the white elephant gift

We had our holiday party a little early this year at work and I wanted to share with you the top three gifts for a white elephant gift swap so that you don’t need to waste your precious time thinking of what everyone will want. In case you’re not familiar with the concept, the white elephant gift swap is when everyone brings a wrapped gift in. You then  pick numbers. The first person picks a wrapped gift. The next person can then take the gift from the first person or take his chance on a remaining unwrapped gift. This process continues with lots of swapping along the way. If you pick first, you get to go again at the end and take anything that you want. We had a $10 limit. The clear winners that got people excited were (1) gift cards (for iTunes, Starbucks, etc.) (2) gifts for kids that parents fought over (kind of amazing to watch – an example would be a very cool and desirable lava lamp) and (3) WINE (bags were carefully examined to check for alcohol). If you go the wine or champagne route, I love the idea of including a note about the specific bottle’s rating. So even if it’s $10, show why it’s so amazing.  Of course, you can always go with the clever and funny gifts, but the above were definitely a hit and I’d highly recommend them. Cheers!