White Elephant Gift Exchange Ideas

Help....the office is having a White Elephant gift exchange. I normally don't participate in these things, but I actually like and anjoy the people I work with. I don't really have a clue what to bring, only I know I want it to be really tacky, and no, I'm not a frau. Any suggestions dataloungers? I have a $10.00 limit....

Again, not the Xmas sweater wearing office Frau
• We did this at my old office and somebody brought pink fur lined cuffs. Every woman in that office was wanting them. No lie. It was very weird. Although, I live in LA and it was an architecture firm, so...... maybe they were just more out there.

• Go to a thrift shop, find some horrible black velvet painting or children-with-huge-eyes "artwork".

• You can find some really ugly shit at the dollar store. Ridiculous books are good. Something by the Kardashians or Justin Bieber's autobiography would be good choices. Tyra Banks is pushing some "Harry Potter" meets modeling book right now. If you still have a music store around you look for Christmas CDs by really ridiculous artists. Billy Idol had one out a few years ago I gave out as a joke. And I just saw one by Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford at Amoeba the other night. Go to Walgreens - they have the "As Seen On TV" section where you can find all kinds of tacky stuff like Pajama Jeans and Snuggies. Sadly, most of that crap is over $10 so you might be out of luck. I'd stay away from anything sexual at an office party.

• My work place is having this kind of party so, I went to the thrift store and found two off the wall things. First, I found an egg cuber, which cuts hard boiled eggs into a perfect cube. Not really practical but the pictures on the box were pretty funny. Second, I bought a "chicken roaster wand" which really looks like some sort of sex toy but is a legitimate cooking tool. Both items cost six dollars and should make people or at least myself.

  fun%20with%20coworkers

• A tube of Zim's Crack Repair Cream.

• Lottery tickets.

• Lube and a dildo.

• Cock ring

• Lottery tickets are a great idea.

• OP, I think you should buy something useful, rather than a piece of useless junk as a joke. No one wants something is just a piece of junk and something with which you trying to be funny or weird. Buy something useful. $10.00 is a lot of money for some people.

• I hate exchanging cheap gifts with dumb coworkers. a few years back, I got the CFO a year subscription to Fortune Magazine, and what did I get in return? A dvd of Crying Game. WTF???

  Lila%20McKann

• R10, a white elephant gift is meant to be funny, unusual or frivolous. That's the point, it's a joke. I'm unemployed and pretty poor but $10 is NOT a lot of money to someone who works in an office. Most office workers spend that on lunch each day.

• So is this why stores are packed to the rafters with garbage? Why The Kardashian books sell? You stupid cubeites and your lame white elephant parties?

• Go to the dollar store buy fun cute stuff- wrap it with dollar store paper and put it in a dollar store bag, viola. There is plenty of useful stuff at the dollar store! Crazy stuff too. Have fun. But for the love of god don't waste your money on a chia pet!

• [quote]put it in a dollar store bag, viola. Viola?

  Oh, Dear

• 1. Snooky's autobiography 2. Any of the Real Housewives CDs (didn't they all make CDs?) 3. Anything to hang on the car;s rear view mirror, but my vote goes to big plush pink dice. 4. toilet aper that either has a design on it like dollar bills or other nonsense. 5. Road Kill Cookbook 6. Any of these big slippers that look like dumb animals, I know they have bunnies, but I think they have rain deer as well. 7. Snuggies for pets.

  http://www.overstock.com/Books-Movies-Music-Games/The-Original-Road-Kill-Cookbook/171840/product.html%3Fcid%3D123620

• rain deer Oh, deer!

• Lottery tickets are usually a hit at our office gift exchanges.

• I always get something fun and unusual but useful. Like a coffee mug from the local potter. I like being one the gifts people fight for.

• a piece of fiber optic decor from an asian goods store. a knitted cosy for toilet paper Foam beer can insulators w/redneck-ish sayings

• You may have some co-workers that make you think of ME while at the office. CVS has a 3-pack of Summer's Eve samplers for $9.99.

