To participate in the Yankee Swap, bring a wrapped gift of any value, and with a sense of humor. We do not set any minimum or maximum price so people can spend at a level they are comfortable paying. Gifts may be nice, practical, funny, outrageous, exquisite, or inane, as the spirit moves. That means that participants must be prepared to end up with a useless or prank gift, or one that evokes envy among everyone else.

The NNH Yankee Swap operates under newly refined rules in response to the way things played out in previous years. It begins with each person who has brought a gift drawing a number. The event coordinator will then draw from a matching set of numbers. The person holding the first number drawn selects and opens one of the wrapped gifts.

When the next number is drawn, the person with the matching number opens a new wrapped gift, then has a choice of keeping or exchanging it for the first person’s gift.

Starting with the third drawing, it gets more interesting. If the person with that number chooses to exchange the gift he/she opens, the person whose gift is taken has a chance to exchange the gift he/she now has with the other person who has not participated in that round. In each subsequent round, that pattern continues, with each person whose gift is taken having a chance to swap with any other player who has not been involved in an exchange during that round. That ensures that each person can be forced to give up a present only once in a round.

After the last number is drawn and the round is completed, the person whose number had been drawn first has a chance to swap gifts with any other player, setting off the round of swaps. Again, each person can be forced to give up a gift only once.

Sound confusing? The rules will be explained again as often as necessary as the game progresses.