White Elephant turn order and steal tracker

Enter the guests, choose a steal cap and use the numbered order to start your White Elephant exchange. The calculator also provides a manual counter for each gift. Open Track steals for each gift, label items as they are unwrapped, and record thefts during the game. The turn order and cap can be shared by link; the live counters stay in the current tab.

Our White Elephant gift guide covers what to bring. The White Elephant rules guide helps the host explain the format before the first present opens. Agree on the rules with the group before using the counter, because different versions count swaps differently.

Set the guest list and turn order

Use one guest per line, or separate names with commas or semicolons. The calculator accepts 3–100 distinct labels, each up to 80 characters. Surrounding spaces are trimmed. Duplicate labels, including names that differ only in capitalization, produce an error; add an initial when two guests share a name.

The minimum and maximum are limits of this tool. Check the displayed player count against the people taking part. The turn table contains every entered guest exactly once. It does not assign a specific present to anyone, track whose turn is currently active, or prevent a guest from selecting the gift they brought.

Leave the seed empty to generate one in the browser. The same ordered guest list and seed reproduce the numbered order. Replace or clear the seed for another shuffle. Changing only the steal cap preserves the order. A fresh seed can still produce the same order, especially with few guests; this is not a cryptographic drawing system.

Choose a cap for each gift

The input accepts whole numbers from zero to five. Zero means an unwrap-only exchange with no stealing. A positive cap counts the total times a particular gift is stolen during the game. Once that counter reaches the chosen cap, the gift is marked Locked and its steal button is disabled.

Three is the initial setting, following the per-gift convention described by Elfster's White Elephant rules. It is not a universal rule. WhiteElephantRules.com distinguishes a three-swap limit within a turn from a separate variation that removes a gift after its third theft. This counter implements the latter kind of total-per-gift cap, not a per-turn chain limit.

The room still decides whether immediate steal-backs are allowed and whether the first player gets an extra opportunity at the end. The calculator does not enforce those choices. State them before the game rather than assuming the counter covers every variation.

Track gifts as they move

Open the tracker and rename Gift 1, Gift 2 and the remaining entries as gifts are opened. Use recognizable descriptions such as Blue mug or Puzzle box. The labels identify objects, not their current owners, and the gift numbers do not have to correspond to guests in the turn table.

Click + Steal when that object is taken from another player. Its first unwrap is not a steal. Undo subtracts one recorded theft, stops at zero, and unlocks an item if its count falls below the cap. Use it to correct a mistaken click rather than changing the guest list during the game.

Changing the cap preserves existing counts. Lowering it can lock a gift whose count is already above the new cap; raising it can make further steals available. Changing the roster or seed starts a fresh tracker. Reloading the page also clears labels and counts. Keep the host's tab open during play; other people's copies do not synchronize with it.

Check examples and share the order

For Alice, Ben, Cara, Dan, Eli and Fay with seed 2468, the order is Alice, Fay, Dan, Eli, Cara, Ben. Set two steals to reproduce the first example. With Ana, Ben, Cara and Dan, seed 20261225 and three steals, the order is Cara, Dan, Ben, Ana. For Mia, Leo, Nora, Owen, Pia and Quinn with seed 777 and one steal, it is Pia, Quinn, Leo, Nora, Mia, Owen.

The address carries the guest list, seed and cap. Anyone receiving it can read those details and reproduce the order. It does not carry gift labels or live counts. Browser history and copied messages may retain the address. For a remote exchange, the host can show the current tracker on a shared screen while guests use the link to check the starting order.