Gift exchange games and simple rules
Choose a passing game, a numbered draw or a clue exchange. Explain the rules before anyone opens a gift.
Numbered draw
Put a number beside each wrapped gift and let each participant draw a matching number. Keep an extra unnumbered gift only if your group has agreed a late-arrival plan.
Story pass
Seat players in a circle, each holding a wrapped gift. Read the left-right story below; at every left or right, everyone passes in that direction. Open the gift you hold when the story ends.
Clue exchange
Give each gift a short clue that does not identify the giver. Read a clue, let its assigned recipient choose a wrapped gift, then confirm before opening.
Agree boundaries
Set any spending limit in advance. Allow a no-purchase option and avoid rules that repeatedly take a gift away from one person.
A left-right story to read aloud
Everyone sits in a circle holding one wrapped gift. Read the story aloud, a little slower than usual. Each time you say LEFT, every player passes the gift they hold to the person on their left; each time you say RIGHT, they pass it to the right. "Left over" and "right away" count too. When the story ends, everyone opens the gift in their hands. The story has 21 passes and takes about two minutes to read.
To read it from paper, the Christmas pack prints the story on one page, with the white elephant rules and a turn sheet for your group.
The Night the Car Went the Wrong Way
On the night before Christmas, the Parker family set off for Grandma's house with a car full of presents. Dad turned LEFT out of the driveway, and Mom asked, "Are you sure that's RIGHT?" "I'm RIGHT about this," said Dad, and he turned LEFT again at the bakery.
Ten minutes later they passed the bakery a second time. "We're going in circles," said Mia from the back seat. "Turn RIGHT at the lights." Dad turned RIGHT, then RIGHT again, and the snow began to fall.
There was one gingerbread cookie LEFT in the tin, and Mia and her brother Leo both wanted it. "It's mine," said Leo. "You ate the LEFT half of the last one," said Mia. Mom broke the cookie in two, passed one piece LEFT and one piece RIGHT, and that settled that.
At last Grandma's porch light shone on the LEFT side of the road. Everyone tumbled out RIGHT away with bags of presents. Dad LEFT the keys in the car, Mom LEFT her scarf on the seat, and Leo LEFT one mitten in the snow.
Grandma opened the door and hugged them all. "You're RIGHT on time," she laughed, "only two hours late!" She led them RIGHT into the warm kitchen, where a pie was cooling and the LEFT-over cocoa was still hot.
"Before we eat," said Grandma, "there's one thing LEFT to do." Everyone held their breath. "Open the present you are holding RIGHT now!"