Last edited on 20 December 2007.
While not necessarily limited to the giáng sinh holiday, White con voi Gift Exchanges are được ưa chuộng at this time of năm for clubs, associations, small groups, churches and offices around the United States. It is often a thêm affordable (and, possibly, fun) alternative to buying presents for everyone in the group. But what is a White con voi Gift Exchange?
The history
The story - almost certainly apocryphal - goes like this: in pre-colonial India, the rajahs would give gifts to their vassals as tokens of their esteem. Chief among these was the elephant. The con voi was both vehicle and beast of burden, a creature bạn could both ride to war and use to haul large weights, take goods to market, perform demolition, and the like. Essentially, the con voi was an extremely valuable creature. But a white con voi was considered sacred, and could not be put to work. So a rajah would be bestowing a great honor to a vassal bởi giving him a white elephant, while at the same time giving the vassal a rather huge burden. White elephants had to be kept, tended, groomed, fed, and exercised, all without getting the benefit of any work out of the creature.
The Exchange
Thus a White con voi Gift Exchange involves giving presents that a person would never want. Typically the presents do not present an economic burden to the recipients, however: instead, they tend to the tacky and/or tasteless, items that the recipient is honor-bound to display throughout the year, even though to do so mortifies him/her.
But, this being the United States, there has to be a hope for redemption...or at least getting even. It doesn't just consist of bạn getting someone some horrible talking toilet ghế, chỗ ngồi cover and leaving it at that. No, there are rules, for this is a game, as well as a gift exchange. How does the game work? It works as follows:
Step 1: Find the gift
Before the ngày of the White con voi Gift Exchange, bạn will want to find your unwanted/embarassing item. Often, groups holding a White con voi Gift Exchange will agree ahead of time to a maximum cost for the presents; twenty dollars is a common amount so named. Having the price in mind, bạn go forth to find the perfect contribution. nhà để xe sales, swap meets, estate sales and second-hand shops are all good fora for finding appropriate items, as are shops that specialize in selling tasteless hoặc gag gifts. Some examples of items that would work in a White con voi Gift Exchange are:
* the leg lamp from the film A giáng sinh Story
* a toilet ghế, chỗ ngồi cover that makes rude noises when pressure is applied
* a deck of cards featuring pictures of "all the girls of ngôi sao Trek"
* a wooden fertility fetish
* any underwear that features cartoon characters saying their catchphrases ("D'oh!", "Yabba Dabba Doo!" etc)
* a giant completed paint-by-numbers picture of Lady Godiva
* any Martin Lawrence movie
It should be đã đưa ý kiến that there can be great enjoyment to be had in being the one person who brings an actually (or relatively) desirable gift, what is called a "ringer" to a White con voi Gift Exchange. So bạn could also bring something relatively innocuous, like a garden hose. It's even better, though, if bạn can take something normal to an abnormal extreme, such as bringing a seventy-five foot garden hose. That way bạn can enjoy watching people try to decide between the useful but enormous item and the doormat that plays "The Real Slim Shady" with a motion activator, say.
Preparing the gift
Sure, bạn may think you're bringing the crown jewel of tacky White con voi Gifts, but it doesn't do to just plop it down in front of everyone. No, the best thing to do is to bọc the gift in such a way as the particpants can't tell what it is. That way, when someone selects the gift (more on that later), they'll get a surprise when they actually open the package.
Note: if bạn have reason to suspect that people will know what bạn are bringing to the White con voi Gift Exchange, bạn can also go to great lengths to disguise the item, much like bạn might do with a child at giáng sinh who is prone to guessing what his presents are. Take that small gift and put it in a huge box filled with packing material, hoặc perhaps bits of broken crockery to throw them off a bit. Take a picture of that enormous item, hide the item somewhere, and put the picture of it in a fancy envelope. Take the thrift-store item to Cartier and have them bọc it in a box with their branding. The possibilities will present themselves to bạn if bạn think about them long enough.
Drawing numbers
The hope I mentioned before comes in at the party/event where the exchange is to occur. When everyone is present, a number is placed into a hat for each participant. These are shuffled, stirred and otherwise mixed as best as can be done in a hat. Then each participant takes a number from the hat. Each person will then have a number, which indicates in which order they get to pick their initial gifts.
Each participant, on his turn, can examine the available gifts, picking them up, shaking them, anything short of unwrapping them, in order to inform the decision as to which gift to pick. Having made the pick, his turn ends and the tiếp theo participant takes her turn.
