How to Play White Elephant
Planning a virtual holiday party doesn’t have to be stressful.
Here’s how White Elephant Online works.
Create a game, invite your group and have everyone submit a gift
Create your game, set a date and time, customize your game, and share your invite link with your group to have them join the game. We've setup our system to be completely self-service, so you can hold the event whenever you want, with whomever you want.
Every player will submit a gift to the game. This entails posting a link to a gift from any online retailer, or uploading an image of something you have at home, and then 'wrapping' it virtually. Players do not need to purchase the gift at this time.
We also offer advanced tools for admins who want to submit gifts on behalf of all the participants, so they can just show up and play!
It’s game time!
On Game Day, everyone should join a video call.
One person will serve as the Game Lead, share their screen and be the one to click to unwrap & steal gifts. All players can optionally login to see what number they drew and what gift they have at any given time, but it’s not required.
Once the game begins, the platform will assign numbers and take you step-by-step through the game.
After the game is completed, players will be notified of which gift they won and what to do next. Gifts are purchased and sent only after the game is complete.
Distribute the gifts
Who purchases and sends the gifts is totally up to you. While the gift purchasing happens outside of our platform, we make it as easy as possible to make sure everyone gets their gifts.
We have six "Gift Distribution Options" to chose from. Whether you want players to send the gifts themselves, or you want a game report so a central admin can take care of it, we have you covered. Regardless of which option you chose, the platform will communicate the next steps to all players and give the Game Admin and players all of the appropriate information.
You can read more details about the Gift Distribution Options and how they work here.
Want to learn more? Check out our Support Center.
If you’d rather watch the full overview video in it’s entirety, we’ve got you covered!
White Elephant Rules
Everyone’s favorite holiday gift exchange game goes by a few names: White Elephant, Yankee Swap, Dirty Santa. But the real question is: how do you play? The fact is that everyone has their ‘home rules’, but below we will cover the standard White Elephant rules and a number of popular variations (that we support!).
Overview
In a nutshell, White Elephant is a great way to have a fun time with a group of friends, family or colleagues. The basic concept is that everyone who is participating brings a gift and you begin the game with one wrapped gift per person. Each participant is assigned a random number, and then one at a time each person either unwraps a new gift, or steals a gift from someone else. The game is finished when everyone has a gift.
Setup
As with any event, you will want to pick a date and time, and then invite your friends! It’s always good to set a dollar amount limit (say $20 or $25) so that the quality of gifts are comparable. Some people also like to set a theme for the gifts. The theme could be something specific (only music and movies) or more general, like ‘anything silly or impractical’. Sometimes no theme is the best, getting a broad mix of gifts that represent the personality of the group!
Gameplay
First, everyone is assigned a number, starting at 1 and going up to however many participants you have. In general the higher the number the better, but there are a few exceptions & twists, as you’ll see below!
#1 goes first (surprise, surprise). Since no one has any gifts to steal yet, the first player unwraps any gift they want from the table.
Each person then takes a turn (continuing in numerical order), choosing either to open a new gift, or steal a gift from someone who already opened theirs. If your gift is stolen, you may unwrap a new gift, or steal another one from someone else. This ‘round-robin’ stealing continues until someone choses to unwrap a new gift. The round is then over, and the next number takes their turn. (Note: you cannot steal the same gift back within the same round).
Once everyone has their gift, there’s one final twist: #1 gets to go again! They can choose to keep their gift or to swap it with anyone in the group.
Then the game is over! Sounds simple, but it packs a lot of laughs with funny gifts and many betrayals over stolen gifts!
Popular Variations
Here are a few rules you may want to incorporate into your game:
Each gift can only be stolen 3 times
Each person can only be stolen from 3 times
No ‘round-robin’ stealing: if a gift is stolen from you, you must unwrap a new gift (you cannot steal another gift that has already been opened)
Limited ‘round-robin’ stealing: any given round can only have 3 steals, after which that person must unwrap a new gift
On one hand these rules can seem limiting, but they’re all aimed at keeping the pace of play enjoyable. Especially with larger groups, White Elephant gift exchanges can go on for a while. By creating some additional limitations you can actually keep the game engaging and fresh.
It can also add some interesting twists. For example if there are one or two really popular gifts, then there’s quite a bit of drama over being the third (and final!) person to steal the gift. In fact, this makes lower numbers a possible advantage: if a great gift is opened early, then someone with a later number (who normally has their pick of any gift) may not be able to grab whatever they want because some gifts are locked already. It makes it more dynamic!
As you can see, White Elephant provides a ton of flexibility to have a great time with your friends and family. It is the perfect activity for businesses looking to create a great event for employees to have a fun time and create memories.
Want to play White Elephant Online?
Sign up now to start planning your memorable holiday party today!