The Perfect White Elephant Gift

White elephant gifts aren't supposed to be practical. The anonymity of the tradition makes that impossible - you don't know who it's going to, so you don't know what they need. That being the case, white elephant parties and gift exchanges can get quite interesting and also be a great creative outlet if you let yourself have fun with them.

I hope you've been spared the experience of getting one stinky shoe or a roll of toilet paper as a white elephant gift - those were the sort of things my male friends were fond of handing out in our youth. I also hope, for the sake of your friends, that you aren't the sort to dish that genre of object out yourself! A little bit of planning is all it takes to give the perfect white elephant gift.

There are of course many ways to go about this type of gift giving, but how about the most obvious? Why not actually give a white elephant?? I don't mean importing a rare mammal from Africa of course, though that would be quite the surprise to the recipient, but if you buy or make a decorative white elephant for your partner they will never forget where it came from.

I hope the links below inspire you:

*Crochet a white elephant along with the people over at crafster.org
*Knit this great elephant from Susan B. Anderson (pdf file)
*Or a quick and tiny knitted white elephant
*A finger puppet? (crochet)
*How about a tea cozy?
*Filet crochet or cross stitch elephants as an embellishment on another handmade gift.
*Sock Elephant - my favorite!