Play This Hilarious Saran Wrap Game at Your Holiday Party
Love funny Christmas party games? Try these Saran wrap ball game ideas!
Need a FUN-for-all-ages game?
You’ve gotta check out this popular Saran wrap ball game that’s sure to take over every holiday party this Christmas and New Year’s Eve! Participants essentially unwrap fun prizes layered inside a giant ball of plastic wrap. It creates so much laughter and silly fun, and the best part is anyone can join in at any age!
It’ll become a fun tradition that’s sure to liven up the PAR-TAY!
This Saran wrap ball game is easy to customize for each crowd.
For instance, if it’s a kids’ party, you can include small toys and trinkets geared toward them. If it’s a more mature crowd, you can throw in some money, lotto cards, and funny gag gifts. And if the entire family is participating, just create a ball with fun items ALL will enjoy! I promise there’s nothing funnier than aunt Karen getting rowdy over a $5 bill. 🤣
Hip Tip: Be sure to check out stores like the Dollar Tree, or re-purpose leftover Halloween candy if you have any. You may even already have small gifts, nail polish, travel-sized beauty items, etc. in your gift closet at home!
**Ahem** Isn’t that a lot of plastic?! 🌎 🤯
The biggest caveat of this fun game is the amount of not-so-eco-friendly plastic wrap being used to create the ball. While the clingy wrap is what makes this game difficult, there are other materials you can use instead. You can re-purpose newspaper and some pieces of tape, grocery paper sacks, paper packaging fillings, or painter’s tape instead as a more eco-friendly option if you don’t want to use plastic wrap.
Another idea is to use oven mitts to create more of a challenge when trying to peel back the layers, especially when using these plastic wrap alternatives.
Saran Wrap Ball Game
PrintSupplies Needed
- plastic wrap
- set of dice
- candy/gum
- party favors
- lotto tickets
- key chains
- small gift cards
- squishy toys
- money
- small containers of playdough or slime
- mittens
- hand warmers
- cozy socks
- holiday noise makers
- travel size beauty products
- bath bombs
- hair accessories
- and other fun fillers
Directions
1
Start by placing your prizes on a roll of plastic wrap or other wrapping and just keep rolling and layering.
2
You can even make sure the most expensive gift is in the middle by wrapping that first, and then wrapping everything else around it.
3
Instead of wrapping in a continuous roll, create some separate sheets, so it’s a little more challenging!
How to play the Saran Wrap ball game:
Grab a set of dice, your wrapped ball, and friends & family who want to join in!
- Have everyone sit in a circle, and decide which direction the ball will go, and also who will start.
- One person starts unwrapping the ball, while the next person sitting next to them rolls the dice. Once he/she rolls doubles, they’ll get their turn to unwrap the ball, and the dice will then go to the next person.
- The whole point is to roll doubles quickly to get your turn, and players get to keep the goodies they unwrap.
- The person who ends up with the ball at the end gets to keep the big prize at the center of the ball.
Try these FUN variations on the Saran wrap ball game!
- Have participants wear mittens or oven mitts.
- Wrap ball using Press-n-Seal instead of plastic wrap. It’s harder to unwrap!
- For little kids, use a timer instead of dice to make sure everyone gets a turn.
- Wrap your items in newspaper or another eco-friendly packaging.
- Play Christmas music and start/stop the music instead of dice.
- Wrap the items first in paper to make gifts more of a surprise.
- Try placing a blindfold around the person unwrapping the ball.
