White Elephant Holiday Party Game

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By Mindy Kobrin
Staff Writer

Comments (0) | Rating (8.8)

Have fun playing this party game with your family and friends. Its fun and easy and a great way to spice up a traditional gift exchange.

Steps

Each guest who wishes to participate must contribute a gift.
Everyone sits or stands in roughly a circle around the pile of gifts.
Prepare slips of paper equal to the number of gifts with clearly written numbers. Be sure to distinguish 6 from 9, 1 from 7.
Each participating guest draws a number and holds onto that slip of paper.
On the first turn, the guest with paper slip #1 chooses a gift, opens it, and all admire it.
On the second turn, the guest with paper slip #2 gets the choice of "stealing" any unwrapped gift (#1's) or choosing a wrapped one. If #2 steals #1's gift, then #1 must open a wrapped gift.
On the third turn, the guest with paper slip #3 gets the choice of "stealing" any unwrapped gift (#1's or #2's) or choosing a wrapped one.
If a gift is stolen from you, you can steal a gift, or open a wrapped one.
Rules about "stealing:" A gift cannot be immediately stolen back from the guest who just stole it.
The turn proceeds until a wrapped gift is chosen thus the stealing stops.
The fourth "owner" of a gift gets to keep it. The gift is "dead" after it has been stolen three times.
"Owners" of "live" gifts must keep them visible and hold them up when requested.
The gift exchange ends when the last wrapped gift is opened. Usually, guests are encouraged to perpetuate the gift stealing as long as there are "live" gifts, but no one is obligated to do this.