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If you are in charge of a holiday party, you may be looking for a unique gift exchange game. This version is great for family, office, church, and any other party but is especially a great gift passing game for situations where people might want to get to know each other better. We have included info on the this Christmas Gift Exchange Game (or any holiday gift exchange) below, plus a free printable of cards to use during it.
As my siblings and I have gotten older, we have gone to having a family Christmas party a week or two before Christmas.
Most of us have our own families and traditions we are starting, or we are splitting time between our family and our in-laws, so getting everyone together on Christmas Eve or Christmas day was getting too hard. The party prior to Christmas has been a great solution.
The last few years I was in charge of our family Christmas Party. We have 26+ people in attendance. Each year we do a white elephant type gift exchange.
We have done several different versions, but a few years ago I wanted to do something new. So today I am sharing with you a Free Gift Exchange Game Printable of the game we did for our party.
In years past we have done a traditional exchange (steal a present or pick a new one, etc), one that involved dice and if you rolled doubles you could steal, and even the ones where you tell a story and you pass the presents left and right and open them at the end.
This year we decided we wanted something different. I made this printable for us to use as our gift exchange game.
How To Play This Gift Exchange Game
I came up with a bunch of different conditions for exchanging gifts with someone, such as “swap presents with the oldest player” or “the player with the shortest hair.”
There were even some that said something like “Lucky you, you get to keep your present or swap it with any player.”
We cut them out and folded them, then put them in a Christmas themed canister. At the party we then handed out random presents to every person from the gift pile. We had everyone open the present so they knew what they had.
You could keep the gifts wrapped for this gift exchange game, we just knew we had a few gag gifts that people would get pretty intense about trying to discard (but joke was on them, they were just fake product boxes with awesome gifts in them).
Then I chose a random way to pick who would go first. For me it was whoever had the next birthday, but you could choose the tallest player, or the youngest, or anything you want. Once you have decided how to start the gift exchange game, here is how to play.
That person then drew a slip of paper and followed the instructions. Then the player they swapped with would draw a piece of paper.
This did make it so some people (myself included) never got a chance to swap so you can do it this way, or go around the circle and make everybody choose a piece if you want to make sure everyone gets a chance to draw.
This gift exchange game is not only great for family gatherings but also for work, church, or anywhere else with large groups. It kind of has a “getting to know you” feel to it as well.
I love that it isn’t a traditional “steal the present” game, or a gift passing game using a poem. Those are fun, but have been done at many parties I have attended. It is nice to have something unique.
I have a free printable of this gift exchange game for you below.
Get A Free Printable Gift Exchange Game Here
I am happy to share this free gift exchange game printable with you today, but before I do, a few guidelines you should be aware of:
- Printables are for personal use only. Do not sell them or claim them as your own.
- If you want to share this printable- AWESOME! Just please do so by directing people to this post.
- To download, Click on the link, then when the preview comes up, click the download button. You may then choose to “open with Adobe (or your PDF viewer of choice) and then print. If you simply hit print from the preview, the sizing will be way off!
- Enjoy!
You may download the printable by CLICKING HERE.
If you want some great party favor ideas, check out these simple, but cute, ornaments I made for our family Christmas party! Also great for teacher gifts.
In the gift exchange game, how does it start. Do you roll dice?
We just chose someone to start. It could be someone who wins a previous game, or the youngest, or the host. You choose.
I think you cut up the tabs and put them in a hat. Instead of picking numbers like the typical swap you would pull a tab as do as directed.
Yep! Once it gets going, you just cut them up and put them in a bowl or a hat, but as far as who is the first person to draw… that is up to the person organizing the party.
Love this idea! we are going to play on Christmas Eve.
How dose the game end? Did you play with the rule after a gift is stolen 3x its “Dead”?
We played until we are out of cards. Or you can play until everyone has drawn one card if you pass it around the circle. You could totally add in the “dead” rule. That is what I love about these kinds of games. You can change them up to fit your style. 🙂
OK thank you so much!
Merry Christmas
When does everyone open the gifts?
Nevermind, I reread your instructions. I must have skipped over them the first time 🙂
Does everyone end up with a gift?
As long as everyone brought one they should end up with one. Everyone picks a gift at the beginning of the game.
Thank you for allowing this to be downloaded and printable. I’ve been looking for something different for our Christmas party at work. There are about 30 employees who join in the fun. I’m so excited to find something a bit different. We will be trying it out this year. Thank you again for sharing.
thank you for sharing this ! I think we will wait until the end to open the gifts.
I’m so excited! thanks for sharing, I was looking desperately for something diff. I decided to buy all the gifts for this exchange, just $5 each with 12 people. i have a feeling I, as the host, am going to have the most fun and get my moneys worth!
Thank you so much for sharing!
This is such a great concept. We have been trying to find new games to play as well at our Christmas party with the family. Thanks for the free printable.