# White elephant rules, step by step

Source: https://decka.dev/ideas/white-elephant-rules

White elephant rules step by step. How the gift exchange works, how many steals before a gift freezes, the final swap, and Yankee swap and dirty Santa rules.

White elephant is a gift exchange game. Everyone brings one wrapped gift and draws a number. On your turn, you either open a gift from the pile or steal one that somebody has already opened. Anyone who is robbed opens or steals in turn. A gift can be stolen only a few times before it freezes, and when the last gift is open, whoever went first gets one final swap.

The same game has three common names. HuffPost's Caroline Bologna found that Yankee swap is [more popular in New England](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/holiday-game-yankee-swap-white-elephant-dirty-santa_n_5a2ecdb9e4b06e3bccf30ce6) and dirty Santa [is popular in the South](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/holiday-game-yankee-swap-white-elephant-dirty-santa_n_5a2ecdb9e4b06e3bccf30ce6). White elephant, she wrote, is [the most popular name](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/holiday-game-yankee-swap-white-elephant-dirty-santa_n_5a2ecdb9e4b06e3bccf30ce6) and has no strong regional ties.

The name comes from a story about the kings of Siam, now Thailand, giving rare white elephants to courtiers they wanted to ruin. The sacred animal could not be put to work, and it cost a fortune to keep. It is a good story with a weak record, as the history further down explains.

Below are the rules step by step, a turn-by-turn example, steal limits, the final swap, how the three names differ, and the arguments that come up every year.

## White elephant rules, step by step

You need one wrapped gift per player, a price limit everyone agrees to, and a way to draw numbers. Slips in a hat work, and so do playing cards, ace to however many players you have.

1. **Bring one wrapped gift each.** Keep it within the price limit, and leave your name off the tag so nobody knows who brought what.
2. **Pile the gifts and draw numbers.** One number per player, starting from one.
3. **Number one opens a gift** from the pile and shows it to the room. Their turn is over.
4. **Every number after that has a choice.** Open a wrapped gift from the pile, or steal any gift that has already been opened.
5. **A player who is robbed goes again straight away.** They open a new gift or steal a different one. They may not take back the gift that was just taken from them.
6. **A gift freezes on its third steal.** Whoever steals it the third time keeps it, and nobody can take it again.
7. **When the last gift is open, number one gets a final swap.** They may trade their gift for any gift that is not frozen. Then the game is over.

A turn ends only when somebody opens a gift from the pile. One steal can set off a chain, with each robbed player stealing from somebody else, and the next number plays once the chain ends with an unwrapping.

Say the house rules out loud before number one opens anything: the steal limit, whether a robbed player can steal back, and how the final swap works. A rule announced after the first steal always favours someone, and everyone in the room knows who.

## How white elephant works, turn by turn

The rules read more complicated than the game plays. Here are five players, Ana, Ben, Cleo, Dev and Esme, holding numbers one to five, playing the rules above.

1. **Ana opens a scented candle.** Nothing to steal yet, so her turn ends there.
2. **Ben steals the candle.** Ana is robbed, and she cannot take the candle straight back, so she opens a waffle maker. That unwrapping ends Ben's turn. The candle has one steal.
3. **Cleo steals the waffle maker from Ana.** Ana goes again, and this time she may steal the candle from Ben, because it was not the gift just taken from her. Ben opens a singing fish. The candle has two steals.
4. **Dev opens a jigsaw puzzle.** Nobody is robbed, so his turn ends.
5. **Esme steals the candle from Ana.** That is its third steal, so it freezes with Esme. Ana opens the last gift: a pair of reindeer socks.
6. **The final swap.** Ana may trade her socks for any gift that is not frozen. The candle is off limits, so she takes the waffle maker from Cleo, and Cleo goes home with the socks.

| Player | Number | Goes home with |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Ana | 1 | The waffle maker |
| Ben | 2 | The singing fish |
| Cleo | 3 | The reindeer socks |
| Dev | 4 | The jigsaw puzzle |
| Esme | 5 | The candle, frozen |

Two things are worth seeing in that game. Ana was robbed three times and still had the last word, because going first means choosing last. And the candle froze on Esme's turn, so the one gift everyone wanted was settled before the end.

