White Elephant Gift Ideas

Ever since my family decided to forego the annual gift exchange in lieu of a white elephant exchange, I have been hooked!  We only did it one year, but seeing my Great Aunt Ruth open up the package of “his & her” holiday thong underwear, made Christmas ten times better that year! 

I’ll admit, my first few years going to white elephant exchanges, I didn’t exactly understand what they were.  I was told that you re-gift something awful you were given.  I had no idea that it was so much more than that!  Basically, white elephant gifts are a crap-shoot!  The four main categories of gifts seem to be:

1. Funny--  Presents using potty humor, inside jokes, or pretty much anything from Spencer’s Gifts. 
2. Throwback--  My husband had an old Vanilla Ice VHS tape that we gave away once & I’m pretty sure the Regis Philbin workout video is still making the white elephant rounds!
3. Weird--  This category seems to be mainly made up of creepy looking Christmas angels, but at a recent exchange a friend brought women’s tights with fruits & veggies printed on them.
4. Good--  Something you never use, but think someone else might like or something you buy.  I have seen popcorn poppers, tool bags, & unused gift cards given.

If you’re not familiar with the concept of a White Elephant Exchange, participants are asked to bring an unmarked, wrapped gift, within a set monetary amount.  Once everyone arrives, gifts are placed in a designated spot & guests are given a number, that determine the order in which the presents will be opened. The person who choses number one will pick a gift & open it.  The next person can either choose to steal the gift from number one or open a different gift.  If number one’s gift gets stolen, they get to open another gift from the pile.  The game continues with each person selecting to either open a gift or steal a gift that has already been opened.  Usually, a gift can only get stolen three times & then it is frozen.  Once everyone has had a turn, the person who was number one gets the option to steal a gift.  When everyone has a gift, the game is over!

Now that we have all the boring information out of the way, let’s talk gift ideas! 



I took this simple gift to a couples exchange.  Basically, hot glue a condom onto a piece of paper that reads, “In case of miracle… break glass” & put it in a cheap frame.  I couldn’t resist buying a Dollar Tree pregnancy test, so I included that in the gift as well & taped on a paper that read, “In case of different miracle”.



Another easy gift to assemble is the “Gotta Go Emergency Bathroom Kit”.  I grabbed a pair of .98 underwear, flushable wipes, toilet covers, & tissue pack (Emergency Toilet Paper) from Wal-Mart.  I found the antibacterial wipes, hand sanitizer, & cosmetic bag at Dollar Tree.  I made the No. 2 Spray & grabbed the rest of the items from our house (feminine products & rubber gloves).



I made this label (you can see the other side in the top photo) explaining what the contents were for.  Surprisingly, this gift was so popular it got stolen three times & frozen!  (I think some other people had White Elephant parties to go to!

My husband also had a popular white elephant gift.  He & some friends message each other through GroupMe.  On the app, you can easily make memes out of the pictures you post.  They joke around with each other, by creating memes out of pictures the other guys have posted.  Hence, he made a meme photo book.  These are mainly just inside jokes between the guys, but Mark did have to add a few new ones to fill up some pages.



The guys got a pretty big kick out of it!



So, what are some of your fun white elephant gift ideas?