How to Win a White Elephant Gift Exhange

This is a sponsored post.
Are you participating in a gift exchange this year? Our family plays "greed" every year, but you might know it better as a white elephant exchange. Stop dreading walking away with the worst gift, instead, employ some strategies to "win" at a white elephant exchange with a "steal worthy" gift, and have a load of fun in the process.

How to participate in a White Elephant Gift Exchange

Depending on who you ask, the White Elephant game is played by a lot of different rulesets – some simple and others ridiculously elaborate. Here are the basics.
1. Each player brings one wrapped gift to contribute, following the organizers guidelines.
2. Participants usually draw numbers to determine the order they will go in.
3. Make sure everyone is sitting where they can see the pile of gifts.
4. #1 chooses a gift, opens it, and makes sure everyone can see the gift.
5. The next person can choose to either pick an unwrapped gift or steal a previous player’s gift. Rinse and repeat.
6. Once all the gifts have been open, #1 can choose to swap their gift with anyone else's gift, if they so choose.

A couple of things to make things less crazy:

A gift can only be stolen once per turn, and it's a good idea to limit how many times any one gift can be stolen, or the gift exchange can drag out forever.

More white elephant gift exchange tips

Online retailer zulily has created a list of the top tips to ensure you’re all the envy of the party:

Join Forces – Form an alliance with one or two friends and agree to split or share the gifts.
Wear Your Poker Face – Don’t show excitement when you get a good gift, but act like you love the bad!
Don’t Judge a Gift by its Wrapping – Often the prettiest wrapped gifts have the worst present.

But how do you source a truly “steal-worthy” gift? According to a recent survey by zulily:

Almost a quarter (24%) of Americans’ favorite part about a White Elephant party is getting a fun, unexpected gift.
While almost half of Americans (46%) would rather laugh at their gift then gag in disgust (3%).
The most desired White Elephant gifts Americans would like to receive are Whimsical Garden Figurines (23%), followed closely by a Wine Glass that holds a Full Bottle of Wine (21%).

zulily is the place to go for all of your white elephant gifting needs, from a tacosaurus to a narwhal neck pillow, you are sure to win at a white elephant gift exchange this year!