How it all Works

White Elephant Online provides a platform for you and your group to play White Elephant virtually! Here's a high level overview of how it all works end-to-end. 

How it works

We've setup our system to be completely self-service, so you can hold the event whenever you want, with whomever you want. 

• Every player will submit a gift to the game.  This entails posting a link to a gift from any online retailer, or uploading an image of something you have at home, and then 'wrapping' it virtually.  Players do NOT need to purchase the gift at this time.  Once the game is complete, players will find out who won their gift and can purchase then (see Gift Distribution section below for more details).  
• Alternatively, we offer functionality for a central admin to manage gifts on behalf of participants, and even create "Dummy Players" (only available in 'Standard' package games)

• Everyone should join a video call, e.g. on Zoom
• One person in the group will serve as the Game Lead. They will share their screen so that everyone can follow along and will be the one clicking to unwrap or steal gifts. (This person does not need to have submitted a gift)

• All players can optionally login to see what number they drew and what gift they have at any given time, but cannot click to open or steal gifts.  If they login, they can also marked themselves as "Checked in" before the game starts so the game lead doesn't need to check them in. 

• Once the game begins, you'll play following the rules as setup beforehand (don't worry, we provide default settings)

• After the game is completed, players will be notified of which gift they won and what to do next.  Gifts are purchased & sent only after the game is complete. 

Gift Distribution.  All purchasing of gifts will happen outside our platform, on the original retailer websites the gifts were submitted from. 

• Who purchases & sends the gifts? This is up to you.  It could be the players, or a central administrator. While the gift purchasing happens outside our platform, we want to make it as easy as possible to do this. 
• We have 6 "Gift Distribution Options" which will communicate the next steps to all players and give the admin & players appropriate information.  For example, players can be told who won their gift & their email, so they can ship the gift themselves.  Or, you can have a central admin take care of it and we'll provide an excel export of all the gift recipients with links to the product.  You can read about the Gift Distribution Options here.