Virtual White Elephant: everything you need to play your favorite holiday game online

Why did we create a virtual White Elephant?

Want to throw a great office holiday party for your company? Can’t travel to see family this year? Want to get the old gang back together, even though you’re spread across the country? We at White Elephant Online are bringing you the answer: Virtual White Elephant. With our simple platform, bring the people you love together - to play the gift-swapping game you love - no matter where they are.

How does Virtual White Elephant work? 

If you’re not familiar with White Elephant, it’s a very popular game around the Christmas and holiday season that also goes by “Yankee Swap” or “Dirty Santa”.

The Party Prep

Normally, White Elephant is played in person, with the host telling everyone when & where to arrive, the spending limit for the gift, and any ‘gift theme’ they want to introduce. The day of the party, everyone brings a wrapped gift.

At White Elephant Online, you can easily host your event: create a ‘game’ on our platform that includes all the details you want: the price limit, the date, the ‘location’ (for example, the Zoom link people can join).

You’ll then get an ‘invite link’ which you can share with any of your friends, family or coworkers.

Once they join, they’ll be able to submit their virtual white elephant gift.  It’s as easy as posting a link to any online gift, adding a name and photo, and then choosing your gift wrap style. All attendees will see the virtual ‘table’ fill up with these gifts ahead of the event date.

Playing White Elephant

In person, once everyone’s assembled, it’s time to assign numbers. Someone throws numbers into a hat, and each person picks one.  Then the game begins:

Player #1 starts the gift exchange by opening up a present. 

Player #2 (and each person after them) has a choice: unwrap a new gift, or steal a gift from someone who already opened theirs. 

This continues until all gifts are opened. For a fun twist, you can let player #1 go again and have final gift swapping revenge!  (Click here for full White Elephant rules and variations)

With White Elephant Online, on the day of the event everyone jumps on a Zoom (or other video platform) video call.  The ‘game lead’ can share their screen, open up White Elephant Online and get started! 

The system will assign numbers to everyone in attendance, and easily show who’s turn it is at any given time.

We support the full gameplay: unwrap a gift from the virtual table, view & steal gifts from fellow participants, and have a great time.  It’s easy and fun!

Once the game is complete, we’ll tell everyone who to send their gifts to. No fuss: just purchase the gifts from its original website and ship directly to the recipient.

Are you a company looking for a fun virtual holiday party?

We’ve built our platform to make planning a corporate white elephant game easy and intuitive.

• Various gift distribution options to protect employee privacy

• Ability for a game admin to submit gifts on behalf of players

• “Dummy Player” functionality so that participants never even need to login to play!

• End-of-game reports for easier gift distribution

… not to mention that our site has been used by thousands of the largest (and smallest!) companies across the globe, and the feedback has been: it’s a blast!

It’s that easy to host a virtual event that is fun, unique and sure to bring you and your group together. In other words, it’s virtual white elephant! Sign up for White Elephant Online below.

Ready to Try White Elephant Online?

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