Yankee swapping is a popular game played during winter holidays in North America. Participants bring gag gifts, and take turns choosing or stealing them. The game can have specific rules and should consider appropriateness for all players. It’s best played with at least six but no more than fifteen participants.
Yankee swapping is a popular party game that can also be called a white elephant gift swap. It is usually played as part of a family or friends gathering or office party during the winter holidays, and is most popular in places such as North America, especially in the United States and Canada. It’s essentially a game where you’re given gifts, but they’re usually used items or gag gifts. They are not meant to be incredibly thoughtful gifts, and they are not designed to be chosen with just one person in mind. Sometimes the game is more fun when the presents are significantly heinous, and some families will recycle some of the worst of these each year to play.
The rules of the Yankee swap require that each person bring a gift, and usually every Yankee swap party has rules about what types of gifts to bring, including whether anyone can spend money on the gift. Once the presents and guests have been assembled, a kind of order is established as to who will choose a present first. This could be by number, alphabetically, or by names in the hat.
The person initiating the Yankee trade chooses a gift to unwrap and then shows the gift to the other players. The next player goes and can either discard a new present or choose the present the previous player discarded. If the player swaps gifts, the person left without a gift can choose a new gift or steal someone else’s gift. Sometimes the rules limit the number of times a single gift can be stolen and do not allow the same gift to be exchanged back and forth between players.
Eventually, and usually with much glee and silliness, all the gifts are handed out. The player who went first can also get the “go last” option. He or she could perform one last Yankee trade or choose to keep the currently owned gift to end the game.
The way the Yankee swap is played can be defined precisely or rather loosely. Those who can purchase gifts should probably think about the participants in the exchange and whether any chosen gift might be considered inappropriate for some of the players. At work, for example, a person may want to consider gifts silly, but make sure they aren’t considered rude.
The game can take a long time if too many trades are made or if there are too many players. It’s not that fun if there are too few participants. Aiming to have at least six players is a good idea, and the game may not be successful if there are more than fifteen players, unless people don’t have a lot of time to play.
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