We'll be singing Christmas carols before we know it! With the frenzy of the holiday season approaching, it's time to get your gift exchange ideas in order. It may seem early, but the joyous season of giving is already underway. After all, Costco has been selling Christmas decorations since September. There's a seemingly endless stream of cozy decor inspiration and Christmas trends to consider, but we've got our minds on the gifts. To make the annual act of gift giving more exciting and less stressful, we've rounded up a variety of gift exchange ideas that'll get your whole family, office, or friend group feeling merry.
This extensive list truly has something for everyone. From charitable donations to a food lover's dream, you won't be at a loss for some thoughtful gifting inspiration! Whatever your tradition of opening presents with your crew may be, consider jazzing things up a bit this year with a gift exchange game or theme. These work especially well for large families, friend groups, or office holiday parties. And don't worry—we thought of a few creative gift exchange ideas for kids too! There are the classic options that everyone knows about, like Secret Santa and Yankee Swap, but in order to have a truly fresh Christmas, we've seasoned our list with more ideas and sorted them by what group you're swapping with.
Read on for 35 fun and festive present exchange options for the most memorable holiday season yet.
Gift Exchanges for Family and Friends
Secret Santa
You really can't go wrong with the classic—and it works in just about any setting (the office, friends, family, classrooms, etc.). If you've never done a Secret Santa or Secret Snowflake gift exchange before, it's a pretty simple concept: You set a price limit that works for your group, then each participant draws a recipient's name from a hat without sharing who they got. The name they choose is who they buy a gift for. Then, gifters can either reveal their identities as they pass out gifts, or you can have everyone guess who their Secret Santa was. It's very tempting to investigate who's shopping for you, and you'll also be motivated to find something amazing in the hopes that everyone is putting in the same effort! You can easily do a Secret Santa exchange via mail if you're celebrating long distance—you can even reveal your identities over Zoom! This is an exchange just about any group can do, but we think it works best among people who know each other pretty well because that allows for more sentimental gifts.
Yankee Swap
Rather than draw names and shop for specific people, in a Yankee Swap each person buys one nice, quality gift at or below a chosen price point and wraps it, keeping their gift a secret. Come exchange day, everyone draws a number; the numbers represent the order in which people get to choose their gifts. Everyone places their wrapped gifts in front of the group. The first person selects a gift and opens it. The second person selects and opens it, and that's when it gets interesting: They can either keep the gift they opened or "steal" the first person's gift. All of the subsequent recipients can choose to steal one of the open gifts or open a new one. (If your gift gets stolen, you get to open a new gift.) Since no one knows who's going to get what, you can make it entertaining by getting a targeted gift for someone and seeing if they pick it on the first try or steal it from someone else! Knowing what your friends and family like helps a lot.
Pick a Theme
You can buy gifts for everyone or follow the general rules of a Secret Santa or Yankee Swap if you'd like—it really just depends on who you're exchanging gifts with. The structure is up to you, but the concept is what matters: Everyone buys gifts that fit a certain theme, be it food gifts, self-care supplies, movies, books, or something totally you. Try to pick a theme that everyone can get behind; you can even have everyone submit a theme on a piece of paper and draw one out of a hat or set up an annual vote. This is a great option if you're celebrating in different cities because it can make mailing your gifts even more fun.
Give an Experience
Sure, everyone loves receiving a physical present, but in a post–Marie Kondo world adding to your existing clutter can be overwhelming. If your fellow gift givers feel the same, consider exchanging experiences this year. As with many of the other ideas on this list, you start by drawing names out of a hat (they can be individual names or entire families) and setting a price limit. Then buy your recipient a trip to the zoo, a spa day, or a night out seeing their favorite band in concert. When it's time for everyone to come together, give them a simple card with the tickets or gift card and relish the collective joy.
Follow the Five Gift Rule
Whether you follow the Secret Santa or Yankee Swap or even White Elephant ways of exchanging gifts, a fun and different gift rule to follow is called the Five Gift Rule. Rather than getting your recipient something random, get them one item in each of these categories:
- Something they want
- Something they need
- Something to wear
- Something to read
- Something fun, like something to experience, something they wouldn't buy for themselves, or something handmade.
Include a Gag Gift
If your family loves a good laugh, bring on the gag gifts! Cost efficient and lighthearted, a gag gift that gets passed on each holiday to a different family member is a fun addition to your gift exchange plans (it's better than getting coal!) and will be the anticipated gift each year your family gathers. Plus, as your family grows, new couples and friends will get a front-row seat to see your family dynamic and humor in action.
