It was time once again for the Christmas festivities to revive around Southside Baptist Church. The annual Christmas Party for adults took place on Saturday, and I have to say it was one of the best Christmas parties that we’ve ever had. Families joined together in the fellowship hall with a gift and finger-foods in hand.
There is always an air of expectation at the Christmas party. The food and fellowship are always enjoyable, but the main event is the gift exchange. Southside does a “white elephant” style gift exchange. Each person will randomly choose a number out of a bowl and then get to choose a gift from the gift table in numerical order. The best rule of the game is that any gift that has been opened is fair game to be taken away. Instead of going to table to unwrap a new gift, someone can take a gift from someone else if they really want it.
Things get really funny when the same gifts go from one person to the next. At this party we had adult children taking gifts from their parents on a couple occasions, accompanied by threats of a loss of dinner when they got home! It seemed like Jeruel, one of the members of Southside, always got the best gifts because people kept taking them away from him! The antics were abundant as gift after gift got stolen, er, I mean passed around the room. Some people ended up with the silliest gifts, such as Michael who ended up with an soothing face mask and eye cream (though, he did look well rested the next day!). The evening was full of exuberance. When it was time for food, folks had to sing for their dinner, “name that Christmas carol,” or name a random reindeer.
Finally, “Santa” showed up to pass out gag gifts to some of the “special” members of the church. Suffice it to say, the whole party was just a riot of laughter. It’s great knowing that a Christian can have good, clean fun with other Christians. I can’t wait until next year’s Christmas party. Each year it seems to just keep getting better!