To Steal, hoặc Not To Steal?
Before I ocntinue, I should add that it is possible to have a White con voi Gift Exchange without the option of stealing...but the whole exercise is thêm fun with it. Before starting the exchange - good hosts will have done this days in advance - a number should be determined for how many times a được trao gift may be stolen. The number should be odd, and less than the number of participants in the White con voi Gift Exchange.
So, when a person takes a turn and picks a gift, she may choose either an unopened gift hoặc a gift that a trước đó participant has already chosen, thus "stealing" the gift from that person (as long as the maximum number of thefts has not been met for that item). That person's turn then ends.
With such stealing, there are two other options which must be considered:
1) After a theft, does play proceed to the tiếp theo number, hoặc does it go to the person whose gift was stolen? Either works. If the former, then everyone gets one turn to pick a gift (after which their gift may be stolen), then after everyone has picked at least once, bạn go through the participants in numerical order again, allowing people who remain without a gift to choose a new gift hoặc steal one themselves.
2) Can a person whose gift was stolen immediately steal it back? The White con voi Gift Exchange works as well with "takebacks" as without, though it can be thêm chaotic if takebacks are not allowed, so that a person who is really attached to an item which was stolen then has to work harder to get it back (often causing a chain hoặc thefts in the hopes of being reunited with the original).
"Workin' It"
In a White con voi Gift Exchange, participants are both able and encouraged to try to cajole, advertise, convince, and plead others to pick one gift over another, whether to try to unload an undesired item they ended up with, to get someone to pick the awful thing they brought, hoặc simply to gieo, lợn nái confusion.
The end?
Once everyone has taken at least one turn picking a gift and has a gift, the game is over, and the participants are encouraged to (attempt to) use and/or display the item so acquired prominently in their daily lives...if they dare.
But it need not end there! Many groups develop a White con voi Gift Exchange as an annual giáng sinh event, building a collection of past successes and failures to choose from when deciding what to bring in a particular year. In my old small group, we started a White con voi Gift Exchange in 1998, and some of them item that return are veterans of many of those years.
In the end, though, it should be approached for what it is: an enjoyable game, and not something to spark animosity. It is good fun, and usually makes for great stories afterwards.
While not necessarily limited to the giáng sinh holiday, White con voi Gift Exchanges are được ưa chuộng at this time of năm for clubs, associations, small groups, churches and offices around the United States. It is often a thêm affordable (and, possibly, fun) alternative to buying presents for everyone in the group. But what is a White con voi Gift Exchange?
The history
The story - almost certainly apocryphal - goes like this: in pre-colonial India, the rajahs would give gifts to their vassals as tokens of their esteem. Chief among these was the elephant. The con voi was both vehicle and beast of burden, a creature bạn could both ride to war and use to haul large weights, take goods to market, perform demolition, and the like. Essentially, the con voi was an extremely valuable creature. But a white con voi was considered sacred, and could not be put to work. So a rajah would be bestowing a great honor to a vassal bởi giving him a white elephant, while at the same time giving the vassal a rather huge burden. White elephants had to be kept, tended, groomed, fed, and exercised, all without getting the benefit of any work out of the creature.
The Exchange
Thus a White con voi Gift Exchange involves giving presents that a person would never want. Typically the presents do not present an economic burden to the recipients, however: instead, they tend to the tacky and/or tasteless, items that the recipient is honor-bound to display throughout the year, even though to do so mortifies him/her.
But, this being the United States, there has to be a hope for redemption...or at least getting even. It doesn't just consist of bạn getting someone some horrible talking toilet ghế, chỗ ngồi cover and leaving it at that. No, there are rules, for this is a game, as well as a gift exchange. How does the game work? It works as follows:
Step 1: Find the gift
Before the ngày of the White con voi Gift Exchange, bạn will want to find your unwanted/embarassing item. Often, groups holding a White con voi Gift Exchange will agree ahead of time to a maximum cost for the presents; twenty dollars is a common amount so named. Having the price in mind, bạn go forth to find the perfect contribution. nhà để xe sales, swap meets, estate sales and second-hand shops are all good fora for finding appropriate items, as are shops that specialize in selling tasteless hoặc gag gifts. Some examples of items that would work in a White con voi Gift Exchange are:
* the leg lamp from the film A giáng sinh Story
* a toilet ghế, chỗ ngồi cover that makes rude noises when pressure is applied
* a deck of cards featuring pictures of "all the girls of ngôi sao Trek"
* a wooden fertility fetish
* any underwear that features cartoon characters saying their catchphrases ("D'oh!", "Yabba Dabba Doo!" etc)
* a giant completed paint-by-numbers picture of Lady Godiva
* any Martin Lawrence movie
It should be đã đưa ý kiến that there can be great enjoyment to be had in being the one person who brings an actually (or relatively) desirable gift, what is called a "ringer" to a White con voi Gift Exchange. So bạn could also bring something relatively innocuous, like a garden hose. It's even better, though, if bạn can take something normal to an abnormal extreme, such as bringing a seventy-five foot garden hose. That way bạn can enjoy watching people try to decide between the useful but enormous item and the doormat that plays "The Real Slim Shady" with a motion activator, say.