## White elephant vs Yankee swap vs dirty Santa

The rules are the same game under all three names. What changes is the region, and what people expect to unwrap.

| | White elephant | Yankee swap | Dirty Santa |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Where it goes by that name | Most of the United States | New England | The American South |
| The gifts people expect | Funny, odd or regifted | Useful, things people want | Anything, often gag gifts |
| Steal limits | Usually two or three | Usually two or three | Often looser |
| The mood | Laughing at the worst gift | Fighting for the best gift | Cheerfully ruthless |

The gifts are the real difference. Wikipedia describes white elephant as a game where [amusing and impractical gifts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant_gift_exchange) change hands, and says that in a Yankee swap the gifts are [more likely to be practical](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant_gift_exchange). Bologna writes that dirty Santa [can involve nice gifts or gag gifts](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/holiday-game-yankee-swap-white-elephant-dirty-santa_n_5a2ecdb9e4b06e3bccf30ce6), and is often less strict about how many steals a gift can take.

So the name on the invitation tells guests what to bring. Call it white elephant and you will get a lava lamp. Call it a Yankee swap and you will get a good blanket.

## Yankee swap rules

A Yankee swap plays exactly like the rules above, from the numbers to the final swap. The one thing that changes is the gift. Bring something a stranger would be glad to take home, inside the price limit, because the steals will go to whatever is genuinely good.

The phrase is older than the party game. Walt Whitman put [the Yankee swap](https://poets.org/text/preface-leaves-grass) in a list of American things in his preface to the first edition of Leaves of Grass, in 1855. Peter Jensen Brown, who traced early swap parties through old newspapers, could not date when the name reached the gift game, but found it was probably [long after 1920](https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2014/06/two-and-half-more-idioms-white.html).

The best-known Yankee swap is on television. The staff of The Office turn their Secret Santa into one, and Bologna calls it [an iconic episode](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/holiday-game-yankee-swap-white-elephant-dirty-santa_n_5a2ecdb9e4b06e3bccf30ce6).

## Dirty Santa rules

Dirty Santa is the same game again, with the stealing played harder. Southern Living calls the name [more specific to the South](https://www.southernliving.com/dirty-santa-rules-11860714), and its rules, by Nellah Bailey McGough, are a good statement of how it usually runs:

- **A gift can be stolen three times.** Its rule is [no more than three times](https://www.southernliving.com/dirty-santa-rules-11860714), and the host keeps a tally and announces when a gift is "dead".
- **One steal per gift per turn.** A gift can [only be stolen once per turn](https://www.southernliving.com/dirty-santa-rules-11860714), so two players cannot pass it back and forth inside one chain.
- **No stealing straight back.** If your gift is stolen, [you can't steal it right back](https://www.southernliving.com/dirty-santa-rules-11860714).
- **Number one's final steal can start a chain.** In its version, if the first player steals at the end, [the game continues until someone decides to keep their gift](https://www.southernliving.com/dirty-santa-rules-11860714).

That last rule is the one that makes dirty Santa dirty. Everyone who was robbed in the final round can steal again, so the game ends only when somebody is happy.

Southern Living also notes one variation: a player can be [stolen from three times](https://www.southernliving.com/dirty-santa-rules-11860714), after which they are out of the game and keep whatever they hold.

## Why it is called white elephant

The phrase is older than the party. In Siam, History Extra explains, a white or very pale elephant [immediately became the possession of the King](https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/why-do-we-say-white-elephant/) when one was found. The animal [appeared on the nation's flag until 1917](https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/why-do-we-say-white-elephant/). Being sacred, it could not be worked, and it needed special food and housing. A king, as the story goes, gave one to anyone who displeased him, and the upkeep ruined them.

Historians doubt it. Wikipedia's entry on the game notes there is [no actual record](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant_gift_exchange) of a king giving one to burden the recipient. The Thai historian Rita Ringis, quoted by HuffPost, wrote that [no Siamese monarch ever considered white elephants 'burdensome'](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/holiday-game-yankee-swap-white-elephant-dirty-santa_n_5a2ecdb9e4b06e3bccf30ce6) nor gave them away. The animals are not white either. Wikipedia's entry on them says their skin is [typically a soft reddish-brown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant_(animal)), turning light pink when wet.

The party has an American paper trail. In January 1901, a Kentucky paper, The Hartford Herald, described a "swap party" at which guests praised their wrapped bundles without saying what was inside and traded them. Whoever made [the poorest swap](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84037890/1901-01-23/ed-1/?sp=1&st=text) had to tell a story or suggest a game.

The name arrived in a joke. In July 1907, The Columbus Journal in Nebraska told of a hostess who held a "white elephant party". Each guest was to bring something she could not use but that was too good to throw away. [Nine out of the eleven](https://nebnewspapers.unl.edu/lccn/sn95073194/1907-07-10/ed-1/seq-1/) women invited brought their husbands. Peter Jensen Brown, who traced the joke through dozens of reprints, found real white elephant parties in the papers [beginning in 1908](https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2014/06/two-and-half-more-idioms-white.html). Neither early account mentions stealing. The steal rules came later, and every family still argues about them.

