How do you play White Elephant? The gift exchange rules, explained

As the holiday season begins, there can be many parties and gatherings includes a gift exchange. Along with Secret Santa and cookie exchanges, guests may be invited to participate in a White Elephant Gift Exchange.

White elephants are a little different from other gift exchanges. Participants can steal gifts from other players, and more customized versions of the game can include cards and dice to really mix things up.

Here’s what to know about the White Elephant rules and how to play them best.

What are the basic rules of the white elephant?

For starters, anyone who wants to participate in a White Elephant must bring a gift. Often these gifts will be silly or impractical. Players will select from the pool of gifts in an assigned order: guests can draw straws to see who will go when, or the host can set an order before the event. Anything works, as long as people know when to get up.

When it’s time to start the game, the first player will select a gift. For most game variations, it’s important to make sure everyone knows what the player has chosen; this will be important later!

When the second player goes, they will have two options: they can open a new gift or steal the previous player’s gift. If a player is robbed of a gift, they will pick again before the game moves to the next participant. The game will continue like this until each participant has a gift. After the last player has chosen a gift, the first player will have a chance to steal, if they want.

To keep the game moving, there are some limits on stealing. Normally, a gift can only be stolen once per turn, so if the second player steals a gift from the first player, the first player cannot immediately return it. But if the first player receives his gift a second time, then he can claim his gift from the second player. It’s also common to automatically end the turn after three trades, so the game doesn’t stop.

How can you customize the White Elephant rules?

White Elephant rules can be customized in a number of ways. For starters, you can remove limits on steals or trades per turn, but be aware that this will likely slow down the game.

Players can also take these limits even more seriously. In some versions of the game, if a gift is exchanged three times, it is considered out of the game and cannot be stolen again, meaning that the person who has it after the third theft keeps it. In other versions, a player can be considered out of the game if he is robbed three times. This means they can no longer be stolen from and can keep any gifts they have at the time.

White Elephant organizers could also set a theme for the gifts or keep them wrapped until after the game to add an element of mystery.

There are also ways to make white elephants more complicated. White Elephant organizers could play the “dice game” variation, which incorporates a pair of dice and a rule sheet created by the giveaway organizer. In this variation, players can select their play order based on dice rolls. When the time to collect gifts begins, the first player will roll the dice and then do whatever the corresponding item is on the rule sheet. Some versions do not allow players to develop their gifts until the rule sheet says so. In such cases, the game may continue until all players have unwrapped their presents.

There is also a card game version with similar rules to the dice game. In this variation, players use cards to determine the order in which they will play and what actions they will take.

White elephant gift wrapping?

White Elephant gifts should be wrapped, especially if you’re playing a version with a rule sheet or playing cards that dictate certain actions. Players will normally unwrap gifts when the gift is first selected, unless the gift exchange uses a variation where the gifts are not unwrapped until the end.

What is the usual budget for a White Elephant gift exchange?

The budget because a white elephant is usually at the bottom. WhiteElephantRules.com recommends a budget limit of $20 for most meetings.

Another variation of White Elephant could be on a zero-dollar budget: ask players to re-gift items or bring home-made gifts.

Why is it called White Elephant?

A “white elephant” is usually something that is expensive to maintain and difficult to sell or get rid of, meaning more trouble than it’s worth. The phrase is thought to come from a legend about the King of Siam. In the myth, that the New York Times called “almost certainly apocryphal”, the king of Siam, who ruled an area now known as Thailand, would give someone who had made him unhappy a white elephant, which the person would then have to take care of despite not having one to use for to this So while white elephant Christmas exchange gifts aren’t usually expensive, they’re often silly or impractical.