The Plastic Wrap Ball Game – The Best Holiday Party Game EVER!

If you have never played this game, warning, its addicting and super fun! This game is our all time favorite game not only to play at the holidays, but pretty much at any party. My teen loves this game and we often play it at birthday parties for her. The best part about this game is you can completely customize it for your party and crowd. Today I will show you how to create and play the plastic wrap ball game – the best holiday party game ever – specifically tailored for a Christmas or holiday party.

How to create a plastic wrap ball

The plastic wrap ball game is simple; you create a giant ball of plastic composed of several sheets, and within each layer or couple of layers a prize is hidden. When you are creating a plastic wrap ball for a holiday game, you will want to try to have a variety of festive prizes wrapped within the ball that you believe your group of friends would enjoy playing for. This ball was created for a holiday party, specifically for the adults. I created a separate ball for the children. Here is a look at all the items wrapped within this ball:

The items selected are not only festive and appropriate for adults, but also small and easy to wrap. These items include:

Funny socks
Chapstick
Mini alcohol bottles
Scratch tickets
Dollar bills & coins
Starbucks gift cards
Various candies
Gum

You could also add in other items such as hair ties, beanies, mini soaps and lotions, as well as gag gifts. It is really up to you what to add and how much of each item to add.

The larger the crowd, the bigger and more full your ball should be so everyone will be able to win some things. The biggest prize should be in the very center of the ball – in this case it was a Starbucks gift card. Wrap each layer in about a 20″ piece of plastic wrap. I usually try to add something in almost every layer, skipping every 5 or so layers with just an empty layer. Continue wrapping until you have used up all your items.

How to play the plastic wrap ball game

Game play for this game is fairly simple. You will need a set of dice. First, select the starting player, you can do this by whoever rolls highest or another method of your choosing. To play, simply begin trying to unwrap the ball. The player to your left will roll both dice until they roll doubles. Once they roll doubles the ball is passed to them and the dice passed to the left (clockwise). It can be difficult to find the edge of each piece of wrapping paper, and you may not be able to find it in your turn.

Be careful, if you rip the plastic at all your turn is instantly up and the ball passes clockwise to the next player. Also, when the player to your left rolls doubles you must pass immediately, even if you are about to unwrap goodies. Continuing to unwrap past your turn limit will cause you to be passed on the next round! This continues until the entire ball has been unwrapped and all the prizes claimed.

OPTIONAL: Though we do not prefer this optional rule, you can play where rolling snake eyes (two 1’s) causes the ball to move in the reverse direction. This sometimes causes the ball to remain in one area of the circle for a long time and so we generally do not play with this rule.

That’s it! This is how you create and play the plastic wrap ball game – the BEST holiday game EVER!