  Cheryl

• Whatever tacky gift you get, OP, may I suggest you wrap it beautifully and put it in a shopping bag from an upscale store. Friends and I do this type of thing every year and there's always a proliferation of bags from Tiffany, Cartier, Bergdorf's, etc. It really adds a funny dimension to your gift.

• Go to the dollar store and buy a case of Fabuloso, it will last someone all year.

• Go to the dollar store and look in the toy or christmas music sections. At a recent such event, I gave two Christmas CDs (Charo and Slim Whitman). The real hit was the lifesize Barbie head that you could prctice hairstyles and makeup. It was damned creepy.

• I think most find some bizarre attaction to the lifesize Barbie head regardless of one's gender or sexual orientation. It's truly the gift for everyone.

• R25 wins

• OP, the last time I attended one of those parties at my job, I made homemade gingerbread cookies and used my dog-bone cookie-cutter, and everyone had a laugh about it. Even if you don't want to make cookies, you could buy a box of real dog biscuits and wrap them up in cellophane and ribbons like cookies. Either way they'd probably be used, and you would avoid buying some tacky Chinese knickknack that would just go in a landfill.

• R24, just curious. Did the recipient "get" your cds? Both must be hilarious.

• I personally would love to find a "ugly" black velvet painting, or one of those kitschy big eyed child prints from the '60s..but arent those quite sought after now?

• OP, $10.00 is good money. Why would you want to waste $10.00 on a piece of useless junk. It doesn't right with so many people struggling economically in the world today that you would just throw $10.00 away. Buy something that is useable or useful or give the $10.00 in a co-worker's name to Unicef. Or something that would delight the receiver. I do not get at all the idea of buying a piece of junk that is supposed to be somehow 'funny' when it is not 'funny' in the least and is just stupid.

• R22, oh yes, that is so funny. No. Not at all.

• OP, I have to pick on you for your typo, because it made me smile. I think you created new word when you said that you "anjoy" your co-workers. "anjoy" = enjoy + annoy = to enjoy the company of other people who find you annoying

  The%20Word%20Fairy

• Spending $10.00 at a thrift store helps create jobs !

  Spend it..Don't Hoard It

• Our department had a $10 "chinese gift exchange" every year. That is what they called bringing a wrapped gift and placing it under the tree and then picking numbers from a hat for first choice at picking a gift. You could "steal" a gift from someone before you or pick a gift from under the tree. Tension ensues. Not recommended. Fortunately I no longer work there. I'd usually get the $10 general-use items that Target puts out at this time of year, or a bottle of wine, or a single cup coffee press, or a DVD that has general appeal. I have no idea what I picked out from under the tree in all those years, but for one exception. This one was placed under the tree by our solitary frau, who shrieked at everyone every year that, "It HAS to be ten dollars!" This one turned out to be two thin, sandpapery cheap-ass potholders obviously purchased at a dollar store. Ten dollars, my eye, you stingy bitch. She had absolutely no shame in either grubbing for good stuff ahead of time or putting shit in gift wrap when it was her turn.

• R28. The recipient did not know who Slim Whitman was. I also had to explain who Charo was (I settled on being a frequent 'Love Boat' guest). Not all straight women are campy fans of pop culture. Tant pis.

  R24

• ANYTHING from The Christmas Tree Shoppe. I think pretty much everything in there is within your price range. *grabbing my car keys and coat as I type*

  Dont you just love a bargain

• The corporate culture at companies is so sick and revolting forcing employees into these types of activities. And acting like $10.00 is not significant money is absurd. No one should waste $10 on garbage.

• R34 here. The Christmas Party was actually held at some unlucky employee's house. Paid for by the employees. On the employees' personal time. During the holidays, when you're trying to get shit done on your personal time for family and REAL friends, whose parties you actually WANT to attend. Of course, if you don't participate in this mass delusion ("It's really no different from our parents' office parties, which were paid for by the company, on company time, with alcohol!"), you're a pariah.

