White Elephant Bingo: Rules and Printables

The White Elephant gift exchange has been popular for ages and continues to chug along like a souped-up Polar Express. No matter how many swaps you participate in, this Christmas tradition never really gets old because the people and the presents always make for a unique experience. On top of that, there are endless ways to add extra flavor to the game with rules variations.

One foolproof way to spice things up is to combine White Elephant with another beloved game, Bingo. This festive fusion works because both games are simple and well-known, and putting them together doesn’t dramatically change the rules for either. In fact, as you’ll see in the How to Play section below, Bingo is for the most part just tacked on to decide who gets to make the next pick in the gift exchange.

Besides the novelty factor, a big advantage of White Elephant Bingo is that it lasts longer than a vanilla gift swap. That makes it a fantastic option for smaller gatherings, where the gift exchange might otherwise be over in a flash.

How to Play

The best way to summarize the rules is that it’s a traditional White Elephant gift exchange, with Bingo used to determine the pick order.

Here are the step-by-step instructions for White Elephant Bingo:

White Elephant Bingo Printables

You can play White Elephant Bingo with standard Bingo cards. However, I’ve designed special cards with a Freeze/Unfreeze game mechanic that adds a fun twist (see the How to Play section for more info). This printable contains the Bingo cards to distribute to the players, as well as a callout sheet at the end. To download, click here or on the preview image below.

Here’s a printable that uses numbers only. It also comes with a callout sheet, but since it’s all numbers, you also have the option of using an app or online number generator to do the job. To download, click here or on the preview image.

Finally, it’s never a bad idea to have a printout of the rules on hand. Here’s a PDF file you can use.

Ideas for Organizers

As you can see, the setup for White Elephant Bingo is relatively simple. That said, a few thoughtful touches can make a big difference in how your gift exchange goes over. Here are some thoughts on how to make your White Elephant Bingo game extra special:

Make your game pieces festive

I’ve provided holiday themed printables you can use for your White Elephant Bingo game. However, you may also want to look for some festive markers (Christmas Hershey’s kisses work well for this). Another idea: Draw your Bingo callouts from a Santa hat.

Think about spacing

The players need enough space to comfortably mark their Bingo sheets without feeling cramped. Ideally, they should also be able to easily see the gift pile, so they can watch as other players open their presents. Depending on the venue, there might be a balancing act here that requires careful consideration.

Have someone dedicated to Bingo callouts

Trying to run the game while also participating might diminish your enjoyment of both. Consider being the full-time referee or assigning the callouts to someone else (seems like a great job for a kid).

All the usual White Elephant advice still applies

At the end of the day, this is a White Elephant gift exchange. That means you’ll want to take a peek at the standard rules and variations, consider the price range for gifts, and all that other good stuff that I talk about endlessly on this website.

However you decide to run your game of White Elephant Bingo, it’s sure to be a blast. Good luck in your planning, and Happy Holidays to you!