With the holidays coming, many workplaces try to have fun things like gift exchange games to make things more entertaining at the office. Two of the most popular things at this time of year are Dirty Santa and Secret Santa. The games can be a lighthearted, enjoyable way to foster workplace camaraderie, or they can go wrong and cause hurt feelings. Here is what you need to know about games, and how to do them the right way, in which everyone has fun playing them. Consider the following on How to up your entertaining game for Christmas & New Year parties .

How to play Dirty Santa
Dirty Santa, also known as a Yankee swap or a white elephant gift exchange, should not be "dirty" or offensive - that's simply the name of the game. With Dirty Santa, each person brings a wrapped present in the workplace. Most workplaces set a cost of $20-25 for the gift.

Then all of the people participating gather together, and draw a number from a bowl containing pieces of paper from one up to the total number of people participating. So if 20 people are participating, there will be 20 numbers, ranging from 1 to 20, on pieces of paper.

The person who picks the number 1 goes first, then picks a present and unwraps it. The next people in line can either pick something wrapped, or "steal" an unwrapped present from somebody else in the room. Then the person whose article was stolen gets to pick again, by either stealing someone else's open gift, or taking one of the other wrapped presents. But in many workplaces, they can't steal back the gift that was already stolen from them.

In addition, many offices have a rule that things can only be "stolen" three times. After the third time, whoever has it gets to keep it. The game ends when the last thing is unwrapped.

How to play Secret Santa
This game also involves buying presents, and drawing for names, but it works a little differently. Everybody participating draws a name from a bowl, then buys that person a gift within the price limit. They are not supposed to let the person know who is buying them the treat until after the game is over - they can't tell them beforehand. In addition, this is not a reciprocal exchange - Tom may draw Susan's name, but Susan may end up drawing Ashley's name.

Depending on the business, some people may do an elaborate Secret Santa exchange, with people leaving hints beforehand as to who they are, culminating in them leaving the gift on the recipient's desk. Other offices simply have everybody bring their gift into one room, and everybody opens up their gift at the same time and finds out who their Secret Santa is.

Guidelines for how to best play the games
If these games are done well, and everybody has a good holiday spirit, a splendid time will be had by all, with everybody getting a gift without having to buy for everyone. However, if some people don't play by the rules, things will not be pleasant. Here are the rules that people should follow to keep Dirty Santa and Secret Santa fun:

Some career coaching professionals say that it is a good idea to participate, to foster workplace camaraderie. But nobody should feel that they have to do so, nor should those who don't want to participate make fun of those who do.

Everyone needs to stick to the price limits suggested and not spend too much or too little on their gift. If somebody spends, say, $25 on a gift card, and gets back some crummy gift worth about $2 in return, that recipient is going to be ticked off. And somebody who spends too much can also irritate others, by making the rest of the room look cheap.

Buying a gag gift is a very risky idea. Don't buy any present that could potentially be embarrassing to others. It's a workplace, not a comedy club. One person's idea of humor could be somebody else's idea of a harassment complaint.

With Dirty Santa, buy unisex things that the average person would be happy to receive. Now is not the time to re-gift something you didn't like; chances are, the person receiving that gift won't like it, either.

If you get a bad present, you are unfortunately going to have to grin and bear it. It is still a workplace, after all. It could be that your boss is the one who bought the gift, and insulting the choice could be insulting your manager!