Read these CREATIVE Saran wrap game ideas from other Hip2Save Readers:
“We played this last year at Christmas and put our ultrasound picture in the middle. We told the family there was an extra special prize in the middle! It’s how we told the family we were expecting our first child!” – Kathryn
“I also use a mix of plastic wrap, foil, wrapping paper, and a diaper for the center. I have found that if you do one continuous piece, some people know to grab an end and yank real hard and they get a lot of prizes. By using different mediums and layers, the ball lasts a bit longer so everybody gets several turns!” – Kay
“We do this at my work Christmas party every year. It’s the highlight of the night. Because there are 50+ people, we are split into 2 teams. My boss wraps a piece of paper in various items, paper, duct tape, electrical tape, painter’s tape, fishing line, etc., and we have a race between the two teams to see who finishes first. The winning team gets bragging rights, and whoever unwraps the piece of paper saying you win gets a special prize!” – Sarah
“We do 3. An adult, teenager, and lil’ ones usually. This year, since things are different, I’m doing individual ones for the lil’ ones and teenagers. And 1 for adults to share. We put lil’ alcohol bottles in our adult one. It’s funny watching adults swap and trade when it’s all done.” – Crystal
“We played this at my company Christmas party once and it was awesome! It was all adults so to make it more difficult (and hilarious) each person had to wear a pair of fuzzy socks on their hands so it was THAT much harder to get the Saran wrap off. I got some good laughs! I work in an animal hospital so seeing an entire room full of people in scrubs with socks on their hands while frantically trying to peel away the Saran wrap was amazing.” – Chris
“We did a variation of this game at our work Christmas party and it was so fun. Instead of Saran wrap, my boss used different size wrapped boxes … smallest being gift card size and largest was the size of a toaster box. Whoever rolled a double had to put on a Santa’s hat on their head and mittens on their hands before trying to unwrap the gifts. Whoever opened up the last box won the prize.” – V
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Can’t plastic wrap be recycled?? Do you wrap Christmas gifts in wrapping paper or use bags?
We do this every year at our Youth Group Christmas party. I make it tougher by using clear packaging tape, regular Scotch tape, and even double sided tape just to throw them off. We usually just use candy I’ve gotten inexpensively or some dollar tree candy for variety. In the center is usually a gift card or cash as an incentive. The teens love it and look forward to it every year!
That’s so fun Amy! I love the tape idea!
Um…hate to be a downer here, but what a waste of plastic! How can this site both promote beeswax wraps to help reduce our plastic waste AND using an entire container of saran wrap for a one-time event? This plastic will end up straight in the landfill and could take 20 years or more to break down. Find another game. This trend is bad for the planet.
I was thinking along that lines as well, but then remembered (1) the tips about Re-using scrap paper etc, so you can drastically cut down on the amount of plastic you use and (2) that the used wrap can also be reused itself…Like throw it in with your box of ornaments and it’s ready for the next year’s ball of fun!
Couldn’t agree with both of you more, Bethany and MontanaMom. There came a point in our lives (and in what we soon to realize teaching our children as well) that we need to do our part to protect the environment. This is terrible for our environment. There are other (more environmentally) ways to have fun.
I don’t know if the article was edited later, but if you scroll to the part that says “**Ahem** Isn’t that a lot of plastic?! ” There are alternatives mentioned.
We’ve played this at our kids’ birthday parties but we use packing tape. Takes a lot more effort to unwrap. They love it!
We did this one year but you had to wear over gloves when unwrapping the ball and had a timer set during your turn so you tired to work fast but couldn’t. It was hilarious.
Haha I love that idea to make it a bit more difficult!
Have done this the past several Christmas’ and no matter the age of our “kids” they LOVE it. It is nice to have an activity that is fun for all ages.
So great to hear how well everyone enjoys it, Cheryl! 🤗🎉
My mother-in-law started doing this with the kids a few years ago and it has been a big hit ever since. This year I am going to use a similar game with my kids on Christmas, but with cups spread out upside down on a table, with random prizes (or not prizes) underneath. Each kid gets a turn, until all the cups are gone. Thinking of adding an UNO element to it, with cups that say “pick again” or “trade cup with somebody else” or “lose a turn” etc. Some cups will have random cash or small gift card, others candy or treats, others might have some kind of lump of coal =)
Oh that sounds super fun! Thanks for sharing!
We do this every year too. We add bells to our ball and if you get a ball you pick a gift. Some gifts funny and some that just wouldn’t fit in the ball.
Ohhhh how fun!!! Love this lol
My family has been playing this for years!! We all pitch in and add stuff, plus we put numbers in the ball, each person gets a number and at the end, we do a yankee swap with the numbers! 🙂
SO fun – love your variation, Sheena. I’d love to hear about the number swap idea, as our family does the saran wrap game too each year! Thanks for commenting how much you enjoy it. 💕
We wrap our ball in newspaper and masking tape. Just make sure to wrap the prizes to protect them and remember how many prizes there are so you know you have not missed any.
Okay but the earth…. 😔
The earth-friendlier alternative would be to play the original game this is based from called “pass the parcel” where you use paper (biodegradable) to wrap each layer.