4 Tips on Hosting a White Elephant Party
The holidays are a time for giving and spreading love, so it makes sense that gift exchanges are popular to celebrate! It’s a great time to make a game out of giving gifts, and Secret Santa is a very popular group activity. This year, mix things up and take your gift exchange to the next level by adding a fun and festive competitive spirit—this year, play White Elephant! All the fun of Secret Santa with the added bonus of choosing, stealing, or trading your gifts. White Elephant eliminates the pressure of getting a gift for a specific person you may not know well and instead just requires you to bring a wrapped present. Make your holiday party your best ever this winter by making it a White Elephant party. Your guests and participants will have a great time with this fun twist on a holiday classic.
Plan Ahead
In order to ensure that your White Elephant party is the best you’ve ever had, you’ll want to plan ahead. Get started early so you have enough time to nail everything down and get all your details in place weeks in advance. Whether you’re renting a venue, coordinating party supplies, or hiring caterers for food and drinks, give yourself enough time to make sure that everything will run smoothly! Now sometimes things happen, and you might not be able to account for every possible situation that might arise, but being prepared at all is better than just winging it. If you want your party to be the best holiday gathering of the year, don’t wait until the last minute! Plan early to make sure you’re totally set for the best party ever.
Set a Gift Spending Limit
In order to make sure every guest is on an even playing field coming into your party, set a spending limit on your gift exchange! By choosing an amount that your guests can’t spend more than, nobody will end up with the cheapest, smallest gift. You can even choose a theme for your White Elephant game, like housewarming gifts or food-related items! If your invited guests are worried about coming up with ideas for items to buy, help them out by making your list more specific! By setting a spending limit and giving some criteria for the gifts, it’ll be easier for everyone to get ready for your party. A gift exchange shouldn’t be stressful, it should be fun! By giving everyone the exact directions they’ll need, you’ll make everyone’s lives easier and have no one stressing for your festive event!
Encourage Festive Attire
A great and easy way to get everyone into the holiday spirit for your party is to encourage festive attire! From Christmas sweaters and holiday dresses to red and green clothes or blue and white ones, your party options for holiday attire are endless! You can even hand out Santa hats to guests as they arrive or have a theme like tacky sweaters or snow clothes. Whatever you decide is right for your party, let all your guests know that a wrapped gift isn’t the only thing they’ll need—they’ll need a fun and festive outfit too! To incentivize your dress code, hold a contest with a reward for whoever has the best holiday outfit. Give out a prize to the winner, or just send them home with bragging rights!
Decorate Your Space
Want your White Elephant party to leave everyone feeling warm with the spirit of the season? Decorate your party venue with holiday decorations! From ornaments to Christmas trees, menorahs, and whatever else fits your theme, turn your party space into a winter wonderland! Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or anything else in between, you can decorate your party venue to make it the perfect holiday celebration—or include a little bit of everything! If you don’t want to commit to one specific holiday, theme your party to the winter in general! You can use snowflakes, silver and gold decorations, or whatever else you want to make your party bright and spirited. Not sure where to start? Find all the bright seasonal and Christmas decor in one place to easily make your party space merry and bright.
A White Elephant party is the perfect way to get into the spirit of the season this winter. It’s fun, competitive, and gives all your party attendees a chance to pick their new gift to take home. With the right planning and coordination, you can revamp your gift exchange this year to make your holiday party even better than usual. Whether you end up mediating friendly fights over presents (that steal-a-gift move can be brutal) or just relaxing on the sidelines and watching the drama of the game, White Elephant is sure to keep your festive party fun and fresh this winter. So don’t be afraid to mix it up this year and host a White Elephant gift exchange party. It just might be the event of the year.