The word aguinaldo names two things in Colombia: the Christmas gift, and a family of games bet on through the season. The novena, from December 16 to 24, is the frame for both: nine evenings of prayers, carols and food, in which challenges are also struck, lost and paid.
The rules change from region to region and household to household, so what follows is the most widespread form of each game, not a rulebook.
The games bet on during the novena
Pajita en boca
You keep a straw or a small stick in your mouth for the agreed stretch of time, usually as long as the gathering lasts. Anyone caught without it loses and pays the aguinaldo or takes a forfeit.
It's the most popular of the lot and the easiest to forget, which is exactly what it lives on.
El sí y el no, and la palabra prohibida
In el sí y el no, neither word may be spoken for as long as the game runs; whoever gets the other person to say one wins the aguinaldo.
La palabra prohibida works the same way with a word agreed in advance, which can be anything at all. Both are conversation games: you win them by laying kind traps inside questions that sound innocent.
Dar y no recibir, tres pies, beso robado
In dar y no recibir you may not accept any object from your challenger's hand, and since the challenge runs all day it's lost through distraction more than carelessness.
Beso robado is won by kissing your challenger without them noticing. Tres pies is the one that varies most: in some versions it means slipping your foot between the other person's feet unnoticed, and in others it means not being caught within three feet of them. Say out loud which one you're playing before you start.
What's wagered, and how it's collected
The prize is usually small and symbolic: a sweet, a chocolate, a toy, a token, or a light-hearted forfeit for whoever loses.
The bet is struck between two people, not with the whole group, and it's collected the moment it's lost. It's an economy of trifles, and that's the charm: what's at stake never matters more than the moment somebody slips.
Aguinaldos and amigo secreto in the same season
They're different things and they sit well together: aguinaldos are bets between two people, settled on the spot, needing no draw; amigo secreto is one name, one secret and one gift, and it needs the result to stay unknown.
Many families run both within the same novena, and there the trick is to keep the channels apart: the app handles the draw and keeps the result from leaking, even from whoever organized it, while the evening's bets stay verbal, the way they always have.
Set up the amigo secreto for your novena
No account, nothing to install, free. Enter the names, pick the evening of the handover and share one link. The aguinaldos are yours to play; nobody sees the draw result early.
