White Elephant Invitation

A white elephant invitation has one job that a normal party invitation does not, which is to tell people they need to bring a wrapped gift and roughly what to spend on it. Leave that out and half your guests turn up empty handed and mortified, and the other half spend eighty dollars because nobody told them not to.

The maker above fills in your details and writes the invitation for you. Pick a tone, pick a design, then print it or copy the whole thing straight into a group chat. Below there is wording you can steal outright, a checklist of what to include, and the specific sentences that stop the awkward questions before they start.

What to put on a white elephant invitation

Seven things, and only the last two are optional.

The date, the time and the place, which every invitation needs. The spending limit, written as a number rather than a vague suggestion, because around twenty five dollars gets you gifts between twenty and thirty, while a fun little gift gets you anything from a candy bar to a coffee machine. Whether people should bring a gift for everyone or just one to put in the pile, since not everyone has played before and the answer is genuinely not obvious. An RSVP, because you need a headcount to know whether the game will take twenty minutes or an hour.

Then the two optional ones: a theme, if you are running one, and a line saying how the game works. If your group has played every year for a decade you can drop that. If you are inviting colleagues who have never done this, one sentence saves you explaining it eleven times on the night.

Something worth saying plainly: put the spending limit in the invitation itself, not in a follow up message a week later. The people most likely to overspend are the ones who buy early.

White elephant invitation wording

Here is white elephant invitation wording you can copy as it stands or bend to fit your group. The tone matters more than the words. A line that lands beautifully with old friends can read as slightly unhinged in a work email.

Classic wording

Bring one wrapped gift, take your chances, and leave with something you did not expect.

Join us for our annual white elephant gift exchange. One wrapped gift each, no name drawing, and no idea what you are going home with.

You are invited to a white elephant gift exchange. Bring one wrapped gift worth around twenty five dollars and we will handle the rest.

Funny white elephant invitation wording

Bring something wrapped, guard it with your life, and accept that it will probably be taken from you by someone you love.

One gift in, one regret out. Wrap it well so nobody can tell how bad it is.

We are having a white elephant exchange. Bring the worst acceptable gift twenty five dollars can buy. Points for creativity, no points for taste.

Come for the food, stay for the moment your sister steals the good candle from your father.

Office white elephant invitation wording

Our annual white elephant exchange is back. Bring one wrapped gift under twenty dollars, keep it workplace appropriate, and the whole thing takes half an hour.

Holiday gift exchange this Friday. One wrapped gift each, everything is anonymous, and taking part is completely optional.

Keep the wording for a work invitation flatter than you would for friends. Two details do a lot of quiet work here: saying the gift should be workplace appropriate, and saying that taking part is optional. Not everyone has spare money in December, and giving people a way out that does not require a conversation is a kindness.

Family wording

One wrapped gift each, everybody plays, and the little ones get to steal from the grown ups without getting into trouble.

Bring a gift, bring an appetite. The exchange starts once the plates are cleared and lasts exactly as long as it needs to.

Gift swap after dinner. One wrapped gift per person, nothing over fifteen dollars, and no swapping back afterward however much you want to.

Free white elephant invitation template

Most free white elephant invitation templates are a blank image you have to open in a separate design app and add text boxes to, or a print and handwrite sheet where you fill in the details with a pen. Both work. Both are more effort than they should be.

The maker above is a free white elephant invitation template that fills itself in. Type your details once and they appear on the invitation as you type. There are five designs, eight color schemes including a plain black and white one for anyone printing on a work printer, and every line of text stays editable, so if the wording is not quite right for your group you can rewrite it.

Nothing needs downloading first, there is no account, and nothing is emailed to you.

Sending it as a text or a group chat message

Realistically most white elephant invitations are sent in a group chat, not mailed in an envelope. The maker has a second tab that gives you the whole invitation as plain text, formatted to read well in a message rather than on paper.

The wording follows whichever tone you picked, so a funny invitation reads funny as a message too. Copy it, paste it into the chat, done.

White elephant email invite

For a work invitation, email usually beats a printed card. The email version of the message adds a short paragraph explaining how the game actually works, which is the thing colleagues ask about most and the thing that stops people opting out because they are not sure what they are signing up for.

Put the spending limit in the subject line if you can. People skim work emails and it is the one detail that has to survive being skimmed.

