White elephant gift exchanges, also known as Yankee swaps or, somewhat creepily, “dirty Santa” games, are a fun alternative to the old office staple “secret Santa.” Like secret Santa, everyone brings one gift and takes one home. But a Yankee swap adds the opportunity for fun, intrigue and cutthroat competition.
Of course, as with any gift exchange, the real goal is to win. In the video above, my colleagues Simone and Jody help me explain the surefire, guaranteed way to make sure you take home the best gift in your Yankee swap.
For the uninitiated, a Yankee swap works like this: Everyone brings a wrapped gift (often subject to a dollar limit) and draws numbers at random to determine playing order. The first player opens a gift. Each subsequent player has a choice: Either open a gift or steal one that’s already been opened. Get your gift stolen? You get to make the same choice: open or steal.
As you might already have figured out, the best way to win is to go last — you can pick almost any gift you want! Alas, you can’t control your playing order. What you can control is your strategy when your turn comes up. Should you always steal? Never steal? Steal only under certain circumstances? These are all questions of game theory.
I built a model to help explore Yankee swap strategies, which you can check out on GitHub. The basic strategy, though, has three steps:
- As each gift is opened, mentally assign it a value (perhaps a dollar value or a 1-to-5 ranking);
- When it’s your turn, average the value of all the opened gifts (whether or not they’re available for stealing);
- If there is a stealable gift “worth” at least as much as the average, steal it! Otherwise, open a gift. (Depending on the rules you’re playing by, not every gift might be available for stealing.)
Happy swapping! (And remember: The most important thing is to win.)
Video featuring Ben Casselman, Simone Landon and Jody Avirgan. Camera and edit by Jordan Schulkin, produced by Ryan Nantell.
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From office parties to large family gatherings, white elephant gift exchanges are a fun-filled way to turn exchanging presents into a game. What is a white elephant gift exchange? It typically consists of a group of people who each bring one wrapped awesome/bad/campy/funny gift (that could go to anyone in the group) of similar value and place them into a single, anonymous pile. Participants then pick a number from a hat (hint: the higher the number, the more options you’ll have), and take turns choosing a gift from the pile—or “stealing” from an earlier participant who’s already picked—until everyone has a present in front of them. The rules can vary a bit, particularly as it relates to how many times a popular gift can be stolen, but that’s the general gist. Thankfully, most participants find the whole process hilarious and have a good sense of humor about what gift they end up with, however one or two will inevitably voice their disappointment when stuck with a less-desirable gift. These DIY Christmas gifts or 25 thoughtful gifts for coworkers are another smart place to start looking for ideas.
So, what is a white elephant gift, exactly? Legend has it that the origin of this popular game can be traced back to the kingdom of Siam (modern-day Thailand). The Siamese king would gift an actual albino elephant to anyone who displeased him. Now, that might not seem like such a bad thing, but these rare elephants were incredibly expensive to take care of—so whomever received one had to take on the financial burden of keeping a 6- to 12-ton mammal alive and happy. The white elephant was also a revered symbol in Thai and Buddhist cultures, so you couldn’t get away with simply letting it go or regifting it. And, seeing as they were considered to be sacred animals, they weren’t allowed to be put to work. So, as you see, it wasn’t a gift at all, but an extravagant burden meant to ruin the recipient’s finances.
Of course, like any legend, this origin story could very well be fictitious. In Elephants of Thailand in Myth, Art, and Reality, author Rita Ringis posits that no Siamese monarch ever did this and would never consider doing this because ownership of a white elephant was an incredible honor. This may leave you wondering where other holiday traditions come from—don’t miss the history of 10 favorite Christmas traditions.
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Originally Published: October 21, 2019