A tweaked reference for keeping the peace while playing White Elephant (otherwise known as Yankee Swap, Dirty Santa, among other names).
- Each player contributes a single wrapped gift of a $15 value to a shared pool
- Each player will draw a number to determine what order they will play
- Players encircle the shared gift pool
- The first to play (number 1) selects, opens & shares for all to see a gift from the pool
- The remaining players can choose between picking an unwrapped gift from the pool or stealing a previous player's gift. Anyone who gets their gift stolen can do the same but must steal from someone else.
- After all players have had a turn, the first player gets a chance to swap the gift he or she is holding for any other opened gift. Anyone whose gift is stolen may steal from someone else (as long as that person hasn’t been stolen from yet). When someone declines to steal a gift, the game comes to an end. Note that for this last “extra” turn, the three-swap rule doesn’t apply. Players can keep swapping until someone decides to stand pat, or there are no other eligible people to steal from.
- A present can only be stolen once per turn, which means players who have a gift stolen from them have to wait to get it back.
- After three swaps, the turn automatically comes to an end (otherwise things could drag on for a long time).
Sources collected from the following sources & this repository's contributors.
Issues & pull requests welcome!