The scene was my sister’s holiday table in New Jersey, earlier this week. We had just finished tidying up the uneaten food, dirty dishes and other detritus of the meal, leaving the tabletop empty. The eight of us who had gathered that evening, ranging in age from 10 to 78, were ready to play the seriously unserious game of pakkeleg.
I encountered this popular Danish Christmas game on a visit to Copenhagen several years ago, and I liked it so much I made it part of my own holiday tradition. Pakkeleg (pronounced PAH-keh-lie), which means “package game” in Danish, is universal enough that I played it at a Hanukkah dinner in Copenhagen one day and at a Christmas lunch the next. Americans may recognize it as a distant cousin of the gift exchange game White Elephant.
The rules can vary, but they are simple. Each guest brings a gift or two worth $5 or less. The gifts are wrapped—part of the fun is wrapping them deceptively, to hide what’s really inside—and there’s no indication of who brought which package. During the break between dinner and dessert, the presents are piled in the center of the table, a set of dice is produced, and chaos ensues.
Players take turns rolling the dice, and if you roll a six you take a gift from the pile. Once all the gifts have been taken from the center of the table, a timed, second round begins. Only the host knows how long the timer is set for, to create a sense of urgency. Now when you roll a six, you “steal” a gift from another player. When the timer runs out, you’re stuck with what you have.
Though the stakes are low, pakkeleg can be ruthless, which is part of the fun. “It brings out the best and the worst in people,” says Anna Wowk Vestergaard, curator at Den Gamle By, a Christmas museum in Aarhus, Denmark. “There is just something about human nature and how you react when you have five gifts and how you react when you have none.”
“ If some Danish customs inspire hygge, that famous sense of coziness and contentment, pakkeleg does the opposite. ”
If some Danish customs inspire hygge, that famous sense of coziness and contentment, pakkeleg does the opposite. It gets people excited, agitated. It stirs the pot. Though it might seem counterintuitive, the reason I fell for the game is because it shifts the emphasis of the holidays from getting stuff to having fun. The gifts are just baubles, yet they inspire a silly amount of competition. With its eruptions of laughter, fake panic and harmless rivalries, pakkeleg makes being together the point.
“It’s not about the parcels, it’s about the game and stealing from each other,” says cookbook author Tina Scheftelowitz, the host of my first pakkeleg. “It’s when the grown-ups can steal from small children. Normally, that’s not allowed.”
Pakkeleg is fertile ground for pranks and spoofs. Seasoned players know that the biggest, most beautifully wrapped gift is usually a decoy. “You should never take that in a game of pakkeleg,” says Ms. Vestergaard. “That’s when you end up with the salt you put on the pavement during wintertime.” When I played at the home of the cookbook author Nadine Levy Redzepi and her husband, chef René Redzepi, a replica of Borat’s banana-hammock mankini was the hit of the party.
Pakkeleg can also be practical. “It’s a game that prevents people from buying 500 gifts for everyone,” says Trine Hahnemann, author of “Scandinavian Christmas.” Reducing waste is a priority these days, and while the Danish tchotchke shop Flying Tiger is a pakkeleg go-to, handmade presents, recycled gifts and functional items are also prominent. “I would rather do a really nice homemade chutney than spend my money on all kinds of plastic,” says Ms. Hahnemann.
While pakkeleg doesn’t replace putting presents under the tree for your children, it does take the pressure off adult gift-giving. “The financial strain on a family to buy presents for everyone is quite significant,” says pakkeleg enthusiast Nina Jensen. “It’s a strain most of us wouldn’t miss if we didn’t have it.”
But the most rewarding part of pakkeleg is the way it brings people together in a joyful burst of activity. Why not try it next year? You may find that your holiday gets a little less serious and a lot more fun.
—Ms. Gershenson is a journalist in New York City.
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/turning-holiday-gift-giving-into-a-game-of-chance-11577278800
2019-12-25 13:00:00Z
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