I would like to personally thank whoever it was that invented the White Elephant gift exchange. I have been in many such exchanges and have yet to not have fun doing so. In fact some of the fondest memories I have of Christmas parties center around White Elephant gift exchanges.

This year my wife and I once again shopped for presents for the store’s gift exchange. We got a multitude of gifts from all over town, the vast majority of them from local merchants and restaurants.  All nice gifts, all about the same dollar value, all non-specific gender. Well almost all nice gifts. My wife did through in one gag gift, which just added to the fun. (We still want to know why Peggy stole it and would not give it up!) We opened them, stole them tried to get them back after they had been stolen from us and had a wonderful time full of laughter! That’s what makes such a gift exchange so much fun. The more the merrier, the more fun the better.

We’ve all been in Secret Santa or similar gift exchanges, and those are fine for certain groups. But the White Elephant beats them all. I do know the White Elephant gift dates back many hundreds of years. It was a way of getting back at someone you did not really like or did not really want to get a gift for. You may have actually gotten someone a white elephant as a gift. Of course now that person would have to expend much time and money in the feeding and care of the elephant. You got rid of something you didn’t really want, gave it to someone you might not have really liked and got credit for giving a gift.

I’ve been in several true exchanges like that. Some of the tackiest and funkiest gifts that I have ever given have been in White Elephant exchanges. The same goes on the receiving side, of course. Still the beauty of it is that one mans junk is another mans treasure. We’ve seen people steal items that everyone else just groans at. (Kinda like Peggy with the gag gift this year. What is she going to do with that?!) My family does a gift exchange like this every year for Christmas. Like so many of us I have many cousins and their children who we don’t see much of during the year. It’s so hard to get them all something they like that we decided to just do the exchange. It saves us all time and money and has huge laughter dividends. We always look forward to the gift exchange knowing that we will laugh until we cry!

So if you or your company or friends have not tried a White Elephant gift exchange, do so. You’ll be glad you did!