White Elephant, also known as Yankee Swap or Dirty Santa, can be played with cards by following these steps:
Each player brings a wrapped gift and places it on a table. The gifts should be around the same value so no one feels left out.
Shuffle a deck of cards and place them in the center of the table.
Each player draws a card and the person with the highest card number goes first.
The first player picks a gift and unwraps it.
The second player can either choose to steal the first player’s gift or pick a new, wrapped gift from the table. If they steal the gift, the first player gets to pick a new, wrapped gift.
Play continues in this manner until all gifts have been opened and everyone has a gift they are happy with.
The game can end either when all the gifts have been opened or after a designated number of rounds.