How to Host a White Elephant Gift Exchange

A White Elephant gift exchange, also known as a Yankee Swap or Dirty Santa is a popular event at Christmas parties. As with most holiday parties, each guest comes with a gift and leaves with a gift--but it's what happens in between that sets the White Elephant exchange apart from other parties.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Party invitations
• Numbered slips of paper
• Gifts

How to Host a White Elephant Gift Exchange

1. Send out party invitations to all of the people on your guest list. Specify that everyone should bring a wrapped gift to the party for a White Elephant gift exchange, and include any additional rules for the exchange, say a price limit or a stipulation that all gifts must be used items.

2. As guests arrive, have them deposit their gift on a table.

3. Then, pass around a hat with numbered slips of paper (one number for each gift), and have each guest draw a number.

4. The person who draws "1" gets first pick from the pile, and opens her pick for everyone to see.

5. It's then the turn of the person who drew "2." He can choose to steal the first persons gift or pick another gift from the pile, and open it. If the second person chooses to steal the first persons gift, the first person gets to choose another gift from the pile.

6. The person who drew "3" goes next, and must choose between stealing one of the first two gifts or choosing a new gift from the pile.

7. The game continues in this manner until everyone has a gift.

Tips & Warnings

• For a fun twist, leave all of the presents wrapped until the exchange is complete. Then, have everyone open the presents at once.
• Request that gifts not include To/From tags. Then, see if everyone can guess who brought each gift.