https://github.com/gitatmax/white-elephant
An Unofficial Guide to Playing White Elephant
https://github.com/gitatmax/white-elephant
family-friendly game games gift-exchange
Last synced: 3 months ago
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An Unofficial Guide to Playing White Elephant
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/gitatmax/white-elephant
- Owner: gitatmax
- Created: 2021-12-27T23:29:16.000Z (over 3 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2024-12-07T17:11:23.000Z (6 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-01-14T04:45:41.203Z (5 months ago)
- Topics: family-friendly, game, games, gift-exchange
- Homepage:
- Size: 7.81 KB
- Stars: 1
- Watchers: 1
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
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Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
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README
# 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](http://whiteelephantrules.com)
- [White Elephant Gift Exchange - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant_gift_exchange)
- Contributions from this [repository's contributors](https://github.com/gitatmax/white-elephant-rules/graphs/contributors).
## Contribute
Issues and pull requests are welcome!