The Copenhagen Game
One of the best games to play with your family and friends this Christmas!
Every family has their own Christmas traditions and for the past few years this has been one of our festive faves. I absolutely love it and wanted to share it with you. A year ago, I finally discovered that this game is actually called Pakkeleg, which translates as ‘gift game’ or ‘package game’. But it will always be known as The Copenhagen Game in our family as I first played it on a work trip to Denmark. We were hosted by the gorgeous Wonderful Copenhagen team who arranged a game after dinner one evening. It was cosy, chaotic and really good fun.
I took the concept home with me and we played it as a family that Christmas. And we’ve been playing it every year ever since. Both little ones and grown ups absolutely love it and now we all anticipate and look forward to it. We usually find ourselves playing it on Boxing Day afternoon, enjoying hot chocolate as we gather around the table to play. So how do you play?
Traditionally, everyone brings a couple of small (already wrapped!) gifts and places them in the middle of the table in a pile. I started by buying all of the gifts in the first year that our family played as I wanted to surprise everyone but you can spread the cost by all contributing. The gifts can be anything little and fun. In the past I’ve bought sweets, bars of chocolate, Lego mini figures, cookie cutters, nice soaps, dog / cat treats for the pets, cake sprinkles, stickers. All sorts of mini bits and bobs. Most things are no more than £1 or £2, with a couple of really treaty ones thrown in. It’s nice to allow 2 or 3 gifts per person if you can. I also usually have certain people in mind when I buy certain things - you’ll see why later!
You need 2 dice or perhaps 3 if you have a larger group. We use egg cups to shake our dice, just because it adds to the noise and excitement having the sound of the dice being shaken. Start with the oldest and youngest person each having a dice. Or just distribute them randomly across the table from each other.
The aim of the first round is for all of the presents to be won from the middle of the table. If you throw a 6, you can pick a present from the middle of the table and place it in front of you. No presents are opened at this stage! Keep throwing the dice, keep them moving quickly round the table until all of the gifts have been ‘claimed’ from the middle. If this is taking a while, we sometimes allow a pressie to be taken when you throw a 1 too as this speeds things up!
Next, set a timer for about one and a half to two minutes. You can pick a short amount of time at random but it’s good if the timer is hidden from general view so that no-one else really knows when the time will be up. Throw the dice around the table again. This time if you get a 6 you can steal a present from anyone else around the table. This round is fast and fun, with gasps around the table as presents are taken from under your nose and then won back again. When the timer goes off, everything stops.
Traditionally, at this point, you can all open the gifts in front of you and they are yours to keep.
I decided to add another round in for our family which is great if your little ones are the right age. We introduced the idea of trading. So everyone opens their pressies and we then have a fun discussion where we are making deals around the table. “I’ll exchange this packet of sweets for two of your chocolates.” The little ones used to absolutely love this and it also encouraged them to think what other people round the table may like or use more than them. So my niece might give her Nana her favourite chocolate bar in exchange for some cute stickers. Or I would offer my nephew a Lego mini figure in exchange for some cake sprinkles.
The Copenhagen Game or Pakkeleg really is one of our Christmas highlights. I’d love to hear if you’ve played it with your family. Or if you think you might give it a try. I’d also love to hear about other Christmas games you play in your family so I can perhaps introduce them to our clan this year.