The Perfect Family Christmas Party Activity for 2020: Virtual White Elephant
There’s a reason that the holiday season is called ‘the most wonderful time of the year.’ The great, warm and hearty food that comes with Thanksgiving and Christmas. The fun of giving (& receiving!) gifts with friends and family. And the opportunity to create another year of memories with loved ones: exchanging gifts, cooking together, enjoying some eggnog telling stories and being thankful for another year.
We hope that all of those traditions can continue as much as possible this year, but we know that this year presents unique challenges in travel and safely getting family together. That was our main motivation for building our platform at White Elephant Online, which allows you to play the popular gift swap game completely virtually. It enables you and your loved ones to get together and create a shared experience that we hope you’ll remember for years to come, even while you’re apart.
Read on to better understand how it works, and why we hope it’ll liven up your holidays this year!
How it works
In a nutshell, White Elephant is a ‘gift-swapping’ game: everyone who is paying comes with a wrapped gift, and - you guessed it - everyone swaps gifts! But unlike Secret Santa where you get one person to buy a gift for specifically, the fun of White Elephant is you don’t know what you’ll end up with. And because gifts can be stolen, there’s plenty of faux-drama and laughs along the way.
The basic rules are that everyone who is playing draws a number. (In general, the higher the number the better, as you’ll go later and get more gifts to choose to steal.). Player #1 begins by opening a gift. Player #2 (and each player after that) now has a choice: either unwrap a new gift from the table, or steal one that’s already been opened! The play continues until everyone has a gift. There are a bunch of ‘house rules’ you can apply that make it all the more engaging and fun. If you’re not familiar with White Elephant, check out our article on all the ins-and-outs of how to play White Elephant.
Why it’s Great for a Family Christmas Party
There’s a reason White Elephant is so popular: it’s a lot of fun! There’s no reason that a Virtual White Elephant should be any different. Our goal in building out platform is to make that the case! Here are a few highlights:
It’s Free. We offer a completely free version (ad-supported) - so no need to worry about the cost.
We take care of everything needed to play White Elephant. You can easily create a new ‘game’ on our site, and invite all your loved ones. Everyone can ’submit’ a gift ahead of time by simply adding a link to any gift found online (for example, on Amazon). There’s no need to purchase anything through our website. When playing the game, we’ll assign the numbers, show who’s up next, and let you choose to open or unwrap, unveiling the gifts that people have chosen! We even support a bunch of ‘house rules’ variations in play.
It works alongside services you already love. We’re not trying to be a store, and we’re not a video platform - and that’s good! When you play, you’ll get everyone on a Zoom (or whatever video platform you like), just like you’re used to. When you select gifts you want to purchase you’ll do so on website you already know and love. What we provide is everything in between: the ability to play the game you love.
It’s a unique Christmas experience. If you have family spread across the country, why not try something new to bring everyone together, and create a holiday memory.
Why do only one?
If you’re interested, there’s no reason to do only one! Host a game with your immediate family. Have one or two for extended family. Bring your friends into the fold. With you able to set any themes and dollar limits you want, you can create a bunch of fun events this holiday season.