## How many steals in white elephant

Three steals is the usual limit: a gift freezes on its third steal, and whoever took it keeps it. Wikipedia gives two as the [common cap](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant_gift_exchange), and Southern Living's rules use three. Pick by the size of the room, because the limit is what decides how long the game runs.

| Players | Steals before a gift freezes | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 4 to 8 | Three, or no limit | Few turns, so the stealing is the game |
| 9 to 25 | Three | The usual game, about an hour at most |
| 26 to 40 | Two | Keeps a big room from stealing all evening |
| Over 40 | Two, and split the room | Two games of twenty beat one of forty |

**What "frozen" means.** A frozen gift, also called dead, locked or safe, stays with whoever holds it until the end. It cannot be stolen on a turn, and it cannot be taken in the final swap.

**Count the steals where everyone can see them.** Stick a note on each gift and add a tally mark when it changes hands. Or have the host call it out: "That's two for the candle". A steal count kept in one person's head will be disputed by the third steal.

**Two smaller rules keep a big game moving.** The first is no steal-back: a robbed player cannot take back the gift just taken from them. The second is one steal per gift per turn, so a gift cannot bounce between two players inside one chain. Use both above twenty players.

**No limit at all** works with six or eight friends who want a long game. It does not work at an office party, where it turns the last half hour into two people trading the same gift card.

## The first player's final swap

Number one opens a gift with nothing to choose from and nothing to steal. Every player after them has more information, and the last number sees almost every gift before choosing. The final swap pays number one back. Once the last gift is open, they may trade theirs for any gift still in play.

There are three versions, and each group should pick one before the game:

- **One swap, then the game ends.** Number one trades with anyone whose gift is not frozen, and that is it. This is the version to use when you do not know the group.
- **One swap, frozen gifts included.** Wikipedia records a variation in which the first player can take [even a gift that is out of play](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant_gift_exchange). It makes the freeze mean less, so say so in advance if you use it.
- **The final steal starts a chain.** Number one steals, the robbed player steals or keeps, and the game goes on until somebody keeps. This is the dirty Santa ending above.

Whichever you choose, the final swap is optional. Number one can keep what they have, and often should.

## White elephant variations

Most groups play one of these once they have played the basic game a few times.

### The white elephant dice game

The dice game swaps the open-or-steal choice for a die and a clock. Everyone takes one wrapped gift and sits in a circle, and nobody opens anything until the end. The host sets a timer that only they can see, about five minutes, then players roll one die in turn and do what it says:

| Roll | What happens |
| --- | --- |
| 1 | Swap gifts with the player on your left. |
| 2 | Swap gifts with the player on your right. |
| 3 | Everyone passes their gift one seat to the left. |
| 4 | Everyone passes their gift one seat to the right. |
| 5 | Nothing happens. The next player rolls. |
| 6 | Swap gifts with anyone you choose. |

When the timer goes off, everyone unwraps whatever they are holding. The classic two-round version, where you roll a six to take a gift from the pile first, is in [gift exchange games](/ideas/gift-exchange-games), with the Danish game it comes from.

### Keep them wrapped

Nobody opens a gift until the very end. Players steal wrapped boxes by their shape, weight and rattle, and the unwrapping is one big reveal. It is quicker, and it rewards whoever wrapped a book in a cereal box.

### Two-round white elephant

Play the normal game, then go round once more in reverse order, from the highest number down. Each player may swap once with any gift that is not frozen. It gives the middle numbers a second chance and makes the end of the game busier.

### The steal clock

After the last gift is open, set a timer for two minutes of free stealing, still under the steal limit, with no turns at all. Play it only with a group that is good at sharing the floor.

### The left right game

Everyone holds a gift while someone reads a story aloud, and every "left" or "right" in it moves the gifts one seat that way. It is a gentle game for families and a good closer after white elephant. A story written for it, with the rules, is in [gift exchange games](/ideas/gift-exchange-games).

## White elephant themes

A theme makes the shopping easier and the gifts funnier, and it tells everybody what kind of game it is. Put it on the invitation with the price limit.

