Many of you have asked how exactly a white elephant gift exchange works, so we wanted to lay out the rules:
1. Each player brings one wrapped gift to contribute to a common pool.
~for our game, the gift should be no more than $20ish in value and should aim to be gender neutral (i.e.: no makeup or beard trimmers).
~for our game, the gift should be no more than $20ish in value and should aim to be gender neutral (i.e.: no makeup or beard trimmers).
2. Players draw names to determine what order they will go in.
3. Players sit in a circle or line where they can see the gift pile.
~To make things easier, everyone should sit in the order in which they will take their turns.
4. The first player selects a gift from the pool and opens it to make sure everyone can see the gift.
5. The following players can choose to either pick an unwrapped gift from the pool or steal a previous player’s gift. Anyone who gets their gift stolen in this way can do the same – choose a new gift or steal from someone else.
~To keep things moving along, there are a couple of limits on gift swapping:
- A present can only be stolen once per turn, which means players who have a gift stolen from them have to wait to get it back.
- After three swaps, the turn automatically comes to an end (otherwise things could drag on for a long time).
6. After all players have had a turn, the first player gets a chance to swap the gift he or she is holding for any other opened gift. Anyone who’s gift is stolen may steal from someone else (as long as that person hasn’t been stolen from yet). When someone declines to steal a gift, the game comes to an end.
