Have a Yankee Swap Gift Exchange

Whether you call it a Yankee Swap, a White Elephant gift exchange, or Dirty Santa, it's a lot more entertaining than drawing names or buying small gifts for everyone on your shopping list. Learn the rules for this popular Christmas party game.

What's a Yankee Swap?

Any group of people exchanging gifts can have a Yankee Swap. A Yankee Swap simplifies shopping since you only have to buy one gift.

Instead of drawing names, players in a Yankee Swap buy a gift without knowing who they're shopping for. At the swap, players open gifts one at a time, and they can steal from each other instead of opening a new gift. I've been to some cutthroat Yankee Swaps in my time. (They don't call it Dirty Santa for nothing!)

A Yankee Swap gift exchange adds a lot of fun to your Christmas party. You have no idea what gift you'll go home with, and it's hilarious watching people vamp the gifts they want to unload, or pout if a steal is threatened on one they want.

Especially for an office event, Yankee Swaps are great because you don't have to worry about people drawing names and then not attending the party, which means somebody doesn't get a gift. With a Yankee Swap, whoever shows up with a gift to put in the pile can play, and you'll always have as many gifts as you do players.

Keep in mind that Yankee Swaps work best for adults. Children aren't up for having a gift "stolen" once they've opened it.

Yankee Swap Preparation

You need at least six players for a lively Yankee Swap. Each player brings one gift, with no name tag attached. Gifts must be wrapped.

Optionally, you can set a theme ("something for the kitchen"). Specify whether gifts are to be new or "re-gifted" from around the house. Also set an upper and lower spending limit that is not too broad, so all the gifts are approximately the same value.

Make sure everyone knows whether gag gifts, White Elephant gifts, or gifts of alcohol are acceptable.

Make the guidelines as clear as possible so somebody doesn't bring a $30 gift card to the Yankee Swap, only to go home with an old tennis racquet.

Yankee Swap Rules

1. Have each player draw a number. A deck of cards is handy for this.

2. The player with the lowest number selects a gift and unwraps it. He or she must show it to everyone else.

3. The player with the next lowest number then chooses whether to steal the first player's gift or open a new one.

4. If a player's gift is stolen, the player can steal any gift except the one just stolen from him or her. Or, the player can choose to open a new gift.

Later in the game, it's okay to "steal back" something that was taken from you. But you can't do it in the same turn. This keeps players from stealing the same gift back and forth and stalling the game.

5. Stealing can continue until someone chooses to open a new gift from the pile. Then the turn passes to the player with the next highest number.

6. To avoid endless stealing, once a gift has been stolen three times it can't be stolen again. The player who has that gift is out of the game.

7. The player with the highest number has the choice of stealing from anyone else who is still in the game, or opening the last wrapped gift.

8. After everyone has had one turn and all gifts are open, the player who opened the first gift gets an extra turn. This allows that person the opportunity to steal, which he or she might not have had earlier in the game.

An optional rule is "no opening or stealing your own present." That's for the person who brought a gift certificate for a back massage and wants to keep it.

The number one rule for a Yankee Swap is, "Don't be nice." Dirty Santa's only fun if Santa takes his gloves off. Got your eye on the Pottery Barn gift card? Go for it. They'll still love you next Christmas.

Yankee Swap Gift Ideas

Thinking of gift ideas is the most difficult part of the Yankee Swap. Nobody wants to be the one who brought the White Elephant. That's the gift nobody wants to steal.

Gift ideas depend on whether you're exchanging new or used gifts and what spending limit you set, as well as the crowd you're in (office gifts might differ from family gifts).

When selecting gifts for the Yankee swap, stick closely to the guidelines established for the swap. If both men and women are playing, try to think of gender-neutral gifts.

Unless the gift can be easily exchanged, avoid clothing since you won't know what size to get. You can sometimes get away with an Adult XL since many people like to wear loose tee shirts and sweatshirts.

At our sibling and spouse Yankee swap, the most popular items were gift cards to Pottery Barn and Target, board games, gourmet food items, a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream (which didn't make it to December 26th), a fistful of lottery tickets, and tee shirts from the bar my brother's best friend owns.

Gifts nobody wanted included a nice set of flashlights, a board game everybody said they already had, and a couple of DVD movies. (They were classics, really.)

So, what should I buy for this year's Yankee Swap? I'm leaning toward a digital picture keychain. Or should I get the Omaha Steaks gift card. Ssshhh...don't tell!