Perfect White Elephant Gifts

The difficulty in choosing a white elephant gift is deciding how good or how bad you want it to be. If your gift is just “bad” it will be unwrapped and not stolen. If your gift is horrific it may be stolen a lot. If your gift is only “good” then it won’t be stolen, but if it’s amazing it will be stolen a lot.

In choosing a gift you have to decide if you want to go good or bad. So if you’re walking through your house looking for something to contribute, don’t grab the Barbie, grab the creepy doll that will haunt your dreams. Don’t opt for the ordinary because the more odd and random the better.

Creativity is always good for laughs. I once received a “Tic-Tac-Toe Kit” which consisted of a pen, paper, and 20 or so drawn tic-tac-toe boards. Other personal favorites of mine were “How to Speak Kingon” instructional CDs, old family VHS tapes, and a book on grammar.

The truth is every person’s gift plays a part in the success of another’s gift. Contribute something terrible and it will make someone else’s gift more desirable. By contrast your gift may become the best or worst option. The goal should be to offer something unique in order to have variety. I once gave a 40lb. lump of coal. In years past I’ve given a frozen Turkey, an enema kit, and a bed pan.

Take something people will remember and you can’t go wrong.