The Ultimate Gift Swap Game
Get everyone on their feet! After everyone receives their gifts, they can't get too comfortable. Place slips of paper in a hat with the categories: Exchange, Trade, and Swap. Each family member has to reach in and follow the instructions. For example, exchange with the tallest person in the room or trade gifts with the youngest in the room. This game can also be played among friends, and the qualifications for swapping can be as creative and silly as you'd like to be.
Play Holiday Family Feud
Put your family's holiday spirit to the test with a fun game of Family Feud: Christmas Edition. Randomly create teams and nominate a different family member to go up for each category. If they get the answer right, that team can continue to get points for answering the questions correctly. If they guess wrong three times, the other team gets an opportunity to answer the questions and potentially get the points. The winners can make the rules for how the gifts are opened this year.
Guess the Song
A game friendly to the singers and nonsingers in the room, divide your group into two teams and take turns guessing the name of holiday songs by playing the song, stopping it, and filling in the blank yourselves. The team that wins gets to open its gifts first.
The Great Regift
If you've ever received a gift that wasn't practical, suited to your lifestyle, or just not your vibe at all, we know the feeling! Bring the gift back to life by regifting it to your loved ones. This is a thoughtful way to ensure gifts get used and not wasted. Plus, it's very friendly to your pocketbook since all you'll need to buy is gift wrap. You can choose to gift back items you have no need of or make it funny with a gift that was on the strange side.
DIY Gifts
This can either be super heartwarming or downright hilarious. Get in touch with your creative side by using your hands to make something your family and friends can (hopefully) display on their desk or a shelf with pride.
Gift Exchanges for Colleagues
White Elephant
White Elephant is another classic that brings in a lot of entertainment (and a little drama). In a White Elephant gift exchange, participants follow the same rules as a Yankee Swap but with one major twist: You can choose a rule for the gifts. Gag gifts, funny gifts, gifts under $25—it's definitely an exchange that brings in a lot of laughter. More for a crowd with a sense of humor, a White Elephant swap can involve gifts in just about any category (again, under a set price limit), from things you already own and no longer want to the strangest things you can find at the store—something another person might actually want or be able to use, but weird and unique nonetheless. This is perfect for the group of coworkers that always lag behind at happy hour and bring the laughter to the conference room. If you don't want your gift, you can switch it for something else—the risk is yours to take!
Mug Exchange
A great gift exchange for coworkers, have everyone buy a new mug and fill it with small treats and goodies (again, up to a certain price limit). You can follow the Secret Santa model with each person making up a mug for a specific person in secret, go for a Yankee swap, or even use these in an auction, trivia, or musical gifts swap—how you want to exchange them is up to you, but this way the gifts are all pretty equal.
Christmas Crackers
If your work family is looking for a simple option or lighthearted gift exchange, this idea will definitely make an impact. Christmas crackers are gifts wrapped in a tube-like shape and lined with a confetti popping stick. Pull the tube apart, and it will make a popping noise and reveal a small gift. They're super easy to make and will be a hit for all types of people. If you have any leftover stocking stuffers, this is their time to shine! Go over the top with options like a winter wonderland, nutcracker, or a luxury Christmas cracker.
Follow the Wish Lists
Let's face it: Some people are hard to buy for, and some people aren't great at getting gifts. It might not be their love language! These problems can easily come up with family and friends, but bring in a group of people you may not converse with on a personal level—like your colleagues—and cue an internal freak-out. Worry not, lists make everything better and can easily turn the situation around. This obviously won't work in a Yankee Swap or White Elephant scenario, but it's definitely doable with Secret Santa. Have everyone write a wish list with a minimum number of items on it, give it to a designated Wish List Receiver (maybe someone from a different team), and have them send the lists to the givers in this situation. You can also try an online Secret Santa generator; one HB editor's long-distance friend group has had good luck with Elfster for the past several years. This way, you ensure everyone likes what they get and take the stress out of the situation.
Make a Gift Card Pile
Definitely not the most sentimental on the list, a pile of gift cards still gets the job done when it comes to presents. Have everyone in the office purchase a gift card with a set amount of money on it. At the holiday party, have everyone put their gift cards into a basket unwrapped, so the store they're for is visible. Using a random name picker, call your colleagues up one by one to pick out the basket of cards until it's empty. This is great for those groups that really enjoy keeping work and personal life separate.
Christmas Jeopardy
Fun and work appropriate, this is an engaging way to get your coworkers in a merry mood before holiday break. Create a list of questions and answers on topics like historical Christmas facts, song lyrics, stories, and holiday traditions, and assign each one a value based on its difficulty. If you want, you can add a general trivia category to keep everyone on their toes. Whoever wins gets to choose any gift and open it first.
