The White Elephant gift swap, kept honest. Everyone brings one wrapped gift, and on your turn you open a new one or steal one somebody already opened. The fun is the stealing. The trouble every year is keeping track: how many times the scarf has gone, whether it’s locked now, whose turn it is after a steal. The TV keeps all of it, and one person taps.
Stolen Gifts plays on Stalefish Game Night. Open stalefish.tv on the TV, scan the code with the host’s phone, and pick it from the list. The game has its own site too, at stolengiftsgame.com, with the rules of White Elephant, printable number slips and a host kit.
How it plays
- Draw numbers from a hat, the way most swaps already start, and the TV calls who’s up
- Whoever’s up opens a new gift or steals one already opened. The host taps OPEN and snaps the gift as it comes out of the paper, or taps the gift being stolen
- Whoever lost a gift goes next. A gift stolen three times locks with its new owner
- After the last gift, Number 1 gets one final swap. Then the TV hands out the awards: the White Elephant in the Room, Nobody Wanted It, and the longest chain
Only the host’s phone is needed, from three people to forty. No TV? One phone or iPad runs the whole night.
House rules
The steal cap, steals per turn and the final swap are set on one screen, along with what your family calls the game: White Elephant, Yankee Swap, Dirty Santa or Gift Swap. The rules stay on the TV all night in one line.
Format: Party game for a TV and one phone, on Stalefish Game Night
Status: Free to play at stalefish.tv