  R34

• r34 - those pretty much ARE the rules for a White Elephant Party. By the way...did your company HAVE an H.R. department?!?! "Chinese Gift Exchange"?? Really?!? The only other rule is that a gift can only be "stolen" twice (or maybe 3 times?) Another traditional rule,I believe the real idea of a White Elephant Party is NOT to buy a gift but to find something that you already have in your house...something you don't want, never use, but there it sits like the elephant in your room. That often makes price ranges unimportant. But if the office makes the rules, then I guess you just go with it. Our W.E.Party last year had some fun stuff. Someone had a snuggy with Elmo on it. Someone gave a popcorn maker they'd never opened. Someone gave a bizarre bottle of liquer that no one had ever heard of or tasted. But that one got traded several times! I actually took and got rid of this HUGE "digital radio" that had been a free parting gift at some event I attended and had sat around in it's box in my apt for 3 years! That thing was the size of a 1970's "boom box". Truly a white elephant. Always in my way, never used. There was a remote control toy car. A book on puppies (which I won, cuz I love em). I like the idea of taking a really stupid tacky gift... something you already have like above that would be free...but then attaching $10 worth of lotto tickets. So if they want the tix, they also have to take that weird moth eaten blanket it comes with. With the provision that the tix can't be scratched off until the trade wars end! In fact... I may steal that idea this year. I really like this thread. Giving me ideas. By the way...this kind of party is a really fun idea for friends and people who are newer to your circle. After a cocktail or two...you really get an idea of people's sense of humor! Happy Holiday and good luck with "killin it" with your idea.

  Unless the gift is ACTUALLY Chinese, Careful what you name the party!

• Order a Demeter perfume like Dust or Dirt.

  http://www.demeterfragrance.com/58083_1_2_1/All-Classic-Scents.html%3Fnpp%3D144

• R39, you are weird and a corporate no-mind. These ridiculous Christmas rituals at work (or held away from the office) are sickening.

• Oh...and to the people freaking out and getting judgey about the $10 on junk...it's a lot of money...etc, etc... Give it a freakin break! It's the holidays! We work hard, and we're allowed to have silly fun sometimes! And you have NO idea if maybe this same office doing an inexpensive (YES) stupid gift exchange might also have organized a food drive, or coats for the needy drive, etc, etc. Or maybe the individual employee has made his own donations somewhere. So SHUT IT Scrooge. The real fun of the gift exchange is that one man's trash is another man's treasure. The success of this kind of thing is being creative and finding the weird thing that someone else may have a use for. So you're not just spending money on junk...someone else may actually have a collection of plastic circus animals or whatever.

  Still Stuck on the "Chinese" Party thing

• r41 - If you don't like the idea then don't go to parties and don't come in here and piss all over everyone else. Mine wasn't a Corporate party you ass wipe. I don't work for an office of any kind anyway! Mine was between friends. So I'll thank you to fling your feces elsewhere. And take your prozac.

• R42, it just isn't all that much fun. Christ, you must be desperate for diversion if you think these ridiculous, mandatory Christmas rituals forced upon people by the office are 'fun'.

• R42, R43, wow, you really sound like a person everyone would love to know. And your 'Christmas spirit' is so sincere.

• OP...You like and enjoy the people you work with. So any kind of party will be fun. And any gift will work just fine. Happy Holidays.

• Cheryl, Summer's Eve is so déclassé.

  http://www.flickr.com/photos/99sense/2329390685

• OP here...thanks everyone, but I really need some suggestions....not lectures about $10.00 limits, spending money on "junk" blah...blah...blah Kisses !

  I am "anjoying the suggestions!

• All of you losers whining about how $10 is a lot of money should really go get a fucking job. You are TIRESOME.

