These ten gift exchange games are some of the most creative and unique gift exchange ideas ever! No more traditional white elephant gift exchange, this year try one of these gift exchange games instead and impress your guests with such fun ideas!
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The Most Fun Gift Exchange Games
Try one of these fun and unique gift exchange ideas this year to break the norm. Almost every holiday party I’ve been to in the past ten years has had a very similar gift exchange along with other Christmas party games.
Everyone brings a wrapped gift and gets a number. The first person chooses a gift and unwraps it, the second person can steal that gift or choose another, and so on.
I don’t even have to write out exact details because you all know. It’s the same game everyone plays at their holiday party every year.
This year I dare you to break out of the typical gift exchange box and try one of the unique gift exchange games below at your holiday party. They’d be perfect go along with these Christmas games.
The only other thing you need is an amazing white elephant gift and luckily I have a ton of great white elephant gift ideas for you!
Gift Exchange Games Index
I’ve split these games into three sections for you. Click on the links below to jump straight to those games!
- Dice Gift Exchange Games
- Card Gift Exchange Games
- Game of Chance Gift Exchanges
- Active Gift Exchanges
- Poem Gift Exchange Games
- Gift Exchange Game FAQs
Want to see how fun these games can be? Watch the video below to see these games in action!
Want all of these in printable form in one place?
Get the ultimate gift exchange game bundle! The best gift exchange games all in one printable PDF – instructions, printable cheat sheets, printable playing cards, and more! Click on the image below to check it out.
Dice Gift Exchange Ideas
Dice Gift Exchange IdeasThese games are played with a set of dice and the dice tell you what to do with the gifts! They’re super fun and a great change because the gifts are controlled by dice – not choice!
1 – Switch Steal Unwrap Dice Game
In this game, everyone starts with three small gifts. You roll the dice and the dice determine if you switch, steal or unwrap gifts.
Game ends when all the gifts are unwrapped.
This is by far one of the best gift exchange games I’ve ever played and my most viral gift exchange game for good reason – it’s a blast!
Get the full instructions and printable dice cards here as well as blank cards!
2 – December Dice Gift Game
Prep:
For this game, you will need two six-sided dice. Ask all of your guests to bring a wrapped gift. And print out the dice rolling cards, people will want to know what’s happening to their gifts! Here are some great gift exchange gift ideas if anyone needs them!
How to Play:
1 – Have everyone sit in a circle with their wrapped gift in their lap.
2 – Give the dice to one person in the circle and tell them to roll the dice and follow the instructions that correspond with the number they roll. For example, if they roll a 6 everyone would pass the gift to the right, roll an 8 and everyone passes to the left.
3 – Go around the circle allowing everyone to roll the dice two times (or however many you choose). During the second round before someone rolls, if they have not yet unwrapped their gift have them up wrap it so all of the gifts are unwrapped by the end of the second round.
4 – Once the dice have gone around the circle the number of times you chose, your guests will keep the gift in their hands.
Get the Printable December Dice Cheat Sheet
To print the dice cheat sheet, enter your email and first name below to get a copy of the file. If you do not see a box below, click here to get to the form.
Gift Exchange Card Games
These games are all ones that use a set of custom cards designed just for the gift exchange. Some of the cards tell you what to do – others give you special actions you can use to better your chances during the game.
And they’re all super fun!
3 – Scrooge Your Neighbor
This game is played just like any regular gift exchange with one exception – everyone gets a character card at the beginning of the game, characters inspired by A Christmas Carol.
During the gift exchange, you can use your card to do certain actions like peek at a gift before opening, block a steal, and even unfreeze a frozen gift!
This is a new game we played this year and absolutely love it! Get the cards and all the rules for Scrooge Your Neighbor here.
4 – Pick A Gift, Any Gift
In this game, everyone brings one gift just like in a typical white elephant gift exchange. Instead of just deciding whether or choose a gift or steal someone else’s, you pick a random card instead.
The card will tell you what to do with your gift – steal, swap, unwrap, pick a second gift, and more.
This is one of our favorite gift exchange games! Get the free printable gift exchange game cards here!
5 – Twelve Days of Christmas Gift Exchange Game
The last of these gift exchange games is another favorite! Apparently all of these are my favorite because they’re all so fun!
Similar to the game above, the card you draw in this game tells you what to do with your gift. Only this time instead of random sayings, these cards are all themed based on the 12 days of Christmas song. It’s perfect for a 12 days of Christmas party!