- **Regifts only.** The original white elephant: something you own and have never used. Nobody spends a thing.
- **The worst gift you ever received.** Real ones only, with the story told when it is opened.
- **Under ten dollars at a hardware store.** Better than it sounds. Everyone wants the good tape measure.
- **Something that starts with the first letter of your name.** Guessing who brought what gets easier, which is half the fun.
- **A book you loved,** wrapped so it does not look like a book.
- **Made nearby.** A local hot sauce, a mug from the pottery down the road, a bag of beans from the corner roaster.
- **Snacks from somewhere else.** Anything from a country nobody in the room has visited.
- **As seen on late-night television.** Gadgets that solve problems nobody has.
- **Things that light up.**
- **Something for a desk.** The office theme that works: a good pen, a plant that is hard to kill, a mug warmer.
- **Socks only.** Short, cheap and surprisingly competitive.
- **Board games and puzzles,** which also gives you something to do once the gifts are open.

**What makes a gift worth stealing.** Stolen gifts tend to be useful to almost anyone, a little better than people would buy for themselves, and easy to carry home. Good food, a warm blanket and a well-chosen gadget get stolen. A gift that needs explaining, or fits one person in the room, rarely moves.

## White elephant wrapping ideas

In white elephant the wrapping is part of the game, because people choose by the box. Southern Living's tip is to use [several layers of paper or different size boxes](https://www.southernliving.com/dirty-santa-rules-11860714) so a small gift looks elaborate, or to wrap it to [look like a different object](https://www.southernliving.com/dirty-santa-rules-11860714). A few more that work:

- **The wrong box.** Put a scarf in a cereal box, or a mug in a box for a blender.
- **The nesting boxes.** Three boxes inside each other, each wrapped. The opener gets three reveals for one gift.
- **The weight.** Tape a few coins or a bag of rice inside the box, so a light gift feels heavy.
- **The disguise.** Wrap a book around a bottle-shaped tube, or a candle in a shoebox, so the shape lies.
- **The decoy tag.** "Fragile" or "Do not shake" on something unbreakable.
- **The newspaper.** The comics pages, which costs nothing and looks deliberate.
- **The gift bag.** Avoid it. A bag gives the game away, and it lets people peek.

One rule for all of them: it must open in under a minute. A gift taped like a fortress is funny once, and then everybody waits.

## White elephant at work, and on a video call

**At work, keep it small, kind and optional.** Set a low price limit, put it on the invitation, and say plainly that joining is optional. Gag gifts that embarrass the person who unwraps them do not belong at the office, and neither does alcohol as the default gift. Budget about a minute a turn, so twenty people take around half an hour, and stop when the last gift is open.

**Draw the numbers in front of everyone.** A draw the whole room watches settles the argument about who rigged it before it starts. On a big screen, a wheel that the room fills from their phones does it in a couple of minutes.

**On a video call, show now and ship later.** Each player picks a gift online, under the price limit, and keeps it to themselves. On your turn, you open a new gift by choosing a player whose gift is still hidden, and they show it on camera. Steals work as usual. After the final swap, everyone ships the gift they brought to whoever won it.

**For a team across countries, make the gifts digital.** A gift card or an e-gift shows on screen as a picture and goes by email after the final swap. There is no postage and no customs form. Either way, switch the call to speaker view during a steal, so everybody sees the face of the person being robbed.

## The arguments every white elephant has, settled

**"Can I steal it back?"** Not straight away. A robbed player may not take back the gift just taken from them. On a later turn, if it is not frozen, they can.

**"I opened my own gift."** Say nothing and carry on. It plays like any other gift, and the room is none the wiser.

**"Can I feel the boxes first?"** Picking up and shaking is part of the game. Peeking inside the paper is not.

**"Someone arrived late."** If gifts are still wrapped, they take the next number after the highest and play before the final swap. If every gift is open, they keep their own and may trade with anyone who agrees.

**"Someone has to leave early."** Their gift freezes when they go, so nobody can steal it out of their coat.

**"That gift was way over the limit."** It still counts. Put the limit on the invitation next year, and say it again when people arrive.

**"Does the final swap count as a steal?"** Yes. It adds to that gift's count, and a frozen gift cannot be taken.

**"Can we trade afterwards?"** Yes. Once the final swap is done, any two people may trade by agreement. That is not stealing, it is just being nice.

## Drawing white elephant numbers on phones

Decka's [Spin the Wheel](/activities/spin-the-wheel) draws the numbers on the big screen from names the room types on their phones, so nobody has to write slips. When you set it up, choose "The room" under "Options come from", and tick "Remove each result".

1. Press "Start the wheel". Everyone scans the code on the screen, types their name and presses "Add to the wheel". A phone can add up to three names, so one person can add a partner who has no phone.
2. Once every name is on, press "Spin". The first name the wheel lands on is number one.
3. Press "Spin" again for each number. Each name drawn comes off the wheel, so nobody gets two numbers.

