The first thing that comes to my mind when I am invited to a White Elephant Gift Swap is, “Oh, great, another creative gift I am going to have to come up with.” Stress no more because we’ve compiled a list of our favorite gift ideas, all under $30 and available locally, that will satisfy the folks at your work party, bro-bash, family soirée, or gals night. No matter what you choose, always remember to pick something good (or hilarious) because nobody wants to be the person who brought the gift that everyone’s trying to get rid of.
1) GROWLER from Alibi Ale Works in Incline Village for $26
2) COMP PASS If you’re a ski resort employee, cough up one of your complimentary day passes.
3) EARTH-IN CANTEEN available at Bespoke in Truckee for $30
4) SKI SOCKS available at Tahoe Sports Hub in Truckee for $15
5) MAKE IT SNOW BRACELET from Blue Wolf Studios in Kings Beach for $12
6) COOKIE TRAY from Tahoe House Bakery & Gourmet in Tahoe City for $12.95
7) WOODEN UTENSIL SET available at New Moon Natural Foods in Truckee for $12.99
8) LUCI SOLAR LIGHTS available at Mountain Hardware & Sports in Truckee for $15
9) MAD LIBS BOOK available at the Truckee Variety Co. for $3.99
10) LOTTERY TICKETS
Official Game Rules
1. Each player brings one wrapped gift to contribute to a common pool. The gift exchange organizer should provide information on what type of gift people should bring.
2. Players draw numbers to determine what order they will go in.
3. Players sit in a circle or line where they can see the gift pile but not touch them.
4. The first player selects a gift from the pool and opens it. Make sure everyone can see the gift!
5. The following players can choose to either pick an unwrapped gift from the pool or steal a previous player’s gift. Anyone who gets their gift stolen in this way can do the same – choose a new gift or steal from someone else.
To keep things moving along, there are a couple of limits on gift swapping:
• A present can only be stolen once per turn, which means players who have a gift stolen from them have to wait to get it back.
• After three swaps, the turn automatically comes to an end.
6. After all players have had a turn, the first player gets a chance to swap the gift he or she is holding for any other opened gift. Anyone whose gift is stolen may steal from someone else (as long as that person hasn’t been stolen from yet). When someone declines to steal a gift, the game comes to an end.
• Note that for this last “extra” turn, the three-swap rule doesn’t apply. Players can keep swapping until someone decides to stand pat, or there are no other eligible people to steal from.
*Courtesy of whiteelephantrules.com
Where did the name White Elephant come from?
The meaning behind this game dates all the way back to ancient Asian history, where the white elephant was considered holy but extremely expensive to keep. So, a king would give the gift of a white elephant to a subordinate he was displeased with and the animal would be so expensive to keep that it would put the receiver in financial ruin. In other words, a white elephant gift exchange is made up of gifts that have value to some and not to others.