So not only is it fun, it’s hilarious to read what happened in the new version of this song (and game!). Play this and these 12 days of Christmas games for one festive event!
Get the full details and printable cards here.
Game of Chance Gift Exchange Games
Similar to the gift exchange games with dice above, these ones are also based on an element of chance – whether it’s a flip of a coin or winning a challenge! Just another fun way to change up the typical white elephant game!
6 – Santa’s Helper Gift Exchange
In this game you’re trying to get the perfect gift for someone else instead of yourself! Everyone shares things they like and dislike then secretly you play the game trying to get the best gift for your person!
It’s hilarious, fun, and a great way to change up a gift exchange!
Get rules and the free printable tell your elf cards here.
7 – Heads or Tails Gift Exchange Game
Let your gift exchange be dictated by the flip of a coin in this fun heads or tails gift exchange. Heads you choose a gift to unwrap, tails you get to steal from another person.
It’s amazing how just adding a little coin to a game can change it completely.
Get full rules and instructions here.
8 – Rock Paper Switch Gift Game
This game is played similar to a traditional gift game or white elephant game. The big difference is that in order to steal a gift from someone, you have to beat them in rock paper scissors first.
But that’s not all – this gift exchange game is full of fun twists and surprises all based on whether you go with rock, paper, or scissors!
Get full rules, instructions, and a printable game sheet here.
Active Gift Exchange Ideas
These are the gift exchange games that will get your guests up and moving around the room or the gifts get moving all over the place! That might happen a bit with the other games as well but these games are designed to be active and interactive!
9 – Musical Gifts
Prep: This game probably works best with smaller (20 or less) groups of people. For this game, ask all of your guests to bring a wrapped gift. When your guests arrive ask them to put their gift in a designated area. Have your guests sit in a circle.
How to Play:
1 – To start the game, pick out a random gift from the table and give it to someone in the circle.
2 – Play Christmas music and tell your guests to pass the gift around the circle until the music stops.
3 – When the music stops, whoever has the gift in their hands will unwrap the gift, show the rest of the group, and leave the circle with their gift. That’s the gift they end up with for the game.
4 – Repeat with another gift and another person until everyone has gotten to unwrap a gift and is “out of the game.”
Alternative Option: If you’d rather make the game a little simpler and less time consuming, you can just start everyone with a gift at the beginning of the game. Play music and have everyone pass their gifts around until the music stops. When the music stops everyone opens their gift and goes home with that gift.
Or you can do two rounds and have half the people unwrap their gifts and half not. Then after the second round have the other half unwrap and everyone go home with whatever they ended up with.
10 – Christmas Never Have I Ever Gift Exchange
You know the traditional Never Have I Ever game? This is a holiday gift exchange take on that where people read Never Have I Ever statements and if they’ve done the thing – they have to move seats (and leave their gift behind).
It’s hilarious and a great way to get people switching without hurting anyone’s feelings with stealing.
Poem Gift Exchange Ideas
The beauty of these gift exchange poem games is that there’s no stealing or really choosing involved. The lines in the poem determine who gets what gifts.
These games are great for a girls night, office party, or any time you may not want to hurt people’s feelings with stealing! Or if you don’t have long to play.
11 – Lucky Last Line Gift Game
In this fun gift exchange game, you wrap up a gift with multiple layers of wrapping paper and include a line of a poem on each layer of wrapping paper.
Start the gift with one person who has to pass the gift off to someone who matches the description in their line of the poem.
Keep passing and unwrapping the gift until the final person ends up wrapping the gift itself, not just another layer!
Get the free printable poems (four different versions) and full rules here.
12 – Left Right Poem Gift Exchange Game
In this game, everyone brings a wrapped gift and sits in a circle. Read the poem and when the words “right” or “left” are read, everyone passes their gifts left or right.
You’ve gotta pay close attention though because it can get crazy with rights and lefts all over the place!
Get the full instructions and free printable Christmas gift exchange poem here!
Gift Game FAQs
Since I started coming up with gift exchange games a few years ago, I’ve had a lot of questions from people. I put together a quick FAQs section below to answer some of the questions I hear the most often!
