Have you ever experienced a “White Elephant” gift exchange?

I love Christmas, it truly is the most wonderful time of the year. The lights, decorations, music, food, gifts and family gatherings all add up in my book, to fun-fun-fun. One thing that I especially love about Christmas day is when all the family exchanges a “White Elephant” gift. If you don’t know what White Elephant is, see the basic guidelines:

• Find a theme/or set a price limit
• The point of the game is to exchange or steal inexpensive gifts from participating members
• These gifts can be new, old, fun, unique, homemade, tacky, ugly, silly, out of style or in style
• These gifts have to be nicely wrapped just like you normally would
• Don’t put your name on the gifts, so no one knows that you brought that gift
• Prepare a list of numbers and let everyone pick a number
• #1 goes first and chooses a gift and unwraps it
• #2 has the choice of #1’s gift or picking out a new gift from the others
• If #2 chooses #1’s gift, then #1 can go pick out another gift
• Then on #3’s turn they can do the same thing, choose from the previous opened gifts or choose a new one
• This continues on with the rest of the numbers, until the last person

We always play this and have so many laughs. I remember when I first participated in it, and honestly I didn’t have a clue what is was all about. It was our office party, and I was so excited. I remember, I brought a nice little stuffed animal all nicely wrapped. When it was finally my time to pick a gift, of course I picked a big one. I started to open the box, and inside it was another box, then a another one and another. Finally I opened the last box, and It was a package of gum. I was shocked, my eyes were so wide open and I started to laugh, as did everyone else.

Another time at a relatives house, my husband and I picked what we thought was a nice gift, but inside was some wood, a wire hanger and a pack of marshmallows, a DIY marshmallow roasting kit. We both started to laugh so hard because that was definitely a unique gift. We also knew we were going to be stuck with it too.

It is fun and exciting to see what you may get stuck with. Sometimes you get a good gift, other times you are stuck with something truly horrible. That is what makes “White Elephant” so fun. There has even been times when a “White Elephant” gift makes it to the following Christmas. If you want to have some great fun during the holidays, consider playing the “White Elephant” gift exchange. It is fun, exciting and brings the whole family together.

Now, have fun and tell me if you ever did the “White Elephant” gift exchange, and what was the funniest gift you end up with.  Just share a few stories, so we all can laugh ourselves silly.  I will be looking forward to your wonderful comments.

Sincerely,