White Elephant Bingo - A Bingo Night for Fun and Charity

Bingo is a fun game enjoyed by millions of people worldwide. At home Bingo can be played by all ages allowing everyone to participate together in a pleasurable activity. Charitable organizations sponsor Bingo to raise money. If your group is looking for a way to collect donations to assist the needy -- and have an evening of fun and fellowship at the same time -- consider White Elephant Bingo.

I recently attended a White Elephant Bingo event in a church in my community. I had a wonderful time. Here are some ideas you might consider for your group.

You might be interested to know that variations of Bingo date back to the 1530s in Italy. Reference to the word "Bingo" (referring to lottery) was found as early as 1776 in England. The game came to be called "beano" in the U.S. because of the dried beans used to mark the numbers as they were called out. During a beano game run by Edwin Lowe sometime around 1929, an excited player yelled out "Bingo" instead of "beano" and Mr. Lowe went on to market his game as "Bingo." The rest is history.

Bingo as a form of gambling is generally a regulated activity in the U,S. Charities and churches often run Bingo games as fund-raisers. A White Elephant Bingo Night is something different. Its purpose is to have fun and fellowship while collecting donated food items and perhaps cash to give to organizations serving needy persons in the community.

When I arrived at the church hall, everything was set up. At the "registration" table I contributed my "price" of admission -- cans of food or household paper products for donation to the local thrift shop's food program. For a nominal charge I bought a small pizza and salad for supper. Coffee, tea , water and soft drinks were provided. Tables for players were arranged around the caller's table. Each player received two Bingo cards. The audience included people 8 years old to 80+.

During supper we enjoyed conversations with old friends, new friends and family members, We were encouraged to look over the White Elephant prize tables where dozens of prizes were displayed. They had been collected before the event from folks who wished to give away items they no longer wanted. They were all in good condition.

Several variations of Bingo were played during the evening -- from the usual simple Bingo with the winner getting numbers in a straight line vertically, horizontally or diagonally; or different forms of Bingo with the winner getting just the four corners, or a square, or the letter "H," or the letter "X."

When a player got all the numbers needed she or he called out "Bingo" and was invited to pick a White Elephant from the prize table. Other times, the winning player was invited to the prize table along with the person to his or her left. Another variation was when the game continued after the first winner, then a second winner, and a third. I chose as my White Elephant prize a small spoon with a miniature teapot on the handle. My husband choose a small binocular/digital camera set.

A frigid, cold wintry evening passed quickly with lots of food, fellowship and fun.