We are having our 4th annual CrossRoads Christmas Party on Friday, December 19th.  The main event every year is our white elephant gift exchange.  Everybody coming is asked to bring an inexpensive gift (under $5), it can be something silly, a “re-gift”, or something nice.  It usually winds up being an uproarious time of fun.  We’ve had some great gifts over the years.  If you’ve never participated in such an event, here’s a background on the White Elephant Gift Exhcange (also known as Dirty Santa, Yankee Swap, or Chinese gift exchange) from the wonderful Wikipedia:

Gifts are wrapped, but are not labeled to reflect a specific sender or recipient. Gifts are typically inexpensive, humorous items or used items from home; the term white elephant refers to a gift whose cost exceeds its usefulness.  All participants draw a number (from a hat, perhaps) to determine their order.  The participant with #1 unwraps any gift from the pile and then shows it to everyone. Each successive participant, in the order determined from the drawing, can either 1) “steal” an already opened gift (if there’s one they really like) or 2) be adventurous and go for a wrapped gift from the pile. If the participant chooses to steal, the person whose gift is stolen now repeats their turn and either 1) steals another person’s gift (they cannot immediately steal back the gift that was just stolen from them) or 2) unwraps a new gift.  This cycle of stealing can sometimes continue for a long time, until a new gift is chosen, at which point the turn is passed to the participant with the next number from the drawing. (An alternative to the drawing is to sit in a circle and take turns in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction.) 

Since items can be stolen, the item in your possession is not yours until the game is over. However, this is often amended with a rule declaring a gift “dead” or “safe” after it has been stolen a certain number of times (usually two or three). This helps the process go more smoothly (avoiding, for example, the hypothetical scenario of the same gift being stolen by every successive participant) and limits the disadvantage of being among the first to choose gifts.  The person who picked first also has the option of picking last or keeping the gift already in hand. After they exchange or decide to keep their gift, the turn ends and there is no additional swapping.

So come, and bring a friend.  We’ll have live music, some goodies to eat, and other fun activities.  See you there!