White Elephant Gift Exchange
The History of the White Elephant Gift Exchange
It was some time ago that a young man was invited to a gift exchange being thrown by some of his friends. He was somewhat hesitant about accepting the invitation, not really wanting to go to the trouble of finding a gift generic enough to be given to any one, none the less he sent in his RSVP and promptly forgot about the whole thing.
The day of the party he received a phone call from the host, she had forgotten to attach directions to the original invitation and was calling to make sure every one knew how to get there. The young man, somewhat distressed now realizing he had forgotten about the party, quickly wrote down the directions and headed out to find that perfect generic gift. The young man went everywhere, looked in every store, scanned every department store window, but found nothing he thought was suitable. Depressed he went home, what was he going to do.
Standing in his living room, with only an hour till the party, the young man thought maybe he had something just lying around, maybe he could find a gift here. He began to scan the room, trying to find something that would pass for a gift. His eyes paused for a moment on a bookshelf, there on the top was a small white ceramic elephant. The young mans mind raced, trying to think back as to where he had gotten it. Not coming up with any thing and with only 20 minutes to get to the party, he grabbed the elephant off of the shelf and quickly wrapped up in some scrap wrapping paper.
It was the ugliest wrapping job ever, he thought as he placed it on the table with all the others. It looked so out of place next to all the shiny wrapped packages with the pretty bows, maybe no one would notice he brought it, and he walked away, off to find the refreshments and friends.
Late into the evening the host called the group into a circle of chairs seated around the pile of gifts, she explained the instructions and passed around a hat out of which came a number written on a folded piece of paper. As numbers where called people chose gifts from the center of the circle, the biggest and prettiest one going first. When it was the hosts turn to go, she saw the present brought by the young man was still in the pile, and being a polite and gracious host she picked up the gift and began to unwrap the small package. As the elephant began to emerge whispers heard around the circle. The host began to laugh, "What a great idea! A gag gift. Who brought this?" The young man grateful for the excuse to his poorly chosen gift promptly raised his hand and began to weave an intricate lie about the tradition in his family known as the white elephant gift exchange. As the young man finished the story, he waits to see if his lie has been accepted. Slowly the people around him begin to snicker and laugh, and the young man breaths a sigh of relief, as the group talks loudly about the new game.
As the night wore on, one by one each guest approached the young man, asking him to write down the rules of the game, excited to try it with there own family and friends. The young man thought about telling the very gracious host the truth, but decided that some things are better left for the imagination.
***I was wondering what the white elephant gift exchange was all about when my cousin brought it up...now I know. I might host one in a few weeks as soon as the school semester is over...hey, it might be fun!***
RULES:
Everyone brings a gift already wrapped. No one should know which gift you brought. Make up slips of paper with numbers on them and then each person draws a number.
To start, the person with #1 picks out a gift, opens it so all can see what it is. Then the person with #2 get to "steal" any unwrapped gift or chose from those not yet chosen. Person #3 gets again gets to "steal" any already opened gift or chose one of the ones still unopened.
The game continues with the following rules:
a) If someone steals your gift, you can steal someone else's gift (see following rules)
b) Continue until everyone has had a turn for a gift. The turn is ended with the gift has been opened.
c) A gift can only be "stolen" once during a turn.
d) The 3rd "owner" of a gift gets to keep it, it can't be stolen again.
After the last turn, the person who started (since he didn't get a chance at the beginning) can put back the gift and "steal" and gift according to the rules. This starts the gift exchange again (following the above rules) and ends when someone chooses or is forced to take the gift given up by the person with #1.