A White Elephant Gift gets its name from India. There, elephants were considered sacred animals. If you were given an elephant, it must be treasured and well-kept. A white elephant is obviously a rare thing, so this was a gift that must be highly treasured. But it came at a steep price. Elephants eat an enormous amount of food each day, and their care can be difficult. So the term “White Elephant Gift” refers to something nice, just not necessarily to the person receiving it. This has since come to be synonymous with a gag gift, or something silly that most people won’t use. The rules typically have everyone draw a number from a hat. The first person chooses a gift and unwraps it. The second person may “steal” their gift, or they may choose a new one. If your gift is stolen, you unwrap a new gift. After three times of “stealing”, a gift cannot be stolen anymore. Here are three food related White Elephant gifts for your upcoming party.
Imagine finding a beautiful gift basket, nicely wrapped and well-arranged on the table of white elephant gifts. Now imagine how hard you’ll laugh when you see that it’s full of things that many people would rather not eat. Pickled watermelon rind, potted meat, creamed corn, and Spam all make wonderful additions to the gift basket. Anyone who gets this is certain to groan, and laugh, at all the interesting food items you included. And the presentation of the gift makes it even funnier.
A fruitcake is the ultimate white elephant gift. Many people don’t like to get them, and it’s an item that is often regifted. If you play by the standard rules of the game, people are allowed to “steal” someone’s gift, forcing that person to choose a new one. A fruitcake is one gift that is stolen often. It has almost become like a trophy of sorts for a white elephant gift exchange party. In fact, many white elephant fruitcake recipients keep the fruitcake so that they can wrap it and bring it again the next year.
A third gift is a box of wine. While quite a few people drink these, boxed wines don’t have the same effect as a bottle of wine, and it is something that is bought for its price rather than its high value. It’s a true white elephant gift in every sense, because you are obligating them to a lot of bad wine. They cannot regift it easily, and if they want to put it on a shelf and forget about it, it requires quite a bit of room to do so. So now they are stuck with this box of cheap wine that they can’t drink and can’t easily get rid of.
This season, use one of these examples as a White Elephant gift, or let it inspire you to think of your own gag gift. These ideas in a White Elephant gift exchange will keep the party lively, and make it an event that is talked about throughout the year to come.
