Winning at Christmas can be a challenging endeavor depending on your particular situation. If you are a loser, I have provided some tips to improve your chances of winning next year. As always, these suggestions must be adapted to the context in which you operate. Certain approaches may actually achieve the opposite effect depending upon the personalities of those in your present exchange network.
At first one might think that giving fewer or less valuable presents would be a good way to go. Rookie mistake. That might work out for a year or two, but over time people will reciprocate and your temporary gain will evaporate. Instead, try improve either your likability or try to generate sympathy/guilt.
On the likability side, here are some possible approaches:
- Be nicer to people. Don't throw things at their pets/children.
- If you talk too much, talk less. If you talk too little, talk more.
- Try to do small, thoughtful things for others throughout the year.
- Try not do drink so much.
- Get plastic surgery.
- Go to therapy.
- Fake a robbery of your home.
- Quit your job and take a lower-paying one so that you can spend more time with your kids.
- Fake a debilitating but non-fatal disease.
- Start a blog detailing the unfortunate nature of your life.
- Develop an addiction to pain killers (note: every other drug falls into the pathetic category).
- Tell everyone that your girlfriend or boyfriend that lives in another state died.
- Go to graduate school.
1 comments:
Oh I definitely won this year. I think it was the grad school thing that really did it for me, although I also used three other strategies you neglected to mention.
1 - Manipulate the Books
If you use money from another budget category for your gifts, it does not count against the Christmas total! Turning school projects into gifts is one easy way to do this.
2 - Get someone else to do it for you.
If your girlfriend makes cookies for your friends and lets you sign the card, it's all benefit for no cost (may not work for married couples filing a joint score sheet). For a double bonus, count the leftover cookies she gives you when she's done as part of your incoming gift total!
3 - Make gifts
This one works both to reduce the amount you spend and to increase likability, although some advanced versions of the Christmas game have a "Time Devoted" rule that can cancel out the monetary gains.
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