Take My White Elephant.....Please!
With the Christmas holiday behind us, I have to say this year’s family get togethers were filled with laughter and fun. Each year to celebrate being together we participate in some sort of goofy hoopla. For this year’s Christmas Eve party, a white elephant gift exchange was decided upon.
For those unfamiliar with a white elephant gift, it’s usually something you have at home that you have no use for and hoping someone else will, or in other words you want to get rid of some useless crap. Numbers are drawn and rules are set before the game begins. This year the #1 draw was given a second turn at the end of the game.
The first person picks a gift, opens it, and waits for the stealing to begin. From here on out, when your number is drawn you can steal an open gift, or opt to pull a wrapped gift. If you choose to pick a wrapped gift, it’s yours unless someone after you decides to steal it. A gift can only be nabbed three times.
There are always a few gifts people fight for. This year it happened to be two: a bottle of partially consumed Jim Beam, and a “redneck” starter kit. My son had the #2 pick and in place of stealing, picked a wrapped one from the pile, opened it to discover the bottle of Jim Beam. Well….he was happy with his pick and decided to mark his territory by taking a swing from the bottle…..HA.
At maybe around person #5 or #6 it was taken and he had to either steal or open a new gift. He decided to take his chances and open a new one, which turned out to be one of those Coca Cola Christmas polar bear figurines. We all roared. With each new number, he proudly displayed the bears in hopes someone would take it off his hands. No one was buying it.
Along came popular gift #2….a “redneck” starter kit which consisted of a child’s pink Barbie fishing pole that had a dollar bill affixed to the end of the line, a pocket knife, shot gun shells, BIC lighter, a cold beer with koozie, and homemade charcoal. My brother was happy with his pick; but one or two others were spying it as well.
As you might have guessed, the Jim Beam was taken another time and the “redneck” started kit was stolen the allowed three times. Since the #1 person got to pick again, it was the last gift of the game to be stolen. My son was lucky enough towards the end of the game to happily give up his figurine to my mom; she has always loved polar bears. Andrew on the other hand picked another unopened gift that turned out to be a Christmas hat that had mistletoe and the words “KISS ME” with blinking lights…..LOL. We all roared again!
Even though the reason of the season is much more then goofy games; spending time with family and friends makes the holiday special. In the thoughts of my son….”Take my white elephant…..PLEASE” is like music to my ears. It meant we were all together to celebrate Christmas love.
xoxox…..Sheryl