• OP, the suggestion is to buy something useful usable, or desired - instead of buying a piece of junk trying to be 'funny'.

• It is so arrogant of offices and companies to think employees want to throw away $10.00 of their very hard earned money on this type of garbage event.

• R49 = Newt Gingrich

• I think if you give a coworker lottery tickets, you should write your name and address on them first--just in case one is a big winner. Otherwise, go with a bottle of Patron if they drink, Godiva chocolate gift basket if they are teetotalers.

• A pretty Christmas ornament. You can get a pretty nice one for $10.

• A gift that would suit anyone is a $10 gift certificate to Walgreen's or whatever store is nearby your office, where all the employees go. If there isn't one, a grocery store gift certificate will suit anybody and might come in handy for people who are short on cash during the holidays.

• That is a great idea. R55!

• How about a needle and thread so they can darn their socks?

  broke bessie

• A Magic 8 Ball Velvet Santa Hat Bubble Bath Kooky Refrigerator magnets Huge bag of Kettlecorn Breath Mints - ten dollars worth

• Fuzzy Dice to hang from their car's rear view mirror.

• The ultimate WE gift

  http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/brush-buddies-justin-bieber-singing-toothbrush/ID%3Dprod6084003-product

  THREAD%20CLOSED%21

• [quote]It doesn't right with so many people struggling economically in the world today that you would just throw $10.00 away. Bitch, please. What is with you sanctimonious assholes? You may be broke, but please don't lecture the rest of us. Also, someone is to blame because you are broke, but it certainly isn't the OP.

• A $10 limit? WTF? At my office it's a $50 limit. What the hell could you get for $10 except junk???

• [quote]Our department had a $10 "chinese gift exchange" every year. That is what they called bringing a wrapped gift and placing it under the tree and then picking numbers from a hat for first choice at picking a gift. That's because your company is racist. Let me guess, midwest? No way that would fly on the coasts.

• WHITE elephant?? Talk about racist. The Elephant is from Africa, bitches!!

  hysterical%20poster

• Go find the biggest pair of granny panties you can find. Box'em up and throw it on the pile of gifts. Seriously this is the funniest damn joke you can do at a white elephant.

• "Chinese gift exchange"???? Wow, don't be an Indian giver. You might end up in the paddy wagon.

• My friends are doing this...I bought a singing Justin Bieber toothbrush...let the chaos begin !

  Baby...baby...Baby...OH

• R59, FYI, I used to have fuzzy dice, and someone told me the cops were ticketing people for having an "obstructed view." He got ticketed for having a handicapped placard hanging from the rear view mirror while driving. He saw my fuzzy dice and was kind enough to tell me. I guess the police are desperate for money too these days.

• OP, I suggest your local Dollar Store -- so much awful junk there. Or go to a thrift store in a really bad part of town. The so-bad-it's-good junk will jump in your lap.

  Hello Diversity Thrift!

• I'll give $10 to the joyless freak complaining about wasting money on useless gifts to just go away and stop posting. It's a white elephant: the point is to give a joke gift that will provide entertainment at the party. It is not supposed to be a straight forward gift exchange like a secret Santa. R34 actually explains the rules for this type of party, although he doesn't seem to realize what it is. And I can't believe a company would hold one of these and call it a "Chinese gift exchange". Isn't that clearly racist? Anyway, these parties are a lot of fun if you've ever been to one. Some joke gifts can be surprising popular, with people stealing them back and forth. Lots of laughs and fun.

• [quote]I'll give $10 to the joyless freak complaining about wasting money on useless gifts to just go away and stop posting. He's a truly miserable old cunt. Try TrollDar on him and then read the Chipotle thread.

• BTW, what you guys are calling a Chinese Gift Exchange, I know as a Yankee Swap. I don't know if that's more PC, especially if you are a northerner in the south...

• wow, R70, you are very easily entertained with schlock I suppose your ability to be easily entertained with schlock is a gift in itself!

