are passing this time. Read it faster the second time to make it more fun!

One thing to be aware of is that it’s easier if the person who is reading the story is not also playing the game.

The Left Right Game story printable

Let me know if you play this at your Christmas party or white elephant gift exchange! If you want to find other story options, click here or here!

Looking for more Christmas fun? Check out these posts:

25 adorable Christmas treats to make with your kids

2 ingredient cinnamon dough Christmas ornaments

Printable Christmas origami bookmarks

Easy Christmas Oreo pops

How to cut snowflakes (with templates)

25 DIY Christmas gifts people actually want 

Meet Autumn

Hello there! I’m a busy mom of five who loves to make things. Crafts, recipes, sewing, holiday projects: I’ve tried them all, and you can too! I love EASY projects anyone can make.

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  1. Grace Augusta Pierce says

    Posted on 12/26/21 at 5:09 pm

    Do you have this poem in spanish?

    Reply
  2. Maureen Flood says

    Posted on 12/23/21 at 11:20 am

    Did I mis-read the cards or is something missing? on the third card it ends with … to do.” fourth card it begins … serious. so what is missing between the two cards???

    Reply
  3. emily says

    Posted on 12/16/21 at 7:31 am

    This is super cute! Thanks for sharing! My daughter’s 4th grade class is doing a holiday book exchange and we are going to incorporate your game!

    Reply
  4. Robin says

    Posted on 12/14/21 at 11:44 am

    Cute story I’ve play the right left game for years but I do it different and mid way through I’m laughing so hard it’s hard to read through! When I read the word right or left the gifts start passing in that direction and don’t stop until the direction changes. People start getting confused which way for instance go right to the roof to the right side of the house and it gets hilarious!! 1 time a lady had 3 gifts in her lap and we had stop the game till they figured it out! she got confused and didn’t know which way and people keep handing her a gift. It makes the game much more exciting

    Reply
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All posts and pictures are copyrighted by Autumn Baldwin and blog content may not be reposted elsewhere. However, linking back to my content is just fine. You may use one photo as long as you link directly back to the specific post. Also, please note that this blog is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

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