The White Elephant in the Room

A family tradition that my husband's family has always practiced is having a white elephant gift exchange on Thanksgiving. Basically, everyone brings a wrapped gift (not a serious gift, just a gag one) and draws a number out of a cup. Starting with whoever drew number one, each person may either steal a gift or choose one from the pile to open. To make it more fair, we let the first person choose to steal at the very end since there was no one to steal from when they started. We also only allow a gift to be stolen twice before it becomes "frozen" and can't be stolen again.

I'll be honest, in white elephants some "gifts" are better than others. And if you are worrying about what to bring to your next gag gift exchange so yours doesn't become the white elephant in the room (see what I did there ;) ), here are some tips that will ensure that the gift you brought will keep getting stolen (and I mean that in a good way!)


1. Include a joke.

Some pretty funny ones that John's aunt came up with were very cute but also simple to make. She just found a funny quote online, printed it out, and framed it. One that she made said "Break in case of emergency" and the frame had a chocolate bar in it. Not only was it cute, but it also had something yummy in it! Speaking of sweets, that brings us to the next tip...


2. When in doubt cover it in chocolate.

No! Don't literally smear chocolate all over your gift. Seriously, save that for a cake or something. But honestly, if you are worried your gift is lame, throw a little candy in with it. Even if someone wasn't too excited about the see through boots you found, the candy inside might persuade someone to oh so kindly take them off your hands.


3. Look at it from your perspective.

When deciding if something would make a good white elephant gift, think about it as if you had won the gift. There are plenty of things that are a little funny but not a lot that are funny enough that you wouldn't mind taking them home with you.


4. Consider the group.

John and I come from families that are very similar yet different in certain ways. One way in particular has to do with our sense of humor. When John's side of the family opens a gift that uses potty humor, everyone busts up laughing. For my family, on the other hand, we tend to scrunch up our noses and try not to look too disgusted. It's not bad, just a personal preference thing. If you happen to be playing with a group that may not be into certain types of humor, you may want to avoid that humor. Or, you know. Your gift could just make everyone else feel completely awkward, end the game early, and possibly never invite you back again. Even if you're family. Your choice.


5. Shop early.

The best white elephant gifts we've given were things we bought months before! That's one great thing about doing this gift exchange annually with John's extended family. We always know it's coming up so we can plan for it. Rather than scrambling at the last second and just bringing whatever we could find for 5 bucks at Walmart, we usually have a couple of options we can choose from just because we've been stocking up. We didn't go out and get something specifically on one occasion. We just went through life as normal and if we saw something at the store that looked like a fun option, we got it. Having a shelf full of random stuff (some might say junk...) in your house might not sound appealing to you, but it's a lot more appealing than the last minute freak out session when you realize you forgot to get a white elephant gift.


Hopefully, if you follow these tips, your next white elephant gift exchange will be a blast! And if it's not... there's always next year!