Sneaky Santa Gift Exchange Game

In today’s post: Jazz up your Christmas gift exchange this year with the Sneaky Santa game. Just print out the simple instructions and you’re ready to play – and ready for lots of laughs!

What is Sneaky Santa?

A white elephant gift exchange is a staple at most holiday parties – but playing it the same way every year can get a little boring. This year we’ve created a new Christmas gift exchange game called Sneaky Santa. It combines elements from a few of our favorite gift exchange games and introduces a few extra variables to keep things fun and interesting. Some gifts stay wrapped while others get unwrapped, sometimes everyone has to pass their gift to their neighbor, and now and again someone rolls a Sneaky Santa and gets to steal or swap a bunch of gifts around for a little extra chaos.

Note: This game involves having your gift stolen from you, which can be hard for little people to handle, so this is best played with teens and adults. For a great gift exchange game for littles, check out the Left Right Game.

Sneaky Santa Game Prep

This game is super fun and there’s hardly any prep. Here’s what you need to do in advance:

• Ask each person to bring a wrapped gift to the party. If you like, you can specify whether these are meant to be funny/gag gifts (often called white elephant gifts) or not. You can also give people a price limit so they have a general idea of what other people will be spending on their gifts. Half the fun of a white elephant gift exchange is seeing the crazy items people come up with and competing to go home with the best one!
• Download and print the Sneaky Santa instructions from the blue box below. If you have a lot of people playing, you may want to print a couple of copies so everyone can see what each roll earns.
• You are also going to need one die – getting a large one from the dollar store is fun especially if you’ll be playing with a lot of people.

How to Play Sneaky Santa

To begin, place all the gifts in the center. Allow each person to choose one gift, but DON’T open them yet! You can go around in a circle to choose gifts or go youngest to oldest. Once everyone has a gift, choose someone to start and give them the die. The first person will roll the die and then do whatever the instructions say for that number:

1. Unwrap your gift: (if your gift is already unwrapped you can roll again for a different number).
2. Pass gifts to the left: Everyone passes their gift to the person on their left.
3. Sneaky Santa Trade: Trade your gift with someone else.
4. Unwrap someone else’s gift (if all gifts are unwrapped you can roll again).
5. Pass gifts to the right: Everyone passes their gift to the person on their right.
6. Sneaky Santa Swap: This is your chance to cause a little chaos! You can swap around up to 6 gifts (that can be three trades, or make six people rotate gifts, however you want to do it). Be nice and try to get specific gifts to people who will love them or cause a little mischief – it’s up to you! Just remember each person has to have one gift when you are done.

Once the first person has taken her turn, pass the die to the next person and keep going!

Ending the Game

How long the game goes on depends on how many people you are playing with, how quickly they play, and what people happen to roll, so it’s best for the person in charge to keep an eye on things and decide when it should be over. Here are some options:

• The game can end as soon as the last present is opened OR you can go around the circle one more time after all the presents are open.
• The game can end after a set number of rounds (going around 3 times is often a good amount)
• You can set a timer for 15 minutes and play until the timer goes off.

Have fun! And if you are looking for a fun gift exchange game that doesn’t involve having your gift stolen (and avoids any possible tears as a result) check out the Left Right Game instead.