November 13th, 2012

For our new holiday-theme, we're doing a game. There are multiple ways to play this game, like almost any game you pick, but we'll just go over the one I know best. It's called the White Elephant, but I've also heard it called a Chinese Auction.

Everyone brings one gift that's usually under a certain price limit (you can pick your own). All these gifts are then placed in the center of the floor, on the floor itself, or on a table.

Everyone sits down around the gifts, and takes a number. You can buy rolls of tickets for this, or you can scribble them on scraps of paper. If you're doing the one, two, three, way, you call out one, two, three, and so on. If you're using tickets, you may want to put all the tickets in a bowl or other container and draw random numbers.

The first person who has the number in their hand that matches the one you call out picks a gift from the table and opens it up. You then call the second number. The second person has two options. They can either pick a gift, or 'steal' the first person's gift.

If you are stolen from, you pick another gift from the table, or steal from somebody else. You just can't go grab your first gift back. After two steals, a gift is 'dead' and belongs to the last person who took it.

This game is loads of fun - especially when you do it with the same people every year. Some families get famous for their scheming, or for gag gifts. I've heard 'Don't take that one! If all of them' (my family, of course) 'are smiling, we don't want it!'