Some variations involve only offering “ugly” gifts, or “gag” gifts. Possible themes might be handmade gifts, used gifts, or things found around the house. Some white elephant parties have a theme around which all gifts must relate. Or there can be a limit on how many times any individual player can have something stolen from them. After three swaps, a gift can no longer be stolen and may be considered safe. Players may decide to prevent infinite steals of popular gifts by adopting a “three strikes” rule. Often a maximum price is set for any gifts that are purchased, typically between $20 and $30. There are a number of variations to the game that can help speed things up, make the game more fair, more competitive or more interesting. Some groups allows players to steal if they get stolen from, but this can lead to endless swapping if additional rules aren't created. In some versions a player can open a new gift before deciding if they want to swap it with someone else's. Typically after the last gift is revealed, the player who went first gets the final option to steal any of the gifts. The next player can open a new gift or steal one of the previous two, and so on until all the gifts have been opened. If a gift is stolen, the previous owner then selects and opens a new gift. The second player can choose to either steal the previous player’s gift or open a new one. They unwrap it, show it to the group, and the next person in succession takes their turn. Everyone is given a number, and whoever is determined to go first selects his or her gift. Each person brings a wrapped gift and all are collected in a common staging area. While it’s suggested that the number of “players” be around 6, as many people can play as have the time to exchange. The rules for a successful white elephant gift exchange are rather simple. How a White Elephant Gift Exchange Works: The tradition is also known by a number of other names including Yankee Swap, Dirty Santa, Cutthroat Christmas, Chinese Auction, Rob your Neighbor, Thieves’ Christmas, and more. They may be tacky, useless, embarrassing, or more trouble than there are worth. The most memorable white elephant gifts are generally things that most people would be happy to get rid of. Today, white elephant gift exchanges aren’t intended for revenge, but cutthroat rivalries can develop as people attempt to steal the best items and dump the trash. The burden of owning the animal far outweighed it’s usefulness, and it was a difficult gift to get rid of. The trick was, the elephant would cost so much to feed and take care of that its owner would be financially ruined. Get on his dark side and you may be bestowed with a rare albino elephant, and animal that was praised as a symbol of prosperity and signified the high social status of anyone who owned such an impressive beast. The cantankerous King was said to take his revenge not through battles, but through gifts. White elephant gifts trace back to legends of an ancient King of Siam, who had an interesting way of getting payback on those who dared to displeased him. You want something unique that will go over well in your group, be memorable, entertaining, perhaps even fought over. Choosing the right white elephant gift can be challenging. Whether you love them or hate them, you’ll probably end up participating in one this year and will need to find some interesting crap to wrap up. So have a blast and buy some fun with these gag gifts that range from the crude to the unusual and beyond.įor more great gifts for the members of your inner circle, check out our picks for the best gadget gifts, tech gifts, and gifts for movie lovers.The white elephant gift exchange is a hilarious holiday tradition full of useless gifts, bizarre surprises and trivial disappointments. Of course, you can still reach for a good old-fashioned Whoopee cushion, because-apologies to my partner here-farting is still funny. Or a gag gift box that uses cursed artwork to conceal its actual contents with a bait and switch. Take Uncommon Goods’ take on the koozie, for example, which replaces that typically cheap-feeling foam padding with a puffer jacket, pushing that beer can into mountaineering mode. Whether it’s for a harmless joke with a group of friends or loading that white elephant pile up with a variety of risqué products, the best gag gifts are useable, novel, and far from ordinary. Gifts are always fun to receive, but a gag gift can make someone’s day much brighter when they least suspect it. Or maybe you’re unsure because you’re playing white elephant or secret Santa, and that giftee may be a total mystery. Maybe it's your husband or a DIY fan and you’re not sure what to grab because this person may already have it all. So you have an occasion on the horizon that requires buying somebody a gift.
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