How to Play the Elephant Game

“Pink elephant” is another name for the “white elephant” game. During one of these games, participants exchange gifts, usually of low monetary value (e.g., under $20) and intentionally selected to be silly, tacky, or useless. The gifts are wrapped anonymously and chosen at random by the players, who can then swap gifts with each other if they wish. Some people use “pink elephant” to refer to a variant game where the gifts are more desirable and/or useful than typical “white elephant” gifts.

Before starting the game, the players agree on the maximum value of the gifts they’ll be buying. The gifts are usually chosen to be silly, tacky, or useless. Everyone brings a single wrapped gift with no name attached to contribute to the pool. Players start the game by randomly drawing numbers from a hat, then sitting in a circle around the gift table or pile. The player who drew 1 goes first, selecting a gift from the pile and opening it. The rest of the players go in order by number; they can either select a gift to unwrap or “steal” a gift from another player. If your gift is stolen, you can select a new gift from the pile or steal someone else’s. Once everyone’s had a turn, the first player has a chance to swap their gift with someone else’s.

Yes, there are a wide variety of elephant-themed games available online. If you’d like to play this particular game, you might need to start a round on a forum or in a chat group.