As December and Christmas arrive on the calendar each other, many folks like to host Christmas and other holiday parties. A popular activity is the White Elephant Gift Exchange also sometimes know as Yankee Swap or Nasty Christmas (as can be seen in The Office Season 2, Episode 10, starting about Minute 6:30). After hosting this myself a number of times, I decided to include ready made instructions for how to how host one of these events in person (or Virtually!)

1. Recommended Maximum Gift cost is $30 - can be less, but try to not exceed this limit

2. Recommended Minimum Gift cost is $15

3. Avoid buying Gift cards. The idea is to bring items - can be serious, can be funny, can be practical joke gifts, etc. and it's more fun for everyone if Gift Cards are avoided.

1. Each participant brings their wrapped or bagged gift and puts in a central location of the room.

2. After all gifts have been deposited, host counts the number of gifts and participants to determine how many numbered slips of papers (or tokens) are necessary. IE - if there 19 people participating, there should be 19 gifts, and the host creates 19 numbered slips of paper with a number 1 through 19 and puts them in a hat/bowl/bucket and mixes them all up.

3. Host walks around the room allowing each participant to draw one slip of paper/token from the hat/bowl.

4. The number drawn by the participant is the numbered order in which they get to choose a gift.

5. *Special Note: Whomever draws number 1 will go first AND will get one additional turn after final participant has taken their turn (explained further in instructions)

6. Host announces for #1 to pick a gift from the pile of gifts, unwrap/open it and show to everyone.

7. Participant #2 then goes and they can either pick a wrapped gift from the pile of gifts or they can steal the gift from participant #1

   1. If participant #1 has their item stolen, they then get to pick a new gift from the pile

8. Participant #3 then goes they can either pick a wrapped gift from the pile of gifts or they can steal a gift from participant #1 or #2.

   1. If Participant #1 or #2 has their item stolen, they can choose to steal from participant #1 or #2 as applicable or choose a gift from the gift pile.

   2. Each time a participant has their gift stolen, they can steal from someone else OR they can choose a wrapped gift from the pile of gifts.

9. Participant #4 through highest numbered participant continue this process until all wrapped gifts have been claimed and opened.

10. After the highest numbered participant/round has been completed, there is one additional round.

    1. Participant #1 gets to choose if they want to steal anyone's gift. If they do, they put their in hand gift back on the center gift picking table/area.

    2. This cycle continues with participants stealing from other participants until someone chooses the remaining final gift sitting on the gift picking table/area.

    3. If Participant #1 does NOT choose to steal from anyone at this time, then the event ends and everyone gets what they have in hand.

1. Each person choosing to participate virtually MUST provide a link on Amazon.com for the Item they are contributing to the Virtual host no less than 24 hours prior to the event along with their preferred mailing address.

   1. The host needs time to inventory the items for the gift table and prepare the virtual gift table prior to the start of the event.

   2. Host needs time to create a table of participants, addresses, and Amazon Items in a reference table prior to the start of the event.

2. Host creates a digital gift table with Numbered/Colored digital gift icons that can be shared visually with all virtual participants.

   1. Each icon should contain a link to the item's location on Amazon.com

   2. Each icon should contain an image on a secondary imaging layer that shows what the item is.

3. Hosts enters all virtual participants names on the Wheel of Names (website) and randomly determines the order in which the virtual participants will get to choose/steal gifts. Host needs to post this order of participants in virtually visible method through hosting program

4. Participants then follow through the in person instructions for selecting and stealing items as seen on the virtual table.

5. Host must manage the tracking of stolen and locked items in same fashion as in person event.

6. Host must ALSO track who ended up with each item and be able to cross-reference who added that gift to the virtual gift table. For example:

   1. Joe Smith provided link to Amazon Item #1, and ended with Item #5

   2. Annie Jones provided link to Amazon Item #3, and ended with item #7

   3. Jordan James provided link to Amazon Item #4 and ended with item #2

7. Host compiles and completes the reference table of who ended with each item.

8. Host sends emails to all participants letting them know the Name and Preferred mailing address of the virtual participant that ended the game with the gift they provided to the game.

9. Participants then purchase the item on Amazon and have it shipped directly the 'winning' participants preferred mailing address

1. There is a "round" of stealing for each number participants. IE - if there are 19 participants, then there are 19 rounds.

2. A gift may only be stolen ONCE per round. For Example:

   1. It's Round 7

   2. Participant #7 chooses to steal Gift A from Participant #3.

   3. For the rest of this 7th round, NO one else can steal Gift A

   4. Participant #3 can choose to steal from a different participant, let's say Gift B. For the rest of the round, NO one else can steal gift B.

   5. The stealing continues for Round 7 until someone chooses a gift from the central gift table/area. It can happen where everyone steals from each other in round 7 and the last person to get their gift stolen is then FORCED to pick a gift from the gift picking table/area.

3. A gift may only be stolen a total of THREE times for the duration of the event. For Example:

   1. In Round 7, Gift A was stolen.

   2. In Round 8, Gift A was stolen.

   3. In Round 12, Gift A was stolen. The gift is now LOCKED and cannot be stolen by anyone else for the rest of the game (not even Participant #1 in the final round).

   4. Host is responsible for writing down/tracking/identifying which gifts are have been stolen 3 times so that everyone can be aware of which items are locked and un-steal-able for the rest of the game.