Printing your invitations

You can print one invitation per page at five by seven inches, which is the standard invitation size and fits a card envelope, or two per page with a cut line between them if you are making a lot.

Turn on background graphics in your print window or the color will not print. If you would rather send a file than a piece of paper, choose Save as PDF as the destination instead of your printer, and you have a white elephant invitation you can attach to an email.

For a work party, the plain black and white scheme prints cleanly on any office printer and does not burn through a color cartridge on forty copies.

Set the spending limit before you send anything

This is the decision that determines what kind of party you get, so make it before you write the invitation rather than after.

Ten to fifteen dollars gets you a genuinely silly exchange where the gifts are the joke. Twenty to thirty is the standard range and the one most groups mean by default. Fifty and up changes the mood entirely: people start buying things they would want themselves, and the stealing gets pointed rather than playful.

Whatever you choose, write it as a number. Around twenty five dollars is clear. A small gift is not.

Once the invitations are out

The invitation is the easy part. What people actually argue about on the night is the rules, and specifically how many times a gift can be stolen before it is safe.

Our white elephant rules page covers the standard game and lets you build a printable rule sheet with your own steal limit on it, which is worth putting on the table next to the gift pile. If you would rather everyone bought for one assigned person, that is a different game: the Secret Santa generator draws the names for you and the Secret Santa sign up sheet collects who is taking part.

For a version with no stealing at all, which suits younger children and larger groups, the left right Christmas game moves the gifts with a story instead.

If you would rather the dice decided who steals what, the white elephant dice game replaces the choosing with a roll, which suits big groups and rooms where people do not know each other well.

Planning the rest of the party

A guest list template is useful once the replies start coming in, especially if you are tracking who is bringing a gift as well as who is coming. The charades generator covers the stretch after the gifts are open, and a Christmas wish list template helps the relatives who would rather be told exactly what to buy. If December is still a blank page, start with the Christmas bucket list.

For the whole picture, including how to host one, what to spend and which version suits your group, start at white elephant.

FAQ

What should a white elephant invitation say?

The date, the time, the place, the spending limit as an actual number, and whether people bring one gift for the pile or a gift for everyone. Add an RSVP so you know how many are playing, and a one sentence explanation of the game if some of your guests have not done it before. A theme is optional.

How do you word a white elephant invitation?

Match the wording to the group. Friends and family can take something playful like bring something wrapped and guard it with your life. A work invitation reads better flat and factual: one wrapped gift under twenty dollars, workplace appropriate, taking part is optional. The details are identical either way, only the tone changes.

Do you have to say the price on the invitation?

Yes, and as a number. Vague wording is how you end up with one guest bringing a candy bar and another bringing a coffee machine, which is uncomfortable for both of them. Around twenty five dollars is clear. A small gift is not.

How far in advance should you send white elephant invitations?

Three to four weeks for a party in December. People need time to buy a gift, and December calendars fill fast. For a work exchange, two weeks is usually enough since everyone is in the same building anyway.

Can you send a white elephant invitation as a text message?

Most people do. The maker gives you the invitation as plain text formatted for a message, so you can paste it straight into a group chat with the wording and details intact.

What size should a white elephant invitation be printed?

Five by seven inches is the standard invitation size and fits a card envelope. You can also print two smaller invitations per page with a cut line between them, which is quicker if you are making a lot of them.

Should the invitation explain the rules?

One sentence is enough on the invitation itself. Save the full rules for a printed sheet on the table, or explain them on the night. An invitation that opens with three paragraphs of rules does not get read.

When people reply asking what to bring, send them a link. Our white elephant gift ideas $25 page covers the most common limit, white elephant gifts under $10 covers a smaller budget, and white elephant gifts for the office covers a workplace exchange.

Is a white elephant invitation the same as a Yankee swap invite?

The wording is interchangeable. Yankee swap, dirty santa and white elephant describe the same gift exchange under different regional names, so use whichever one your group calls it and keep everything else the same.

What if some people cannot afford to take part?

Say on the invitation that taking part is optional, particularly at work. It gives anyone who needs it a way out that does not require them to explain themselves, and it costs you nothing.

Do you need to bring a gift for everyone?

No, and this is the single most common misunderstanding. In a white elephant exchange each person brings one wrapped gift for the pile, not a gift per guest. Worth stating outright on the invitation if anyone is new to it.