Hello everyone. This is Bill Ralens from www.naruhodo-eigo.com. If you teach English in Japan, say as part of the JET program, an ALT or whatever, then you know that the idea of English as a Second Language in elementary schools, is more of a cultural studies program rather than an English class. Personally to me, that's just fine. But as a teacher, you'll find yourself in the unique position of having to provide edutainment for your elementary school ESL classes. To this, I offer the Secret Santa ESL Christmas Game.

Intro:
The Secret Santa ESL Game is a who done it kind of game in a style very similar to the Seven Up Game. There are seven secret Santas, seven Christmas presents and seven people who will be chosen to try their luck at becoming a secret Santa.

Skills Used: Speaking
Level: Easy to Medium
Ages: 10 and up
Group Size: 14 and up

Setup:
To play the Secret Santa ESL Game, you’ll need:
# Seven Santa hats (or as many as the number of people who will be pickers).
# You’ll also need the same number of small boxes decorated like a Christmas present (the Christmas presents will be used many times so don't actually wrap it up like a Christmas present, but perhaps like a colorful box with a lid and bow glued on top). Inside of each small Christmas present place a flash card of a toy or you can use a real toy if you’d like. It's also nice to have one or two wild cards (more on that in a minute) to put in some of the Christmas presents.
# Seven or more people are chosen to become pickers. Each picker puts on a Santa hat and gets one Christmas present.

How to Play:
The Game Master (teacher) says, “Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stiring not even a mouse.” All the children then pretend to sleep i.e. close there eyes.

The seven santas then stand up and give their present to one of the people sleeping. After that the Santa returns to the front of the room.

Once all the Santas have returned to the front, the Game Master calls out, Merry Christmas!” Everyone "wakes up" (opens their eyes). If the students have a present in front of them, they stand up. The Game Master then asks, “What did you get for Christmas?” The student opens the present and says, “I got a (whatever was in the box).” The Game Master then asks, “Who was your secret Santa?” The student then says, “I think it was...(tries to guess which Santa left the present).” If they guess correctly they switch places with their secret Santa but if they guess wrong, they sit down and the Game Master goes on to the next person.

Secret Santa ESL Game Bonus Rule:
If the student opens their Christmas present and finds a wild card inside, they switch places with their secret Santa without having to guess which secret Santa gave them the present.