Office Party White Elephant Gifts

Some bizarre thing I find at a thrift store. I love White Elephant parties.

You could get a can of Spotted Dick -- that was given at a White Elephant party I went to once.

White elepant is supposed to be funny.
You can do Practical, but do it funny..

Toilet brush that you have bedazzled..
Broom, with googlie eyes.
Bottle of prune juice

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Everyone is always curious what the HUGE box is - it's the larges "24 double rolls" of toilet paper.

Any of those "as seen on tv" type of items are fun - like the pajama pants or the bright feet lighted slippers

The alcohol always gets stolen. Which is fine if you are a drinker. I'd recommend a fruity flavored drink, as here at least, we always get 2 or 3 bottles of Jack and 2 or 3 of Crown ... boring!

I thought White Elephant was a gift from around your house that is in good condition that you don't want anymore.

I always thought cookbooks made good white elephant gifts.

I agree with the gift card, I would do a resturant everyone loves to eat out, especially when its free!! Merry Christmas!

What about lottery tickets or a nice bottle of wine?

For our White Elephant, it was supposed to be something you already had so that no money was spent. The dollar value was so that all of the choices were of about the same quality. Then people started going out and buying gift cards and wine and office supplies and it lost its 'fun' value.

Some things from our past parties that were hits
- funny cookie jar
- purse that you bought but never used
- serving platter (that was a hit!)
- bottle of wine (the person wasn't a drinker)
- nice scarf
- funny winter hat

A nice bottle of wine, or a pair of movie tickets would be NICE to come away with.
ETA: after the discussion re: "white elephant"... I have never actually BEEN to a white elephant party. Most people mention that, but really mean a Chinese party (I think that is right?) where you steal the more desirable gifts. There is usually a mixture of gag AND desirable and that keeps the fun level high. Because the gag ones are not really white elephant JUNK stuff, but more niche type things, or just lame things. Like a bath set from Walmart, that would be lame, b/c a guy would under no circumstances want it. And many women are picky regarding scents.

You could always split the difference and get a bottle of cold duck to go with the movie tickets. LOL

The White Elephant exchange in our office doesn't have a dollar limit assigned to it because it's presumed you are going to get something useless/worthless. I have a really nice 2012 calendar, still in the original packaging, that might just get donated. My co-worker is passing on some incredibly tacky salt and pepper shakers she got for xmas last year. I love Deanna's ideas!

I've always thought of "white elephant" gifts as being something nobody really would want, which is part of the fun of it. We always do a regular gift exchange with a dollar limit and then the white elephant.

We had O. ancient hair dryer that pretty much looked like a vacuum cleaner with a plastic cap attached that was brought back year after year and it was hilarious.

We have also auctioned off the "white elephant" gifts, sight unseen, to help raise money for the next year's party. It's not about the "thing", it's about the fun. The funnier, the better.

Good luck!

White elephant is suppose to be a gag gift, but I always like to throw a nice colorful gift in there and watch people fight over it.

O. year I did the Italian waiter who carries the wine bottle on his back.

throw blanket, assortment of coffees with a mug (you can get some cute flavored coffees cheap at walmart), a "spa" basket with stuff for a pedicure or bubble bath or something fun

We just had O. in our office two days ago. Some were gag gifts, some were kind of cool. It's actually fun to have a good mix because then a lot of stealing goes on, which is the best part. We had a Gangnam (style) t-shirt, a new goose-down vest with Google emblazoned on the back of it, SuperBowl highlights DVD, candles, bath salts, jewelry holder, Starbucks gift card, scarf, super ugly nicknack plates w/ lame sayings on them, Trader Joe's holiday munchies, etc.

I walked off with the best O. of all (IMO), an unopened table-top pool table. Snagged that baby on the last steal :)

Anyway, O. year I went home with a (new) toilet plunger -- and yes, I put it to use. Another year I brought a big kitchen trash bag filled w/ unwanted ornament balls that people had donated to me when I was young and didn't have any decorations. That O. was really fun.

The most popular around here is alcohol.

If you can't do that with office crowd.... Gift card, specialty coffee, sport themed gift, vase, etc

Have fun!

I would go the gift basket route since it's coed.
Carwash basket
Hot cocoa basket
Movie night basket
Or some of the other suggestions, like coffee, etc.

I can remember us doing this every year at our church Christmas party. It was always things like Dominoes, really special mug sets, something that was a splurge item but of course not expensive.

There would always be O. or two that would bring something that was not in the true spirit of the game. I got an ugly vase O. year and I sat there the whole game with no O. even trying to take my gift. It was so depressing. I took it to the kitchen and when I forgot it I never really missed it.

The gift you bring should be something nice but adorable. It could be basically anything off the isle at Walmart where the Christmas gift sets are, they are often the sundae sets, hot cocoa mugs with cocoa mix and marshmallows, bath sets for her of course but if the gift can be stolen a couple of times then it will likely end up with a lady because they'll likely take it. Our even you could decide you'd like it and try to steal it away.

going the practical route: flash light, golf balls, ear buds, small umbrella, desk calendar, travel mug - dishwasher safe.

We used to go to a friend's party on New Year's Eve. The items that were wrapped the most suggestively (i.e. a smoked sausage with a pair of golf balls) would be stolen the most, only to find out that it was not at all what it was thought to be. Depends on your office though. I could do that for mine, but would not have done it for my previous job.

Have fun!

The way I know white elephant to be is something not too serious, but the idea of a white elephant gift is that it's supposed to be something that you already have that you can regift. You shouldn't have to buy anything. So this sounds more like an exchange gift thing that supposed to be funny?