How to Play Gift Exchange Games with Deck of Cards
You can play any of these gift exchange games with a deck of cards instead of using numbers. I talk about this a bit in my heads and tails gift exchange game but the idea is that instead of writing out numbers for everyone and having whoever gets #1 go first – instead, pick out two sets of matching playing cards, enough cards in each set for everyone in your group.
So for instance if you have 20 people playing, you would do two sets of 20 cards (A-K of hearts and A-7 of spades).
Then instead of just saying #1 go first, pick a card from one set of the deck and whoever has the matching card goes first. It keeps people on their toes and not knowing who goes next.
Way more fun in my opinion than just set numbers!
What Are Some Good Christmas Gift Exchange Themes?
I’ve never really done themes for my Christmas gift exchanges, but that doesn’t mean you can’t. Some of my favorite theme ideas that I’ve heard over the years are below. Tell everyone coming the theme and encourage them to buy a gift that follows that theme.
- Season (e.g., summer fun, winter wonderland)
- Starts with the first letter of their name
- Inspired by their favorite holiday movie
- Inspired by the 12 days of Christmas (get some ideas here!)
- Vacation related
- Food related
- A particular color
- Inspired by a phrase or song title (e.g., O Holy Night, To All A Good Night)
- Date or night out
- White elephant
How Many People Can Play These Gift Exchange Games?
The number of people that can play each of these gift exchange games is dependent on the game, and you’ll need to check out individual instructions for the games.
But general rule of thumb, the more complicated the game – the less people. If you have a large group, go with something simpler like Heads or Tails or Lucky Last Line.
What are Good Christmas Gift Exchange Ideas for Families
This is another one where you’ll need to use your best judgement.
All of the games above are totally family-friendly but if you have younger kids (like my 5-year-old) who don’t understand the idea of stealing gifts, having gifts stolen from them, and not getting what they want – I’d recommend you setup the younger kids with one of these Christmas party games and leave the gift game playing to kids that are a bit older and adults of course.
Out of the gift game ideas above, my favorites for families include:
Want all of these in printable form in one place?
Get the ultimate gift exchange game bundle! The best gift exchange games all in one printable PDF – instructions, printable cheat sheets, printable playing cards, and more! Click on the image below to check it out.
Other Fun Christmas Games
- Christmas scavenger hunt
- Holiday emoji game
- Christmas family feud game
- Christmas minute to win it games
- Christmas movie bingo
Don’t forget to pin these gift exchange games for later!
Megan says
These are great game ideas! Thanks for sharing!!
Britni Vigil says
Thanks Megan!
Chelsea J says
These are so fun! I’ve never heard of any of these before, and we are having a gift exchange next month. Perfect! Thanks Britni!
Britni Vigil says
I hope you haven’t heard of them because I tried to make them up. 🙂
Kallee says
great ideas. I love that they are not the tradition gift exchange ideas.
Britni Vigil says
Thanks Kallee!
Victoria Osborn says
These are great ideas, I love these. This would be such a great new holiday tradition. Thanks for sharing!
Britni Vigil says
Thanks Victoria, I hope you try them out!
Toni Barsi says
These are such fun ideas! We’ve only ever played that you steal something from someone else, or unwrap a new one from the center. It’s not very much fun if you get stuck with a crappy gift right off the bat. Your games seem to give everyone a much better chance!
Britni Vigil says
Yeah Toni that’s exactly why I came up with these versions. I hate being the person who gets stuck with the crappy gift right off the bat and just has to sit back and watch the fun the rest of the party!
DesignedByBH says
Oh, how fun! My hustband’s family has a big Christmas get-together and does a group gift exchange. I’m going to recommend some of these variations! 🙂
Britni Vigil says
Thanks Brooke. I’d love to hear if you do play them!
Cara Kueck says
Such fun ideas! I think we’re definitely going to have to try the dice game! Thanks for sharing!
Britni Vigil says
Thanks Cara, that’s probably my favorite! Hope you try it out.
Jenn Rian says
Fun ideas! Our family never does a gift exchange but I’ve been thinking about adding a white elephant gift as part of our Ugly Christmas Sweater contest every year. Maybe if we do it we’ll use one of these games 🙂
Britni Vigil says
Thanks Jenn, I hope you do!
Rabia Lieber says
Wow! These look like such fun! I haven’t been to a group gift exchange for a few years, but I wish we could have played one of these games instead of just stealing present from each other!
