White Elephant Rules

A streamlined guide to keep the White Elephant gift exchange fun and fair. (Also known as Yankee Swap, Dirty Santa, and other names.)

Rules

1. Gift Contribution:
   Each player brings a single wrapped gift worth approximately $15 to the pool.

2. Drawing Numbers:
   Players draw numbers to determine the play order.

3. Setup:
   Players sit in a circle around the shared gift pool.

4. First Turn:

   • Player 1 selects, unwraps, and displays a gift from the pool.

5. Subsequent Turns:

   • Each player chooses to:
     • Pick an unwrapped gift from the pool, or
     • Steal a previously opened gift.
   • If your gift is stolen, you must:
     • Choose another unwrapped gift or steal from another player (but not the one who just stole from you).

6. Final Turn:

   • After all players have taken a turn, Player 1 gets a bonus turn:
     • They may swap the gift they hold with any opened gift.
     • If their gift is stolen, the same stealing rules apply.
   • The game ends when a player declines to steal or no eligible steals remain.

   Note: The usual three-swap limit doesn’t apply during the final turn, allowing unlimited swaps until a player decides to "stand pat."

Tips

• A gift can only be stolen once per turn.
• Each turn ends after three swaps to keep the game moving.

Credit

Inspired by:

• whiteelephantrules.com
• White Elephant Gift Exchange - Wikipedia
• Contributions from this repository's contributors.

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Issues and pull requests are welcome!