Gift Exchanges for Kids
Make It a Scavenger Hunt
Give the kids in your group something to do that comes with a reward with a gift-based scavenger hunt. Have every child bring a small- to medium-size gift and wrap it. At the host's home, have the adults hide the presents. You can limit it to a basement or the backyard or use the whole house. Once everyone finds a present, gather in one room and have each kid open the gift they found for a fun surprise—do it one at a time or all at once. Be sure to be creative when hiding the gifts!
Trivia Swap
Another competitive option to help distract the kids? Host a Christmas trivia night with gifts as prizes. Set a price cap, have every parent buy a gift and wrap it, then get ready for a rousing game of holiday trivia. It can be based on Christmas movies, songs, you name it. The child with the most correct answers gets to choose a gift first, the second-place winner second, and so on and so forth until everyone has a gift to open. If you want, you can also add the option to steal gifts like in a Yankee Swap, but it might get a little too competitive.
Musical Gifts
This idea is basically musical chairs but with gifts. Have every parent buy a gift under a certain price limit and wrap it. From there, you can instruct the kids to do this a few different ways. You can set up a circle of chairs, place the wrapped gifts underneath, and have the kids walk around them to the tune of Christmas songs—until the music stops. Then they grab a chair, just like in the classic game, and get to open the present under their seat. Or, you could avoid swapping chairs (which honestly can get kind of competitive) and pass gifts in a circle until the music stops, at which point everyone gets to open the gift they're holding. Curate your Christmas playlist to set a joyful mood throughout the game.
Holiday Bingo
Channel your creative side and make custom bingo cards (or simply buy some) for the holidays. It's literally just a normal game of bingo but with Christmas-themed cards, and each time someone yells, "Bingo!" they get to open a present until none are left. You could make it a hybrid White Elephant–bingo game and let the kids choose presents at random from a table, or you could make it more a game of patience and have the kids open their specific presents in the order that they win.
Handmade Guessing Game
Keep little hands busy by tasking kids with a Christmas crafting project that doubles as a DIY gift. When they get to the host's house, start them on the craft right away, slightly separated from one another. When everyone is finished, take a break to have dinner or a snowball fight, then come back in and hold up each of the crafts one by one, making the group guess who made it. The first child to get it right either gets to keep the craft or open their actual present first, depending on how you want to play the game.
Surprise Ball Gifts
Kids aren't the most patient when it comes to opening gifts on the holidays. For a gift exchange that lasts longer, wrap candy and small trinkets up into a giant surprise ball made of layers of crepe paper (or plastic wrap, in a pinch). The kids can pass the ball around and unwrap a layer at a time, getting one sweet treat at a time. Play and stop holiday music to give everyone a chance to unravel it! The parents will definitely get a laugh out of this too if you want to involve them.
Spin the Bottle
In the kid-friendly edition of this game, give a bottle or holiday decoration a spin to find out who opens gifts first. That lucky person gets to happily open their gift. Play music to keep spirits high and everyone involved!
Guess the Sentence
To keep the kids calm after a candy rush, settle them down by reading quotes from popular holiday stories and movies. Each child has to fill in the blank of the phrase before they get to unwrap their gifts. This will put them in spirit to enjoy whatever Santa has for them under the tree.
Gift Exchanges for Foodies
Cookie Swap
Though not quite as gift-centric, a cookie swap is a great idea if your group is the kind that always orders dessert. Rather than buying gifts, have everyone bake or buy and bring in their favorite cookie and a container (keeping any allergies in consideration, of course), then lay all the cookies out in a spread. Then, everyone gets to pack up some of each to take home. If you're celebrating long distance, consider setting up a mailing system so that everyone sends out a small package of cookies to everyone else on the list.
Christmas Potluck
Rather than spending time buying presents, put your energy into making a fantastic dish for a festive potluck. It's ideal for the group that always throws dinner parties. Have everyone make and bring their favorite holiday food, or draw names to decide who's bringing what—the main course, the sides, the appetizers, the drinks, the desserts, and anything else you may wish to snack on—then get together for an intimate food exchange. Don't forget to remind everyone to bring take-home containers for leftovers!
Recipe Exchange
Do you have that friend who's been so lucky to have a five-star, secret family recipe in their possession that you always crave? Well, now's your chance to get it. Play Secret Santa with everyone's personal or favorite recipes as the gifts, and bring along every ingredient the recipient would need to make it. If there's one secret recipe everyone always asks for, do the exchange as a Yankee Swap game instead and raise the stakes.