Britni Vigil says
Thanks Rabia, they are fun!
misszak says
We played the December Dice Game last night at our family Christmas and it was a lot of fun!! The only thing I would change would be some of the numbers and their rules. It seemed like no one ever rolled steal a gift or freeze a gift too often. Like maybe twice and we had 20 people playing. Overall a very veyr fun game with lost of laughs! Especially for the person who unwrapped a brand new plunger with 2 rolls of toilet paper on the handle! Hysterical!
Britni Vigil says
Thanks for the feedback! I tried to make those a little more difficult to roll but wow you had some unlucky rollers! You can definitely change the numbers up to mix it up a little more and I’ll take your comments into consideration and possibly update the numbers. I’m glad you enjoyed the game!
Sandy says
How does this game end? Do you go around two times or until every gift is frozen?
BritniV says
Which game are you talking about Sandy, the dice game? You go around a set number of times (pick a number of rounds before you start playing) or like you said, until every gift is frozen – whichever comes first.
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Jessica says
Late to the party as far as commenting but I happened across this when I was searching for an interesting twist on my church group’s annual gift exchange and we did the dice game at the party tonight and it seemed like people really enjoyed it. I personally liked that all the way to the end, nobody knew what they’d end up with and it made it a lot more interesting than the old standard of people stealing the good stuff and people who opened up junk, sitting with it. We played that nobody could freeze anything and the best gift got switched all the way to the end, but I think the last person rolled an everyone pass to the left/right, so they still didn’t end up with it. Thanks for putting that together!
BritniV says
Those are fun twists Jessica, I’ll have to try them out this year!
juanita says
In the music game, once the first person and second person unwrap their gifts are they out of the game or do the next few people steal from them also? Or does it start from the beginning with the 3rd and 4th person and they unwrap and keep their gift?
BritniV says
I’ve added some clarifications to the game instructions in the post to help. Everyone is included and all gifts are fair game until the very end unless you’ve set a stealing limit. I was just using the first and second people as an example but technically the very last person to end up with the musical gift could steal from the first player. Hope that helps!
Cheri says
Thanks for the great ideas! My sister and I are planning to use the poem exchange for our families baked-goods “white elephant”. Although with chocolate cake and fudge as gifts it’s probably not a white elephant. Fun idea, and we think it will be great for the younger children to get to spotlight what they made.
BritniV says
I hope your family has a great time with it! And feel free to ship some of those baked goods my way if you want. 🙂
Christy says
Question for the dice game! If a freeze is rolled in the first round does that gift stay frozen through the second round of rolling or go back into play?
BritniV says
If someone chooses to freeze their gift, it is frozen for the entire game.
Tiffanee Watts says
We use our iphone to add some excitement and laughs to our holiday gift exchange. It’s so easy – no prep required. Each participant brings a gift and goes home with a gift. The gifts are traded, shuffled, and passed. You’ll never know what gift you will end up with until the very end. It can be found at giftexchangeapp.us.
Cara says
We did the dice game at our recent party and it was a big hit. Since we had a large group, I asked the men to bring for the men and the ladies for the ladies. At the party, we had both circles going on opposite sides of the room at the same time. I also put the rule sheet on the bottom of a foil cake pan and passed that along with the dice to each player to make it easier to roll since we weren’t at tables. Thanks so much for the fun game.
BritniV says
Yay! I’m so glad you enjoyed Cara!
Larry Weaver says
Thanks for the tip to keep the game of musical gifts with a smaller group of about 20 people to work best. I’m looking into doing an activity like that, but there’s about 40 people that will be at the family reunion, so I think we’ll divide it up into two groups. Looking for gift ideas, I’ve found some pretty cool all star gifts that I’m excited to use in the activity.
Frankie says
I hate that you need my personal info just for a free download, and that I can’t just have a page to look at and write down one of the poems.. guess I’ll look somewhere else
BritniV says
If you email me at britni @ playpartyplan.com, I can get you the files you need. The checkout system is currently the best way I know how to deliver printable files to people via email without having to do everything by hand. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Kathy says
on the gift exchange cards – it seems like there are not enough cards to open the gifts. If you switch or steal – do you then open that gift that you have switched or stolen, or are only the unwrap gift cards the ones that allow you to unwrap?
BritniV says
Have you read the full instructions for the game in this post? It explains how to play in detail –> https://www.playpartyplan.com/gift-exchange-game-idea-with-cards/.