I got a cookie jar in the shape of Santa Claus's head.

There was some weird stuff in the gift pile: a glass cube filled with christmas lights, old paperback books nobody would want, a casino-themed shadowbox, a box of really small picture frames, a spice girls CD, really big blue pajamas, a toothbrush sterilizer...

Anyone else get weird stuff playing white elephant?

12/14/2007 3:54:01 PM

I came in here ready to play the race card...but now I'm just confused

12/14/2007 3:55:51 PM

whats white elephant...

[Edited on December 14, 2007 at 3:56 PM. Reason : ^haha i thought of going that route too]

12/14/2007 3:56:09 PM

We have one next Friday and I'm bringing a giant chocolate penguin that my sister got in one the other day. I always thought the point was to bring a gag gift and/or homemade goods.

12/14/2007 3:57:50 PM

Anyone else call it Pollyanna? (without the stealing) I just looked it up, apparently it's a Philadelphia area term.

12/14/2007 4:08:10 PM

White Elephant/Dirty Santa is like a Secret Santa, but where you draw numbers to see what order people choose from. You can either steal an already opened gift from someone with a lower number than you or pick a new one to open. It's a lot of fun!

Unfortch, I like it much better when you go with low dollar limits - then you really get the fun and wacky stuff. I got a can of tomato soup once. Last night I got stuck with a bottle of rose champagne.

12/14/2007 4:12:03 PM

12/14/2007 4:13:14 PM

Oh we basically played that in the dorms, except I was the only one who knew we were playing.

I didn't like my Natty Light? No prob, I just swapped it for your Sam Adams.

12/14/2007 4:13:56 PM

Anyone else call it Pollyanna?

Pollyanna (or Secret Santa as it's called down here) is totally different and yes we did pollyanna every year when I was a child.

Previously white elephants have yielded me a giant rubber duck, a back pillow and expensive French chocolate.

who knows what I'll get this year.

12/14/2007 5:18:04 PM

12/14/2007 5:29:11 PM

My family has played it for YEARS, we call it Dirty Santa though.

And we take it seriously, the gag gifts usually are rigged with money some how. One year, my cousin was stuck with a bag of walnuts. When it was all over, my uncle made him "eat" one, and a dollar fell out. He had done that to like 20 of them. One year my Daddy got a jar of screws, there was a 20 rolled up so small inside of it. I have a really crafty family.

12/14/2007 6:04:19 PM

We played that yesterday with my work girls...the gift I brought got passed around a lot

^my family does that too

[Edited on December 14, 2007 at 6:10 PM. Reason : ]

12/14/2007 6:05:04 PM

some girl wrapped up a sample pack of pads and I got that...I so wanted to throw it in her face followed by a cock slap

12/14/2007 6:05:31 PM