How do you play White Elephant? The gift exchange rules, explained

As the holiday season gets underway, many parties and gatherings might include a gift exchange. Along with Secret Santas and cookie swaps, guests might be invited to participate in a White Elephant gift exchange. 

White Elephants are a little different from other gift exchanges. Participants can steal gifts from other players, and more customized versions of the game can include cards and dice to really mix things up. 

Here’s what to know about the rules of White Elephant and how to best play the game. 

What are the basic White Elephant rules? 

To start, anyone who wants to participate in a White Elephant has to bring a gift. Often, those gifts will be silly or impractical. Players will select from the gift pool in an assigned order: Guests can draw straws to see who will go when, or the host can set an order prior to the event. Anything works, as long as people know when they’ll be up. 

When it’s time for the game to begin, the first player will select a gift. For most variations of the game, it’s important to make sure everyone knows what the player picked — this will be important later! 

When the second player goes, they’ll have two options: They can open a new gift, or steal the previous player’s gift. If a player gets a gift stolen from them, they then get to pick again before the game progresses to the next participant. The game will continue like that until every participant has a gift. After the last player has picked a gift, the first player will get the chance to steal, if they want. 

To keep the game moving, there are some limits on stealing. Usually, a present can only be stolen once per turn, so if the second participant steals a gift from the first, the first player can’t take the gift back immediately. But if the first player gets their gift stolen a second time, they can then reclaim their gift from the second player. It’s also common to automatically end the turn after three swaps, so the game doesn’t grind to a halt. 

How can you customize White Elephant rules? 

White Elephant rules can be customized in a variety of ways. To start, you can remove limits on steals or swaps per turn, but be warned that this will likely slow down the game. 

Players can also take those limits…