Boston News Today - 2015 HOLIDAY GUIDE: LIQUID CHEERS

When it comes time to get the staff together for some after-work fun at Santa’s expense, nothing says HR nightmare like a holiday drinking game. Not limited to just co-workers, the act of trashing your liver to give thanks can be equally awesome with friends and family as well. In order to make it a localvores dream, we’ve rounded up some hometown suds and sin along with a few Cyber Monday items to make it complete. So gather around, share the rules, and get ready to face-plant on old tannenbaum!

Rules of the Game:

It’s best when played with at least 10 or more people, and you must sit in a circle. You’ll need 10 six-packs of beers and two bottles of liquor (We recommended a list of our favorite IPAs for maximum enjoyment!) and one small glass (2-4 oz. is sufficient but no more 6 oz.) for each person. You’ll need two extra glasses for the hard stuff as well, but set them aside for now.

Draw straws for who goes first and hand the winner an ugly sweater to put on (again, we’ve recommended one here, complete with Jesus!). The person wearing the sweater must then take one shot of booze to start the game. They will then pick any one person and assign them a letter from the alphabet (any letter, doesn’t have to start with A). That person then has to state one holiday themed word (E is for Elf, J is for Jesus, M is for Mrs. Claus, etc.) and the game then moves to the person on their left who, after repeating the first word, must pick a new word using the next letter in the alphabet. It then moves to the left again and that person must repeat the previous two words and, using the next letter in the alphabet, state their own. And so on. This continues until someone cannot repeat all of the previous words and their own.

At that point, the person wearing the sweater picks one of the ten beers and pours a sample size into the glass of the person who screwed up. They must now chug it. They then receive the sweater, take a shot of booze, and pick a new person (anyone in the circle) and assign them a new starting letter. (Pro Tip! During the course of the game, use a koozie to keep the open beers cold; we’ve recommended our pick for bottles specifically but cans are acceptable too.)

The game continues until either all of the booze is gone or someone drops out/throws up. At that point, everyone’s a winner! Merry Holidaze!