White Elephant Turn Order & Steal Tracker
Random turn order plus a live steal tracker.
Built and maintained by Paul Clark, Redmoon Software · Last checked
Run the whole gift exchange from one screen: paste everyone's names, generate a shuffled turn order, then tap +1 steal each time a gift changes hands. Once a gift hits your steal cap — configurable from 1 to 10, default 3 — the tracker marks it safe and disables further steals. The game state saves to your browser, so an accidental refresh mid-party loses nothing.
List. Paste participant names, one per line.
0 items
Click Generate turn order to see a result.
Options
Recent results
- No history yet.
How it works
- List. Paste participant names, one per line.
- Set. Set the max steals allowed per gift.
- Play. Click "Generate turn order", then use the +1 steal buttons to track steals live as you play.
- Resume. Reloading the page restores the turn order and all steal counts.
About the White Elephant Turn Order & Steal Tracker
This is a tracker, not a randomiser
Most tools here draw something. This one draws an opening order and then helps you run the game, because the part of white elephant that actually goes wrong is not the order — it is losing count of steals halfway through and having a fifteen-minute argument about whether a gift is frozen.
The opening order is a straight shuffle of your participant list. Everything after that is bookkeeping.
What the steal counter enforces
Set Max steals per gift — three is the usual house rule — and each slot gets a running count with a button to increment it. When a gift reaches the limit its counter locks, the button disables, and the row is marked as safe, which is the state everyone forgets and nobody can prove.
That is the whole value. The rule that a gift becomes untouchable after a set number of steals is what stops the game looping forever, and it is unenforceable from memory once a dozen gifts are in play.
The game state is saved in this browser as you go, so an accidental page refresh mid-game does not lose the counts. It also means the game is tied to the device it started on.
Rules the tool assumes you have agreed
- Whether a person who has just been stolen from may immediately steal back — most house rules say no.
- Whether the first player gets a final swap at the end, which is the most common variant.
- Whether gifts are opened when chosen or all at the end.
- What the price limit is, and whether it is enforced by anything other than shame.
Frequently asked questions
How does the steal tracker work during the game?
Every row in the turn order has a +1 steal button. Tap it when that gift is stolen; the count updates live, and at your limit the row shows "MAX STEALS — safe now" and the button disables.
What happens if someone refreshes the page mid-game?
Nothing is lost. The turn order and every steal count are saved in your browser's local storage after each tap, and the page restores the full game board on reload.
Can I change the steal limit?
Yes — set max steals per gift anywhere from 1 to 10 before generating the order; the default is 3. The limit applies to every gift in that game.
Is the turn order actually fair?
Yes. Names are shuffled with your browser's Web Crypto API, so every ordering is equally likely — nobody gains an advantage from where they appear in the pasted list.
Does this work for Yankee swap or Dirty Santa rules?
Yes. Turn order plus steal tracking covers white elephant, Yankee swap, and Dirty Santa alike — just set the max-steals value your house rules use before generating.
Related randomizers
Further reading
- Breaking gift-giving decision paralysis with a filtered random draw
"Just think of something" is exactly why gift-giving stalls under a deadline. Here's how filtering a big idea list by recipient type and budget turns an overwhelming search into a five-minute decision — and how it slots into secret santa and white elephant exchanges.
- Tracking white elephant steals so nobody has to remember whose gift hit the limit
Someone always loses count mid-game, and the argument over whether a gift is "safe" derails the party. Here's how a live steal tracker settles it instantly, plus the common steal-limit house rules to agree on before you start.