• It's called having a sense of humor, r73, and enjoying fun, lighthearted times with friends. Two things you clearly know nothing about.

• When it comes to finding the prank gift exchange gift of huge grandma under panties and a Justin Bieber toothbrush, perhaps I and many other people have higher standards of what we find amusing and worthwhile in terms of spending life's moments.

• Home made jam

• This thread was mainly about office gift exchanges, not gift exchanges with friends in your personal life. Office gift exchanges are much different that gift exchanges with personal friends.

• Chinese gift exchange? At my company we call it the Black gift exchange or informally as the Ghetto gift exchange party. The idea is that we have to give the most ghetto gift we could find. Lots of laughs.

  Yes%2C%20we%20are%20located%20in%20the%20South

• Geez..smell R75

• Your company is ripe for a lawsuit, R78, should any employee choose to file one. Who are the dunderheads who run your company?

• [quote]This thread was mainly about office gift exchanges, not gift exchanges with friends in your personal life. No, this thread is about White Elephant gift exchanges (it's right there in the title) a specific type of gift exchange, the concept of which has been explained multiple times throughout the thread. The point is not to bring a practical, useful or valuable gift, but rather to bring a gift that will provide laughs and entertainment.

• The OP specifically states in his thread topic original post: Help....the office is having a White Elephant gift exchange. I normally don't participate in these things, but I actually like and anjoy the people I work with. I don't really have a clue what to bring, only I know I want it to be really tacky, and no, I'm not a frau

• One year I got a ramen noodle cookbook. It had desserts even. What a hoot and everyone loved it.

• R82, don't try to be using obvious facts with this crowd.

• Some people here have obviously never worked in an office.

• Eh, I actually like most of the people I work with, so, I enjoy our holiday party, WE and all. (and ours is usually held at the director's house, with liquor, beer and wine and entrees provided by the company, everyone else brings a small dish to share if they want to.) This year I am bringing a set of three DC shaped cookie cutters (the district shape, the Capitol and the Washington monument) and a box of cookie mix. I like giving something fun but practical too.

• The last time I participated in something like this was several years ago, and at the eleventh hour, I just went to Big Lots and bought a $10.00 iron! A new, usable iron. It was the last gift to be opened and the entire office ROARED. It was like the stupidest gift there.

• A Three Gift Combo: - A can of beans - GasX - Air Freshener OR Food in a Box and a Justin Beber singing toothbrush OR A Shakeweight

  Eric

• iTunes gift card.

• Lee's discount liquor has a fire extinguisher filled with vodka. It was the most popular gift at the last white elephant party I was at.

• A nice one is a mini bottle of whiskey - always a winner for me. Tacky/funny? butt wipes People laugh but they don't end up unused.

• Get some Romney campaign merchandise. That should be pretty cheap, you should be able to get a lot for $10.

• r87 I don't know anyone who irons any more.

• Used condoms. I used to get $6.75 for mine, but for some reason the market collapsed for me lately. More of an amber elephant gift.

  Val%20Kilmer

• What's the latest on horrible office Christmas parties?

• Spend $10 on a nice box and gorgeous wrapping. Then take a dump in the box. The perfect "fuck you" to whoever organizes these disasters.

• Lady Gaga toothbrush. Way better than Justin Beiber. I once brought a plastic clock shaped like a cowboy boot (Big Lots, I think). People were fighting tooth and nail over that stupid thing. I wound up with a rubber chicken, which I now dress up for holidays and hang in my cubicle.

  Rubber Chicken's Teeny Santa Hat and Matching Panties

• One year, we had a white elephant faculty party. One of the professors gave yarn, knitting needles and knitting instructions printed off a website. I got this gift. It turned out to be great, relaxing and productive.

• a "that was easy" button edible undies

• A six-pack & a porn magazine.

• Tell them you made a charitable donation in their name. You can't get much for ten bucks anyway and charities need every little bit.