The best gift I ever gave was fake chest hair from Archie McPhee's. Can't go wrong with that.

My brother (the joker in the family), took a close up 8X10 picture of his face and then he autographed it. It was framed and was a big hit. The next year, that picture came back on a t-shirt! Another good one was a big box of golf balls, but inside was grass, tees, chipped golf balls, plastic balls, etc. A GIANT beefsummer sausage became a prop and brought a few laughs. This year, we are bringing a pogo stick.

So... share the results! What gifts were best received? Let us know so we can plan for next year!!! I liked the pogo stick idea; maybe next time some bright pink hoola-hoops?!

A fruitcake is a great white elephant gift! We used to have a holiday party every year and 3 years in a row the same fruitcake made it. It was so funny to see people's face when they opened the fruitcake. Well it ended up in my freezer and then I threw it out.

Does a white elephant gift have to be crazy and something the person wouldn't really want, and does it have to be a gently-used item? Or can it just be something small and new? We're going to a similar party at our neighbors' and each of us needs to take a WE gift. It's my favorite type of gift exchange, lot of fun.

GIFT

EXCHANGE

This White Elephant Gift Exchange was sent to me by "MASON" from my Santa Bulletin Board
THE GIFTS:

1. This party's gift theme is XYZ.
2. The gift should be valued as close to $xx.00 as is reasonable.
3. The gift should be something someone would actually want or use. It should be in new or good condition.
4. The gift should be wrapped or in an envelope before arriving to the party. Gift bags are OK only if a wrapped item is inside.
5. Gift certificates are OK only if it is accompanied by some other item as part of the gift. For instance, a $xx Starbucks gift certificate, by itself, is not OK, but a $yy Starbucks gift certificate together with a coffee mug is OK.
6. As guests arrive to the party, the gifts should be placed in an area where few people can see who brought which gift. All efforts should be made to hide who brought which gift.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE GAME:

In our family we have a can of Treet ( cheep version of spam) that makes the rounds on Christmas. It usually gets wrapped up under the guise of being a regular Christmas present and is a surprise to recipient. The other one is I usually give one of my siblings a pair of verrrrrry large ladies underwear. No one is exempt from getting a funny present.

Stacie

LOL.. I have only ever been to one White Elephant Christmas party. It was at work years ago, but loads of fun. I had a brass "fly" ashtray that had been sitting around unused forever -- a former Christmas gift from someone else. It was *the* most hideous thing in the world. The wings would open up on the back for ashes. That is what I brought. What I got? A Village People album. LOL

A toilet seat made rounds at my husband's work for several years.

The best W.E. gift we ever gave was a beautiful box of chocolates. When you open the box you find 3-4 partially eaten chocolates and a picture of the gift giver eating one. This was the hit of the party!

We always have a WE gift exchange at my office party. One gift that's been circulating for years is a china white bull. Truly hideous, but it originated, I believe as someone's wedding gift, and it's been given for years. The trick to re-gift it is to wrap it extravagantly, hiding its contents. We have a system so that people can choose a gift, and then others get the chance to take it away before it's unwrapped. We have given Xmas gift soaps, originating from a dollar store with truly ugly Xmas motifs. Other gifts included a handmade, truly awful looking pheasant w/real (and molting) feathers, a cookie jar that would have scared the most intrepid child, 70s and 80s LPs, junk jewelry. It's a fun part of the party and keeps us from talking about work all the time!

My daylily club has a white elephant gift exchange at our annual Christmas potluck dinner. We call it a Dirty Santa though. We also limit the amount of money we spend on the gift, also there is theme of gardening we stick to.
This year , a mistaken gift of one of our member's husband choice was the hit of our party. The member's husband had mistakenly picked up the gift our member was going to bring, to his party and she got the gift he had planned to take to his party. The gift was a bottle of an expensive booze.

I started to do a little searching for gift ideas, and one I thought that was funny is to give a box full of those free hotel soaps, shampoos, lotions, shower caps, etc. that we insist on taking home, but never use again anyway! Even if some of them have been opened and used. I have tons of that stuff!

I have to respond here. In years past, White Elephant gifts might be a fun and ridiculous way to spend your time and money, and blow off a gift obligation. But in today's economy, why would you spend money to send something to someone that doesn't want or need some ridiculous joke! Send something to someone or a group that NEEDS help.

Annie1971:

What you've done with your post is called thread crapping. Feel free to Google the term. It's generally considered bad form.

To be on topic, we received an awful, garish, cheap plastic statue of the Virgin Mary that has little red LED lights to illuminate her. It kinda resembles those things people used to do w/ the statues of Mary and bathtubs in their yards.

We couldn't bring ourselves to throw a representation of the Blessed Mother away. Mysteriously enough, though, she went missing last year when we moved and hasn't been seen since. I can only hope some day we'll find her.

Jason

Lucky you -- you and your friend got at garish. cheap, light-up, blinking flashing modern LED Mother of Jesus -- No you can't throw that away -- but it can disappear! My point, exactly!! Nobody needs it; nobody wants it!

This was the best W.E. we ever did. I saw it on the Cooking Forum several years ago. It's an egg separator mug that looks like a face. To separate the egg, the white is poured out through the nose and looks like snot. It's really gross. I also gave one of these to a friend of mine that is an ear, nose and throat physician.

Here is a link that might be useful: Snot-a-mug

Think geek has this bacon plush toy that says, "I'm bacon" when you squeeze it!
thinkgeek.com

A book called "InterCourses" which was all about foods that are considered aphrodisiacs.

Here is a link that might be useful: InterCourses

As they say, "It's not the gift, but the thought that counts". Your groups decide to have WE gifts and that means fun, what a hoot some must be. Imagine a group of people who work together laughing and having fun instead of rehashing what has happened at work. I am sure it carrys over to the workplace. Everytime you exchange glances with someone the laughs start again. A lot better than getting an expensive give that you didn't want.
Carry on!!!