White Elephant Gift Suggestions for a Church Party

Is your church having a Christmas get-together this year that includes a white elephant exchange? At a loss for a gift to bring? Consider these white elephant gifts for your church get-together.

The rules for a white elephant exchange can vary. The gift item is usually a used item in your home that you no longer want. The white elephant item may or may not be useful, in working condition, or attractive. Be forewarned, however. Some parties include white elephant gift exchanges in which each person is required to bring a gift that costs a predetermined amount. Make sure what type of white elephant gift is meant.

If your household is similar to many other Christian households, you probably have quite a few Bibles lying around, not all of which are in use. Blow the dust off the cover and the rarely used Bible becomes a white elephant gift. In fact, any book that you have read and do not foresee reading again can easily become a white elephant gift.

Look in your jewelry box for a cross necklace or pin you no longer want to wear. Put the piece of jewelry in an envelope, tape the envelope to the inside bottom of a large box, and stuff the box with crumpled newspaper to disguise the white elephant gift you have brought.

Are you known for a certain meal item you bring to church potlucks? If you have any plastic, metal, or glass baking pans that are buried in the back of your cupboard, you could tape your potluck recipe to the inside of the pan and give it as a white elephant gift.

Perhaps you have some old albums of Christian singing groups. Do you have any audio sermons or teaching messages on cassette? Any of these would suffice as good white elephant gifts.

If your children have ever been in a Christmas program, somewhere you may have a pair of angel wings, a halo, or animal costume. Imagine the surprise on the face of the recipient when she opens the white elephant gift and finds a costume for the next church Christmas program.

Used Christmas decorations, whether old tree-toppers, strings of lights, or ornaments, are nice white elephant items, and might be the one gift many guests will want.

Packets of old garden seeds may be bundled up with a copy of Luke 8:4-15, the teaching of Jesus commonly known as the Parable of the Sower. Two or three old fishing lures attached to a floppy hat become a white elephant gift demonstrating the words of Jesus found in Matthew 4:19, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." An old unwanted lamp can be given with the verses pertaining to the words of Jesus found in Luke 8:16-18.

At one white elephant gift exchange I attended, the most hotly contested gift was a box of leftover yarn skeins. The most amusing gift that night was the one my husband gave, a pair of 70's men's platform shoes. The recipient was our unmarried female pastor.

And if still stuck for a really great white elephant gift, you can always wrap up an old toilet lid or that holiday fruitcake from last year. You never know if your gift will make the rounds for years to come.