Things You'll Need:
- an object you own but no longer want
- paper
- pen
- scissors
- bowl
- a holiday party or holiday parties
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Step 1
Ask your holiday party attendees to bring an object they own but are willing to give away at the gift exchange. They must wrap it up ahead of time! They don't have to use expensive gift wrap. Old gift wrap, tissue paper, bags, newspaper, or some other inexpensive wrapping is fine. During the gift exchange, nobody should be able to tell for sure what the gift is until it is unwrapped.
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Step 2
Put all these white elephant "gifts" in a special place, or if you are having a giftless Christmas, put them under the Christmas tree.
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Step 3
Write numbers on a piece of paper. If 30 people are coming to the holiday party and participating in the white elephant gift exchange, then write the numbers 1 through 30 on the paper and cut up the paper so each piece has a number.
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Step 4
Put the numbers in a container such as a bowl for everyone at the holiday party to draw from.
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Step 5
Have everyone who's participating in the gift exchange draw a number at the beginning of the White Elephant Gift Exchange. (See Resources for an article on how to celebrate Christmas without gifts.)
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Step 6
Have the person who has the number 1 choose a gift to open then and there. Number 1 must show everyone what the gift is. It may be an old shoe, an old DVD, or a box of baby clothes...whatever somebody thought was an expendable white elephant.
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Step 7
Have Number 2 take a turn. Number 2, and every person thereafter, can choose between a gift that has already been opened and an unopened gift. If Number 2 chooses to take the gift Number 1 opened, Number 1 MUST give it up. So if you are Number 1 and you happened to open a diamond bracelet when it's your turn in the gift exchange, chances are someone else will take it from you before the gift exchange is through.
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Step 8
Every player at the holiday party has to display his gift when he opens it and keep it visible so people taking later turns in the gift exchange can see what they have to choose from.
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Step 9
Give everyone a turn in order, until you get to the highest number. The last people will often get the best gifts. But sometimes folks are extra nice to the people who've had a lot of gifts snatched from them during the gift exchange. And everyone will have a lot of fun. And if it becomes a tradition, you may see the same white elephants appearing in next year's White Elephant Gift Exchange!
