What is white elephant gift exchange? White elephant gift exchanges bring on, at one and the same time, the fun, the challenge, the strategy, the competition, the anticipation, the tension, and the dread in a way that few other party games can. Party-goers strategize to use the rules to win the white elephant gifts they want and avoid the ones they don’t. Each round, they make the choice that they think is their best competitive move to win and retain that sought after gift and avoid the rest. Then, they wait in dread and anticipation to the end of the turn, and through the next turns and rounds, to learn if their strategy is right or wrong. The white elephant game is a real ice breaker that gets guests reacting, interacting, teasing, joking, and even empathizing and sympathizing, and they can learn surprising things about each other when discussions turn to why someone wants or doesn’t want a particular gift. What is white elephant gift exchange? It’s fun!

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50 Excitement-Producing White Elephant Gift Ideas for Your 2018 Gift Swap

How to Play White Elephant

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There is a set of basic rules for the white elephant game, but a number of variations have developed to keep the pace from dragging during trading and to try to make the results more fun and more fair.

Basic Rules

The white elephant gift game works best with at least six invited guests. Keep in mind that the more guests you invite, the longer the game will take to play.

• Each invited guest brings one wrapped gift to contribute to the pool.
• The gifts are displayed together in a central location where all the players can view them.
• The guests draw numbers to determine the order in which they take their turns.
• The first player chooses a gift and unwraps it.
• The following players decide whether to steal an unwrapped gift from a previous player or to choose a wrapped gift to unwrap.
• If a player’s gift is stolen, that player then has the chance to steal a gift from someone else or unwrap a new gift.
• Each previously unwrapped gift can be stolen only once per turn to prevent the play from becoming bogged down in an endless round of steals.
• When every player receives a gift, for better or worse, the game is over.

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Awesome Variations on the White Elephant Game for More Fun and Fairness

Variations can cover either the kinds of gifts included in the pool or how the game is played or both. Variations covering the types of gifts can include a party theme for the gifts or a suggested limit or range on the purchase price of gifts. Setting a limit or range on purchase prices keeps all the gifts relatively equal in value so that no one has to cover a feeling of being cheated while someone else feels uncomfortable with a gift that is obviously of much higher value than the others. Creative themed gift ideas include: