twenty-five | day 10 – gift-sharing madness

festive Christmas gifts

presents passing round the group

“who will take that one?”

With Christmas gift giving sometimes getting out of control during the holiday season, a pretty good alternative is the white elephant exchange. This provides a group with an opportunity to give gifts and also allows for gag-gifts and other stuff that can entertain a crowd for a while. Popular items include snuggies, toilet paper, that year’s hottest “as seen on TV” items, etc. Sometimes people use this as an opportunity to give away something they have at home that they don’t want, or re-gift an item they didn’t particularly care for (I don’t necessarily condone this…).

I recall one white elephant exchange I used to be in, for a few years, an exercise video called Dancin' Grannies was making reappearances as people were desperately trying to get rid of it. By the 3rd year, it was so certain that DG was making an appearance, that people had to creatively hide the fact that there was a VHS in the packaging. I remember one year seeing it packed as if it was a bottle of scotch (that took some creativity – apparently the guy actually made a papier-mâché whiskey bottle with a cutout of a VHS tape. There was even a compartment for a pouch of fluid so you could hear sloshing around when you shook it).

In case you’re interested, Dancin' Grannies is still available on Amazon (sorry, not eligible for prime – but then again, if you can’t wait for regular shipping on this, the I'd say osteoarthritis-risk might be the least of your worries). I leave the decision up to you.