Draw a fair order for your gift exchange, pick your steal rules, and print a rules card with a steal tracker for the table.
Read the order out loud, or print the card with the rules and a steal tracker for each gift.
Everyone brings one wrapped gift within the budget, and the gifts go on one table. Nobody knows who brought what. Then players take turns in a random order:
Draw the order here before the party starts, then press Print rules card. The card lists the turn order, your rules and a tracker with a box for every steal, so nobody has to remember whether the coffee maker has been stolen twice or three times.
| Rule | Common choice | Why it helps |
|---|---|---|
| Budget | $20 to $25 | Gifts feel fair, and a cheap joke gift still fits |
| Turn order | Random draw | Nobody can say the host picked the order |
| Steals per gift | 3, then frozen | The game ends in a sensible time |
| Steal-back | Not on the same turn | Stops two people passing one gift back and forth |
| Player 1 | Gets a final turn | Going first stops being the worst position |
The same exchange under its New England name. It usually includes the final turn for player 1, which is why the option is on by default here.
Another common name for the game. Some groups play it with more steals and plenty of joke gifts, so choose a higher steal limit if your crowd likes long rounds.
Handy for big groups or a quick round. Every gift is opened first, then each player rolls once and follows the die. Here is one version that works well:
Use our dice roller if nobody brought a die.
Remote teams can play on a video call. Each person shows their gift on camera when it is opened, the host shares this page to draw the order, and the gifts are shipped once the game ends.
The gifts that get stolen most are useful and a little bit fun. A gift that only makes sense to one person usually stays in the pile.
In white elephant nobody knows who will end up with their gift, and gifts change hands during the game. In Secret Santa each person buys for one name they drew in advance. If you want everyone to get a gift picked for them, use our Secret Santa generator. Running a holiday giveaway for followers instead? See the Christmas giveaway wheel guide.
The names are shuffled with your browser's cryptographically secure random generator, so every order has the same chance. The same method runs our random team generator, and the fairness page explains it. Names stay on your device and nothing is uploaded.
Most groups allow three steals per gift, then the gift is frozen. Two keeps a big game shorter.
Draw a random order. Since player 1 has nothing to steal at the start, many groups give player 1 a final turn at the end.
Yes, it is the same game under another name. Dirty Santa is a third name for it.
Usually not. Someone who just lost a gift opens a new one or steals a different one.
Six to twenty works best. With more than twenty, set the steal limit to two so the game does not run past an hour.