When it comes to Christmas I really don’t like gift exchange games like Secret Santa. You pick someones name and then you give that person a gift you think they’ll like. I’m always in a continuous argument with myself of “Will that person like my gift?”, “If I give this gift, does it imply that I’m cheap?”, “Does this gift even matches the person I’m giving it to?”, “Is this gift even useful?”, etc.. In birthdays if you gave a gift and thought it didn’t hold up, it didn’t matter cause that person is still getting showered with other gifts. However in this gift giving, you only get one shot to “please”.

This year a new game was played called White Elephant, and I completely approve. There’s no stress in it because the present you give goes under the tree for anybody to choose or “steal”.

Here’s how the game works, everyone buys a gift (usually inexpensive) and it goes under the tree. Then you draw a number (usually from a hat), and the number decides the order that you go in.

The person who is first will select a gift to open and then show it off to everyone. Then the second person (and everyone after) can pick a new gift or they can “steal” a gift that somebody has opened. The person who has had their gift “stolen” gets another turn of opening a new gift or “stealing” someone else’s.

There is no “steal-backs” and an item can only be stolen up to 3 times then it’s determined “safe”. The game is over when everyone has a gift.

When it was my turn I was about to “steal” a chocolate fondue fountain, but I went with getting a gift from the tree. I ended up with house shoes, my mom got a foreman grill, and my dad got hella socks plus other items.

Overall it’s fun, anonymous, and random.

Well, I hope you had an awesome Christmas, cause I did!

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