So You’re Planning A White Elephant Gift Exchange

I know it’s not Christmas yet, but holiday calendars fill up fast, and many people like to get their holiday shopping finished early. If you’d like to plan a white elephant gift exchange during your Christmas party, you should plan ahead. You don’t want to let your guests know at the last minute, give them time to be creative with their gift.

A white elephant gift exchange can be a fun alternative to traditional gift exchanges. They’re not hard to coordinate, but you do need to let your party guests know what’s going on, either verbally, or in the party invitation.

A white elephant works well for group parties, office parties, and large family gatherings.

A white elephant’s not hard to set up. Have everyone bring a gift to trade, set a price limit for the gifts. Let everyone know ahead of time the gift exchange will be a white elephant game. If there is a theme to the white elephant let them know that also (ornaments, gag). If there is no theme let the guests know they can bring a gag, or regular gift.

Place numbers in a hat to match the number of guests who will be attending the party. As everyone arrives at the party have them pick a number out of the hat. Tell them not to lose their numbers.

Enjoy a few snacks or appetizers, mingle, and catch up on old times, then call everyone together to start the white elephant.

Call on number one and have them come pick a gift from the white elephant gift pile and unwrap it. Then call on number two and they can choose to either unwrap a gift from the pile, or take number ones gift. If they choose number ones gift, number one would then pick another gift.

As the numbers go up the game can get more fun, and a little more complex. When the third, fourth, fifth, or any other number comes up to choose a gift they have two options. They can pick a gift from under the tree to unwrap, or they can choose a gift steal from someone else. If a gift is stolen, the person the gift is stolen from has the same option. They can steal another gift, or unwrap a gift from under the tree. Each round goes on until someone chooses to unwrap a gift from under the tree.

To keep the white elephant game from going on all night you should make a rule that any one gift can only be stolen one time in each round. Once it’s been stolen by someone in that round, it cannot be stolen again until a gift has been unwrapped from under the tree. Some presents will be popular and stolen often, others will stick with whoever unwrapped them.

After the final player has their turn and all the trading and swapping is completed you have the option of allowing the person who unwrapped the first gift to trade their gift. They can trade their white elephant gift with anyone else, since they have never had the opportunity to trade, and everyone else has had the opportunity to steal their gift.

This game can be really fun if you have a crowd who’s not afraid to steal each other’s gifts. It also helps to get things going if there are a couple gifts everyone wants, and a couple gag gifts no one wants to get stuck with.

Some families have a white elephant tradition. They may have one or two gag gifts that are re-gifted every year, and are passed from one unlucky person, to another.

Have you ever planned, or attended a white elephant gift exchange? I know there are several variations to the rules above. If your white elephant is different, or if you just want to let us know how your white elephant party went please share.

Image via Stock.xpert