Gift Basket Swap
Who doesn't love a fancy gift basket? This exchange is especially easy if you're in a long-distance friend group or your family is fairly spread out. There are so many themes you could do, and the items could range endlessly in versatility. Draw names and send the baskets on their way on a specified date. There's always the option of setting a price limit, and you can choose if you want to make the baskets yourselves or buy them premade.
Christmas Cocktails
If you haven't seen that TikTok trend of friends getting together for themed cocktail nights, then we highly recommend opening the app right now and searching "themed cocktail night." (This is a classic example.) Whether this is your official gift exchange or just a lead-up event, task each guest with making a holiday-themed cocktail. Each person needs to make one cocktail per guest, so you'll basically all be exchanging your drinkable gifts with each other. As they do in the TikToks, amp up the presentation and make a party of it.
Themed Gift Boxes
Each person will have a theme they have to stick to for filling their gift box with food. On the day of the exchange, the gifters draw a number out of a hat to decide the order of the swap. The themes can be vegetables, nostalgic childhood snacks, charcuterie board must-haves, and more! At the end of the night, you've saved yourself a trip to the grocery store.
Charitable Gift Exchanges
Gift Auction
There are a few ways you can exchange gifts via auction, one of which will make it a charitable endeavor. First things first, the general rules of the game are setting a price point and everyone buying a gift they leave unwrapped so the party can see what the gifts are. Put the gifts on display with empty cups or jars next to them—now this is where the games can branch off. One way to play is by giving everyone the same amount of fake money (Monopoly money works great for this!) and having each person go up and show off the gift they bought, asking for bids. The person with the highest bid wins the gift.
The second way to play that also gives back is using real money to auction off the gifts. After each person auctions off what they bought, you take the final proceeds and donate them to a charity everyone supports. This can be done with any price range of gifts. In the end, everyone still gets a present for themselves while also giving back to the community.
Give to Give Back
Another thoughtful option that works just as well for coworkers as it does for friends and family: a charity swap. Rather than buying and wrapping gifts, everyone can draw names then donate a set amount of money to a charity of their recipient's choice, helping everyone to give back to an organization that means something to them. This is another great option for long-distance festivities since you don't need to be in the same place to make it happen. Just don't do what George Costanza did in that Seinfeld episode!
Buy One, Give One
After figuring out who is gifting to whom, have everyone bring the gifts they bought for their designated person plus an extra gift of equal value. They will not be giving away that extra gift to anyone else in the group but will instead donate it to a charity that accepts items, such as Toys for Tots. A specific person in the group can then gather all the extra presents and donate them all at the same time. You'll be making so many people's days.
Leave Toys for Santa
Similar to the option above, this one is more kid-centric. Tell your children if they want gifts from Santa Claus this year, then they'll have to leave a certain number of toys or items they don't want or use anymore for Santa to take back with him to the North Pole. Have them leave, say, three toys they no longer play with next to the milk and cookies. A few days later, take their donations to Toys for Tots or a local family shelter.
Nominate Your Charity
This holiday season, encourage your friends to give back to your favorite charity. Choose a friend's name out of a hat and make a donation to the charity of their choosing. This leaves no charity behind and gives your friend group an opportunity to learn more about the causes you care for.
Gift From Brands that Give Back
Decide early on in the gift exchange process to give gifts only from brands that actively give back with each purchase. Your annual holiday party will be so much more special when you know that the present you received and the one you gave also provided a gift or a donation to someone who truly needed it.
Looking for more gift inspiration? Check out House Beautiful's holiday gift guides for men, women, teens, teachers, and more.
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Medgina Saint-Elien covers everything your home needs. She writes about exciting new product launches, hands-on reviews, and the "lightbulb" moments in every maker's story. In overseeing key HB editorial franchises, including the Live Better Awards, Saint-Elien champions the work of BIPOC entrepreneurs in the design and beauty industries. In addition to House Beautiful, her work has been published in Byrdie, Snapchat, and more. Outside of work, the writer and poet can be found documenting her travels on social media and saving memes for future use.
Meghan Shouse is House Beautiful's Assistant Editor, a role she has held since September 2023. On top of being the magazine's go-to Waco expert, Meghan also touches on quite a few other verticals in the digital space, like hot news content featuring your favorite HGTV stars, home design inspiration, and the latest interior TikTok trends. However, her favorite pieces are the ones that start conversations, such as stories about resale value and whether or not the Solo cup is chic. Before becoming a home writer, Meghan worked in the fashion industry for two years, writing for Harper's Bazaar after graduating from Iowa State University with a bachelor's degree in apparel merchandising. When she's not interviewing interior designers about home trends, you can find Meghan reading a fictional thriller with her cat in her lap, planning themed parties, or strolling through flea markets searching for chunky candle holders and vintage bookends.
