Thank you all for coming at my request. My name is President Snow. Welcome to the Elephant Games.

Last year we had two survivors, er winners, a girl named Catniss and a boy named Peeta. By rule of law they were supposed to kill each other but hey, she was really cute and he was also a looker so they fell in love and had two kids, a girl named Cat Nip and a boy named Pita Bread.

But I digress. I should explain the rules to those of you new to the games.

Each person will pick one gift out of the pile of gifts. You may handle and feel the weight of any gift but please don’t shake them. One of them is very, shall we say sensitive, and may explode.

1. Grampa selects and buys mosts of the gifts. Grammy contributes ideas and some gifts of her own. Then Grampa and Grammy box all of the gifts. And then Grammy wraps all the gifts while watching romantic Xmas movies on TV.

The gift exchange organizers have graciously done this – you’re welcome.

2. Players draw numbers to determine what order they will go in

Alternatively, someone can draw names from a hat, or the order can be set by the organizer prior to the event.

3. Players sit in a circle or line where they can see the gift pile

To make things easier, everyone should sit in the order in which they will take their turns.

4. The first player selects a gift from the pool and opens it

Make sure everyone can see the gift!

5. The following players can choose to either pick an unwrapped gift from the pool or steal a previous player’s gift. Anyone who gets their gift stolen in this way can do the same – choose a new gift or steal from someone else.

To keep things moving along, there are a couple of limits on gift swapping:

• A present can only be stolen once per turn, which means players who have a gift stolen from them have to wait to get it back.
• After three swaps, the turn automatically comes to an end (otherwise things could drag on for a long time).
• See “Popular Variations” below for other possible twists.

6. After all players have had a turn, the first player gets a chance to swap the gift he or she is holding for any other opened gift. Anyone whose gift is stolen may steal from someone else (as long as that person hasn’t been stolen from yet). When someone declines to steal a gift, the game comes to an end.

Note that for this last “extra” turn, the three-swap rule doesn’t apply. Players can keep swapping until someone decides to stand pat, or there are no other eligible people to steal from.

Popular Variations

While the above rules are as close to the “vanilla” version of the game as you can get, there’s really no right or wrong way to play. Over the years, many new ideas have been incorporated into the gift swap game, with the aim of keeping the game moving and/or making it more strategic. Here are some rules tweaks many people use:

Three Swaps and You’re Out. If you get stolen from three times during the game, you are out of the game and can no longer be stolen from.

Three Swaps and the Gift is Out. If a present gets stolen three times, it’s out of the game and the person who holds it gets to walk away with it.

No Extra Turn/No Extra Swapping. Some people don’t allow the first player to swap at the end. Or, if they do, the first person simply gets to swap once with no additional swapping allowed.