A gift raffle is not purely a Danish tradition. Most people know of something similar it seems, maybe with a few modifications.
In Denmark the gift raffle can take place at christmas lunches or family gatherings and the rules are as follow:
- Each player brings a certain amount of small cheap presents and all go in the middle of a table
- One or two cups with one dice in each is passed around and each player gets one turn before passing the cup on
- In the first round you are allowed to grab a present if you get a 6
- After all presents are taken form the table it is time for next round
- A selected person sets a timer without telling anyone when it will go off. Usually it's set to somewhere in between 10 and 20 minutes.
- After the timer has started, the second round begins and now a 6 allows you to steal a present from someone else
- When the timer goes off the game is over and everyone can open the present(s) they won
In some families the third round is the trading-round where everyone is free to trade gifts after they're all open. Also some people has an extra rule saying you can't steal the last present a person has. Anyway it's seriously fun, and the atmosphere around the table usually turns hilariously revengeful, hectic and frantic during the second round.