Get every name in before the first spin. After it, the phones show the result rather than the box to add a name. The big screen shows only the latest name, so read each one out as it lands and have people remember their number, or keep a list. The host's report keeps "Every spin, in order" for afterwards.

The white elephant night template on this page has the draw ready. It ends with a word cloud for "your gift in one word" and a short [live quiz](/activities/live-quiz) on the game's history. The [word cloud](/activities/word-cloud) is the best moment of the night: thirty people typing what they ended up with, in one word, all at once.

For a small group around one laptop, the free [Decision Wheel](/tools/decision-wheel) does the same draw without phones. Type every name, tick "Remove each result" and press "Spin" for each number. The names already drawn stay listed, in order, under "Already drawn".

Decka is building a white elephant board for the big screen as well, with every opened gift, every steal and every freeze tracked as the game runs. Until it is ready, the wheel does the draw and the room does the counting.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is white elephant?

A gift exchange party game. Everyone brings one wrapped gift and draws a number. On your turn you open a gift from the pile or steal one somebody has already opened. A robbed player opens or steals again. When the last gift is open, the first player may make one final swap, and everyone keeps what they hold.

### How does white elephant work?

Players go in number order. Number one opens a gift. Each player after that opens a new gift or steals an opened one. A robbed player goes again but cannot steal back the gift just taken from them. A gift freezes after a set number of steals, usually three. At the end, number one may swap once.

### How many times can a gift be stolen in white elephant?

Usually three. On its third steal a gift freezes, and whoever took it keeps it. Some groups use two, which suits a big room, and small groups sometimes play with no limit. Decide before the first turn and count the steals out loud.

### Can you steal a gift back in white elephant?

Not straight away. A player whose gift is stolen may not take that same gift back on the same turn. They open a new gift or steal a different one. On a later turn they may steal it again, as long as it has not frozen.

### What does the first person get to do at the end of white elephant?

They get a final swap. Once the last gift is open, number one may trade their gift for any gift that is not frozen, because they went first with nothing to choose from. In some groups that final steal starts a chain that runs until somebody keeps.

### What is the difference between white elephant and Yankee swap?

The gifts. The rules are the same, but white elephant gifts are expected to be funny or impractical, and Yankee swap gifts are expected to be useful things people want. Yankee swap is also the more common name in New England.

### What is the difference between white elephant and dirty Santa?

Mostly the region and the ruthlessness. Dirty Santa is the usual name in the American South, and its steal limits are often looser. Many dirty Santa groups let the first player's final steal start a chain that runs until somebody keeps their gift.

### What is a good price limit for white elephant?

Whatever everyone in the room can afford without thinking about it. Southern Living suggests a [nice new gift in the $15-$25 range](https://www.southernliving.com/dirty-santa-rules-11860714) for dirty Santa. For an office, set the limit low and put it on the invitation.

### How many people do you need for white elephant?

Four is the fewest that makes a game, and six to twenty-five is the best range. Above forty, split into two games, because one turn takes about a minute and a room that size waits a long time.

### Why is it called white elephant?

After a story about the kings of Siam giving rare white elephants to courtiers they disliked, so the cost of keeping the sacred animal would ruin them. There is no record that any king did it, but the phrase came to mean a gift that is more trouble than it is worth.

### How do you play white elephant on a video call?

Each player picks a gift online and keeps it hidden. On your turn you choose a player whose gift is still hidden, and they show it on camera. Steals work as usual, and after the final swap everyone ships the gift they brought to whoever won it. Draw the numbers on a shared screen so everyone can see.

### What is the white elephant dice game?

A version where a die replaces the choice. Everyone holds a wrapped gift and the host starts a hidden timer. Each roll swaps or passes gifts: a one swaps left, a two swaps right, and a three or four passes every gift. A five does nothing and a six swaps with anyone. When the timer ends, everyone unwraps.

## Activities

- [Word Clouds](https://decka.dev/activities/word-cloud.md): Everyone's words, one living picture
- [Live Quizzes](https://decka.dev/activities/live-quiz.md): Timed questions, live leaderboard
- [Spin the Wheel](https://decka.dev/activities/spin-the-wheel.md): Let the wheel choose, in front of everyone

[White elephant night](https://decka.dev/templates/white-elephant-night-852896cf6f80.md)

[Gift exchange dice game](https://decka.dev/templates/gift-exchange-dice-game-5c6545a275e4.md)