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How to win at Stealing Santa

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To me a "win" is giving a great present to someone who'll enjoy it, and not being wasteful. That can be tricky with these games.

What is Stealing Santa?

It's a version of secret santa played at workplaces or in extended families. Each person contributes a gift, and draws a number to determine the order of play.

Player one selects a gift and opens it. Each following player opens a gift and can keep it or (forcibly) swap it with any already-opened gift. The last player has the choice of all the gifts.

Why I hate this game

Clearly it runs totally against the idea of buying a present for a specific person who you have thought about and brought something that would suit that person. Also, giving gifts for an unknown recipient often results in unwanted and wasteful purchases, sometimes thrown away.

Why I love this game

If played well, the worst outcome is neutral and the best outcome can be someone getting a gift they love. What? Let me explain.

My wife didn't want to go in this game at her office, for very good reasons about waste and consumerism. But there's office social pressure to join in, so we devised a winning strategy so that she can take part in the social aspect but without the negative consequences.

What to contribute

I heard some people take along a gift they want themself. When their turn comes, they either pick it from the pile, or swap for it.

Our variation is that my wife took a re-gift - it's a really great gift but something she already had one of. (That's win number one - no extra consumerism required).

When her turn came, she picked it from the pile and explained what it was. It turned out to be the perfect present for someone else. When their turn came, they quickly swapped to get it.

Success. The gift ended up in the hands of someone who really wanted it, will put it to good use and get great value from it.

A double win

Apart from finding a good home for the re-gift, my wife also ended up with a present that she likes and will use.


That was an extra bonus, not in our plan. We think the solar light will work well for our balcony. If not, it can always go back into the game next year ;)

A word about re-gifting

Sometimes a gift is a good idea, but you already have the exact same thing. Or it doesn't suit you for a particular reason, that the giver wouldn't know. Sometimes we sell these items (get our tips for that) but re-gifting is another option.

Related reading:

Tips for standard Secret Santa.
For normal present giving get my free ebook of great gift ideas (for people who don't want stuff).
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