White Elephant- History, Meanings and How to Make the Holidays Fun!

White elephant is a term used for many different types of gift exchange. Some of these are games that involve trading gifts,others are attempts to give (or get) the most tasteless item possible. There seem to be as many styles of white elephant exchange as there are places they are held, each with its own rules, customs and legends. Some places where you might find this exchange (or suggest it if no one else has) are:

Offices and other places of employment

Schools, both in the classroom and the teacher's lounge

Dorms, Sororities and other living groups

Family gatherings, especially Christmas

Clubs for both adults and children

Girl/Boy Scout troops of all ages

Sports teams and leagues

Anywhere else where there's a group of people looking for a fun alternative to a traditional holiday gift exchange

What is a "White Elephant"?

According to Wikipedia(www.wikipedia.com article: "white elephant"), a white elephant is an item that is either useless, unweildy, expensive to maintain, or otherwise not worth the expense of keeping. The term originally derived from the sacred East Asian white elephant, a holy animal that could not be abandoned, used or mistreated. Since an elephant was (and is) quite expensive to keep, one which can be of no use to it's owner is quite a financial catastrophe. Often a noble or king who was displeased with a lesser noble in Thailand would gift the noble with a white elephant, a superficial symbol of status, wealth and luck that would lead the lesser noble into bankruptcy and ruin. So clearly, a white elephant is something to be wary of, as it is intended to be useless, whether you are in an office in Brooklyn or a royal gathering in Thailand!

Fortunately the modern version of the white elephant is not as disasterously useless as the real East Asian version! A modern white elephant exchange is generally an attempt to trade the tackiest, most useless gifts possible. Occasionally these gifts are to be used items, however most often for a holiday exchange inexpensive new items are given. There are many ways in which white elephants are exchanged, but for today we will concern ourselves with the two most common. There seems to be some debate over which is correct, and both have other names, but generally speaking, they are ways to have fun, laugh at tasteless gifts and not be stressed over having the perfect ten dollar office gift.

The first method of white elephanting is to draw names "Secret Santa" style, but instead of tasteful, useful gifts, the goal is to give the most outlandish, tacky, useless gift imaginable. Since you know who the gift is intended for, it is fairly easy to find something that will strike the proper chord of horrified amusement. These gifts are then usually displayed in a common setting, such as an office lunch room, or a sorority common room, often with oversize gift tags attached. This is a lesser known and somewhat variable version of the white elephant that is sometimes called "Twisted Santa" "Drunken Santa" (bonus points for having your office/group party at a bar), or other similarly themed names.

The second, and more common, method of white elephant party requires that each participant contribute a well-disguised wrapped gift. All the gifts are gathered together, preferrably in a manner that prevents people from knowing who brought which wrapped gift. Participants then draw numbers and use the numbers to determine the order in which they choose gifts. When a gift is chosen it is unwrapped and presented for the group to see in most cases, although some variations include leaving all gifts wrapped until everyone is done choosing and stealing. At the outset of each person's turn they have the option of choosing a "new" gift to unwrap or "stealing" someone else's gift. If they steal a gift, the person they took it from gets to either choose a new gift or steal one from someone else (not the gift they just lost). This continues on around the entire group until everyone has a gift and has had an opportunity (or two) to steal for a better one. If the gifts have not been unwrapped yet, they do so at this time. This version is also known as "Dirty Santa" or "Yankee Swap".

What to give at a white elephant exchange

White elephant gifts are traditionally low cost, humorous gifts that serve no real purpose. Some examples might be gaudy wall art or clocks, hideously scented beauty products, traditional "gag" gifts such as a snake in a can or a pack of exploding gum, or other such things. The gifts traditionally given as white elephants can be broken into a few main categories.

1. The ugly yet useful. These would be things like clocks, cookie jars, serving platters and so forth that are useful....or would be if they weren't so ugly! If you decide to give this sort of gift, the goal is to make it as tasteless and hopelessly unmatching as possible. If you don't know who the gift will go to this is still possible if you simply pick something so overly colorful that it clashes with itself, or in a color that is in and of itself offensive.

2. The uselessly decorative. This is a variety best suited to groups where you know no one is interested in interior decorating. If you're among a group of college students or others who feel decorating is simply unnecissary (or best accomplished with beer cans), then some sort of decorative frou-frou is about as white elephant as it becomes. Something impossible to keep dusted and/or at total odds with the lifestyle of the recipient (new baby things for a single college student, or Playboy wall hangings for a man married to a conservative woman) only adds to the fun.

3. The gag gift. This is something that was designed only to make someone laugh or blush. Such things as a box full of rubber vomit, a package of novelty sexual aids, joke underwear or other pranks are easy to find, require very little effort and are definitely a white elephant option. However, in experienced white elephant circles these things may be looked down upon as cheating or taking the easy way out.

4. The hopelessly retro. We all know that trends come back, right? Well some shouldn't, or haven't yet and these make great white elephant gifts. Think about things like psychedelic wall hangings or 1980s inspired accessories. These are things that everyone will recognize for their retro value but have no use for now. Another option in the same vein is toys from your collective childhood. This is best done in a similar age group of thirty-somethings (or older), simply because the more dated it is, the funnier.

Where to get a white elephant gift

Some of the best places to shop for such things are the bargain bins of the stores you normally shop at. In the bottom of the "last stop" clearance area you can find such things as hideously scented candles and bath products, the ugliest clock you've ever seen and anything else that no one in their right mind would buy. Hence the reason it's clearanced! Another selling point that bargain bins have is that at the desperation prices (as in, they're desperate to get rid of it!) you can mix and match several items to produce the most irreverent and tacky gift basket possible, and you may even find a suitably tacky basket or tin to put the items in!

Another winning place for white elephant gifts naturally would be discount or closeout stores. You know the one, the one that advertises "rock bottom prices" on an ever-changing stock? Yeah...go dig through their shelves a bit and you'll find some things that other stores probably paid them to take! You may find some nicer things for yourself, or those on your more traditional gift list while you are there as well, but you can almost certianly find some sort of oddball thing that would be perfect for the white elephant. Other discount stores are also a treasure trove, because you just know that a lot of their store branded merchandise is not designed to be, shall we say, higher class? While there are quite nice things to be found in such stores, for the most part their purchasing department's taste tends to leave much to be desired.

Lastly, we have specialty stores and online shops. You know the ones, the store with the "Over the Hill" gag birthday section and the gummi body parts sitting next to fake vomit. It's doubtful that there's a good sized shopping mall in America that doesn't have at least one of these stores. You can also find innumerable websites devoted to the tacky, the campy and the shamelessly tasteless with a quick search on your favorite search engine. Of course shipping and shipping times are factors for online shopping, but no matter where you are, there's a huge selection of merchandise perfect for a gag gift, a white elephant or any other joke you wish to pull, and it's all just a few clicks away!

Some of the online shops I've found for white elephant gifts include AspenCountry.com (a whole section specifically devoted to white elephant gifts!), Uncommongoods.com, dealtime.com and of course spencersonline.com (the website of the well known mall store).