Holiday gift exchange images8/16/2023 ![]() (This gift exchange game can also be called a Yankee Swap or Dirty Santa.) The game continues until everyone has a gift. Any player whose gift is stolen gets to pick again. 3 can then steal either gift, or choose and unwrap another, and so on. 2 then either "steals" that present or picks and unwraps another one from the pile. 1 chooses and unwraps a gift, then shows it to everyone else. Draw numbers out of a hat to see who gets to pick from the pile first. ![]() Invite everyone to contribute a wrapped gift. "Stealing" from other participants gives this gift exchange game an element of unpredictability. Hand each person his or her spool of yarn and let the mayhem ensue. You want to make it as difficult as possible for the gift recipient to follow his or her yarn through the "cobweb" of different colors to find the present. Unwind the yarn as you zigzag across the room, trailing it under furniture, looping it around banisters and over curtain rods, anywhere you can. Tie one end of a spool of yarn to each gift-blue yarn to one player's gift, red yarn to another, and so on. Designate one room for the party, and assign each player a yarn color. This wacky search game was all the rage during the Victorian era. ![]() It becomes that person's responsibility to pass it along, like a hot potato, the next year. Wrap up your most egregious or inexplicable Christmas present from last year (sad-eyed ceramic cat, anyone?) for an unsuspecting family member. The box rotates like that until it has made the rounds of all the friends, ending up back with Anna, complete with personal notes from her pals and their gifts to her. The first friend takes out a gift, puts in three of her own, adds to the note, and ships everything on to the next. Anna Baldwin, a reader from Arlee, Mont., does this with her three best friends from college: She fills a box with locally made, low-cost items-one for each friend-and a personal note, and mails it off. 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. 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. By creating some additional limitations you can actually keep the game engaging and fresh. Especially with larger groups, White Elephant gift exchanges can go on for a while. On one hand these rules can seem limiting, but they’re all aimed at keeping the pace of play enjoyable. Limited ‘round-robin’ stealing: any given round can only have 3 steals, after which that person must unwrap a new gift 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) Here are a few rules you may want to incorporate into your game:Įach person can only be stolen from 3 times Then the game is over! Sounds simple, but it packs a lot of laughs with funny gifts and many betrayals over stolen gifts! 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. ![]() (Note: you cannot steal the same gift back within the same round). The round is then over, and the next number takes their turn. ![]() This ‘round-robin’ stealing continues until someone choses to unwrap a new gift. If your gift is stolen, you may unwrap a new gift, or steal another one from someone else. Since no one has any gifts to steal yet, the first player unwraps any gift they want from the table.Įach 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. In general the higher the number the better, but there are a few exceptions & twists, as you’ll see below! Sometimes no theme is the best, getting a broad mix of gifts that represent the personality of the group!įirst, everyone is assigned a number, starting at 1 and going up to however many participants you have. The theme could be something specific (only music and movies) or more general, like ‘anything silly or impractical’. Some people also like to set a theme for the gifts. The game is finished when everyone has a gift.Īs 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. 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 basic concept is that everyone who is participating brings a gift and you begin the game with one wrapped gift per person. In a nutshell, White Elephant is a great way to have a fun time with a group of friends, family or colleagues. ![]()
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