Preparing the gift
Sure, bạn may think you're bringing the crown jewel of tacky White con voi Gifts, but it doesn't do to just plop it down in front of everyone. No, the best thing to do is to bọc the gift in such a way as the particpants can't tell what it is. That way, when someone selects the gift (more on that later), they'll get a surprise when they actually open the package.
Note: if bạn have reason to suspect that people will know what bạn are bringing to the White con voi Gift Exchange, bạn can also go to great lengths to disguise the item, much like bạn might do with a child at giáng sinh who is prone to guessing what his presents are. Take that small gift and put it in a huge box filled with packing material, hoặc perhaps bits of broken crockery to throw them off a bit. Take a picture of that enormous item, hide the item somewhere, and put the picture of it in a fancy envelope. Take the thrift-store item to Cartier and have them bọc it in a box with their branding. The possibilities will present themselves to bạn if bạn think about them long enough.
Drawing numbers
The hope I mentioned before comes in at the party/event where the exchange is to occur. When everyone is present, a number is placed into a hat for each participant. These are shuffled, stirred and otherwise mixed as best as can be done in a hat. Then each participant takes a number from the hat. Each person will then have a number, which indicates in which order they get to pick their initial gifts.
Each participant, on his turn, can examine the available gifts, picking them up, shaking them, anything short of unwrapping them, in order to inform the decision as to which gift to pick. Having made the pick, his turn ends and the tiếp theo participant takes her turn.
To Steal, hoặc Not To Steal?
Before I ocntinue, I should add that it is possible to have a White con voi Gift Exchange without the option of stealing...but the whole exercise is thêm fun with it. Before starting the exchange - good hosts will have done this days in advance - a number should be determined for how many times a được trao gift may be stolen. The number should be odd, and less than the number of participants in the White con voi Gift Exchange.
So, when a person takes a turn and picks a gift, she may choose either an unopened gift hoặc a gift that a trước đó participant has already chosen, thus "stealing" the gift from that person (as long as the maximum number of thefts has not been met for that item). That person's turn then ends.
With such stealing, there are two other options which must be considered:
1) After a theft, does play proceed to the tiếp theo number, hoặc does it go to the person whose gift was stolen? Either works. If the former, then everyone gets one turn to pick a gift (after which their gift may be stolen), then after everyone has picked at least once, bạn go through the participants in numerical order again, allowing people who remain without a gift to choose a new gift hoặc steal one themselves.
2) Can a person whose gift was stolen immediately steal it back? The White con voi Gift Exchange works as well with "takebacks" as without, though it can be thêm chaotic if takebacks are not allowed, so that a person who is really attached to an item which was stolen then has to work harder to get it back (often causing a chain hoặc thefts in the hopes of being reunited with the original).
"Workin' It"
In a White con voi Gift Exchange, participants are both able and encouraged to try to cajole, advertise, convince, and plead others to pick one gift over another, whether to try to unload an undesired item they ended up with, to get someone to pick the awful thing they brought, hoặc simply to gieo, lợn nái confusion.
The end?
Once everyone has taken at least one turn picking a gift and has a gift, the game is over, and the participants are encouraged to (attempt to) use and/or display the item so acquired prominently in their daily lives...if they dare.
But it need not end there! Many groups develop a White con voi Gift Exchange as an annual giáng sinh event, building a collection of past successes and failures to choose from when deciding what to bring in a particular year. In my old small group, we started a White con voi Gift Exchange in 1998, and some of them item that return are veterans of many of those years.
In the end, though, it should be approached for what it is: an enjoyable game, and not something to spark animosity. It is good fun, and usually makes for great stories afterwards.