How to play the left right game
It goes by a few names: the left right game, the left right gift exchange, pass the present. The rules fit on an index card. Most of the fun comes from grown adults who can't tell left from right after two cups of eggnog.
What you need
- One wrapped gift per person. Set a price limit so they're close in value. Ten to twenty-five dollars is typical.
- Chairs in a circle, or everyone around one table.
- A story with plenty of lefts and rights in it. Pick one here or print one.
- A reader who doesn't mind being the center of attention for five minutes.
The rules
- Everyone sits in a circle holding a gift.Usually the one they brought.
- The reader reads the story out loud.From a phone in reader mode, or from a printout.
- Pass on every cue.Each time the reader says left, everybody passes the gift in their hands one seat to the left. Each time they say right, one seat to the right.
- Keep what you end up with.When the story ends, the passing stops. Open your gifts together.
Arguments you can settle now
Does "right" count when it means correct?
Yes. "All right," "right away" and "you're right" all count. That's half the fun.
What about "left" as in "left the house"?
That counts too. "Leftovers" doesn't, and neither do "bright" or "copyright." It has to be the whole word.
And "Wright"?
Only in the Wright family story, where the whole joke is that every Wright is a right. The reader should mention it before starting.
Which way is left?
Your left, sitting in the circle facing the middle. Seen from above, gifts going left travel clockwise around the room.
Someone ended up with two gifts. Now what?
Somebody missed a pass. Have them send one on in the direction of the last cue, and keep reading.
Group size: the one thing that can go wrong
Every left right story has a net direction. Count each right as plus one and each left as minus one. If that total divides evenly by the number of people in the circle, every gift ends up exactly where it started and everyone opens the gift they brought.
The stories on this site avoid that for every common group size, and each story page tells you which sizes (if any) to watch out for. If your group happens to be one of them, reader mode adds a single bonus pass at the end. Reading from paper? Call out one extra "left" after the last line.
Variations
- One prize. Pass a single wrapped prize instead of a gift each. Good for classrooms, or when not everyone brought something.
- Dice instead of a story. Each roll says which way to pass. Rules and an on-screen die.
- Steal round. When the story ends, go around once and let each person swap with anyone before opening.
- Reader relay. Change readers every paragraph. Kids who are learning to read out loud love this.
- After a white elephant. Run a white elephant swap first, then read a story to scramble the opened gifts one last time.
Tips for big groups
- Past about fifteen people, split into two circles with two readers, or pass a few prizes instead of a gift each.
- Pause for a beat after each cue. With thirty people, somebody is always behind.
- Put reader mode on the TV so the back of the room can see the cues too.
Tips for kids
- Short stories work best for under-sevens. Try Biscuit the dog.
- Practice once before you start: "Everybody pass left!" Then "Everybody pass right!"
- Wrap things that survive being dropped.