As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Options
White Elephant Gifts
Kyougu
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Doing a white elephant gift for the first time this weekend, and I'm lost as what to get. I was just going to pick a tv season from BB (Limit is 20) but now I'm hearing that gifts have to be funny or "wacky". Anyone have any suggestions?
Kyougu on
0
Posts
My go-to white elephant is either one of those monster ballad hair-metal greatest hits or 80's rap compilation CD's.
Hell, sometimes the wife and I will still put in the 80's rap in her car player. It's surprisingly fun to listen to.
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
Classic?
Personally I tend to go to Toys R Us and look for something I probably would have thought was fun when I was a kid. A wiffle-ball bat, for instance. Or two cheap nerf guns so people can shoot at each other during the rest of the party. Or something that makes a loud, annoying noise someone can torture his wife with.
...I'm so lucky I'm still loved.
It's also usually something that keeps a person interested in shelling out cash over hand and foot, not something completely useless.
And you win the thread sir! And god bless Amazon Prime.
It's the origin of the term itself, but in the gift swap game it's normally the intent that items be cheap/tacky/humorous but generally useless. My old workplace did them. Common items were stuff like the Christmas Story night light above (had one taken from me in the last round, too), novelty Monopoly sets (I got the NFL Monopoly when they took the night light - the Cleveland Browns are a chance card. "You buy the Cleveland Browns. Pay $50. You can never collect ticket sales on the Cleveland Browns."), and sometimes just bizarre things from the antique warehouse like a WWI helmet with a bayonet stuck in it.
On that subject, antique warehouses. You can find some downright hilarious stuff at them for $20 if you get lucky. Most of them are consignment or rented stalls, so you do have to get lucky to catch something cool. One in my area currently has a knife with a carved bust of John Wayne for a handle and Marylin Monroe chamber pot.
Oh and I just thought of the best one, $20 worth of pennies. Not sure how to pull that off but it would be hilariously useless.
If this is under $20 it's perfect.
Other than that, great places to look: Dollar stores, gas stations, more specifically trucker road stop gas stations as they have even loonier shit, places like 7-11, or if liquor is acceptable bodega liquor stores which usually stock goofy bottles of booze. (Such as a cheapass bottle of tequila that comes in a bottle shaped like a revolver and so on.)
Edit: Oh, and the tried and true go to is always an extremely gaudy and ugly christmas sweater.
Which reminds me, I should probably go look for that thing and wrap it up before someone gives it to me.
If you;re not feeling that evil, go to a science or military surplus store and find some weird item.
Maybe something horrendously touristy, like an "I saw the Duck Museum!" hat, if there's anything local that might work.
For a laugh, a wall poster of a shirtless sexy man from a popular movie - We've had Leonidas from 300 and the guy from Twilight...I would not recommend doing a similar poster of a female, I'd worry someone uptight might get offended.
$10 in Lottery tickets
$10 worth of Dunkin donuts/starbucks/whatever coffee
One year one guy also wrapped up one of his old shoes and put a $10 bill in it, that was pretty funny.
Without knowing the group it's hard to be specific; sometimes you're going more for entertainment value than actual gift-value, and it also heavily depends on the silliness/geekiness of the crowd... but basically you usually want something that's going to be enjoyed on some level by almost everyone, as opposed to a gift that would be really desired by one person but not liked by someone else. Which is why people are mentioning things like lottery tickets / silly antiques / etc as opposed to a tv series - if someone really liked the tv series, it would be a great gift, but if they didn't then it would be a waste
Second: 20 dollars of Doughnuts. Trust me, you'l l be the coolest dude there.
Third: Dont bring a Mason Jar
Fourth: Unless you can fit 20 dollars of doughnuts into it
The best white elephant gift I ever got was a flashlight you charge by shaking (something to do with Ohm's law according to the package).
Go with something at least somewhat cool. I gave a gently used putter one year that went over really well.
Or, $20.00 of doughnuts. I probably would keep trading for the doughnuts.
With friends I had a Swine Flu preparedness kit which had typical house cleaning supplies, bottle of tequila and cheap cold medication all decorated in a nice BREAK IF NEEDED BOX
With my family being we are all Hispanic. I had a Deportation Preparedness kit its a box with two themes on each side, what you need being sent to Mexico and one when you smuggle back to the USA. Mexico side had tequila, shot glasses, mexican money and other details then there is the crossing back to USA supplies: bottle of Jack Daniels, American flag, a How to Cross the border for dummies and dvd of Born in East LA.
Sometimes you can theme your gifts and yes all of these where under 30
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!