Desperately Need Help with a Creative Christmas Gift! :)

My friends and I do this every year, tonight in fact! A big winner for us are throw blankets. You can find them at Walmart and TJ Maxx. Good luck!

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I bought one of these for all my staff. They are regularly $59.99, but at Overstock they are $19.99. I think they are all going to love them!

http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/Digital-Photo-Keycha...

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The best 'stupid' gift we got at a white elephant exchange was a REAL live lobster wrapped in an iron box. It was the funniest thing ever and someone actually took it home and cooked it! Of course, this is something you need to do right before the party.

The best 'real' gift was a gift card for a pizza and free movie from Dominos.

scratch off tickets... or gift certificates to blockbuster or starbucks.

R., I really like TF's response, if the people at the party are drinkers. If not, or if you're just not sure, how about a game that the adults could play together? I suggest you DON'T get Moment Of Truth. We got that game and it caused a lot of hurt feelings, so I would avoid it if I were you. Good luck! I hope you have a great time! God bless! Merry Christmas! S.

we do white elephant for Christmas every year. We have had some quite interesting gifts to play the game with need less to say. You can do a really soft warm blanket, a Starbucks gift card, an American Express gift card so they use it where ever they choose. One year someone brought a 'really cool' toaster oven ('really cool' cause I wound up with it and you have to act like you really like the gift you got - right?????) Anyway, anything you bring will be fun and someone will 'fight' for it I am sure.

Have fun.
K. B

Go to Walmart at the 5 dollar movie bin and pick out some crazy movies. Or the half price book store has movies for clearence for only 3.

I would confirm if it is "stupid stuff" or a gift someone would actually want. We do things someone would want. I always do lotto and liquor (my gift and husbands gift). Mostly, everyone else brought something they would want themselves. One girl brought a choclate fountain. This year I am going to bring a water filter. Lame I know but maybe noone else will want it!

well i think it depends if you are going with the "white elephant" gift (that someone else described as the gag type) or more of, what my family calls,a "chinese christmas" where it is a nice gift and people can take your already opened gift or choose a new one from under the tree. you draw numbers before you start that to go in order. you may want to confirm with the host. anyway, if it is a white elephant....the lotto tickets are a good idea or those plush christmas animals where you push a button and they sing and dance or reindeer house shoes. if you want a more "real" gift try a GC for the movies or a date night type bag filled with popcorn, candy, and a dvd or GC for a movie rental place. if everyone is drinkers, a nice bottle of wine or alchohol could work. you could get a nice pictue frame or wine bottle stopper (try pottery barn). best of luck and most of all have fun!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS

sorry to be a scrooge but i say no to ticket b/c if you don't win you get nothing at all. i love gift cards sorry it is boring but always needed in these tough times.

Our best item worth "fighting" over for our family was a set of pot holders and some pocket knifes. Those items were stolen more than anything. Women always need pot holders and the men like knifes!
Good luck, I have always enjoyed the w/e games at our Family Christmas parties! We even have a "youth" w/e now since our family has grown so much!!
Merry Christmas and God bless,
B.

My in-laws did that last year. My sis-in-law had the best gift that everyone wanted! She went to Kohl's and got a bunch of neutral-colored towels in all different sizes. She got a couple of the big bath sheets, smaller bath towels, hand towels and wash cloths. Everyone fought over that gift! Not necessarily exciting, but everyone can always use towels!

I wish you luck and can't wait to see the suggestions as I am needing the same.
GL

A fun gift idea is get one of those bucket microwave popcorns at Blockuster add candy and a great movie: Movie Night!!

It is also fun to put together a Blockbuster gift basket. I have done this the last 2 years and for some reason people loved the gift and would even steal it (under game rules). I do 2 cokes/Dr. Pepper, popcorn, candy and a BB gift card. Wrap it up real cute and it is sure to be a winner! Merry Christmas!

we just got back from oklahoma where my husbands family did theirs. Gifts were all under $20. They call it 'dirty santa.'
popular gifts were the 2 dirt devil things and the 2 digital keychains.
Gifts were things like a thermos set, rooster cookie jar, a nice box of chocolates, a knife set for camping, a kitchen knife set, and board games just to name a few!
One person even put a ton of kids toys in a gift bag and at the bottom of the bag was a letter the person had to read to themselves. It said if she really wanted the real gift...she had to stand up in front of everyone and pat her head and rub her tummy while spinning in circles shouting 'merry christmas'...she did it and got the thermos set! It was so funny b/c she hasn't been in the family very long and she's super quiet! LOL

My hubs & i brought board games that we would want for ourselves.
He got a digital keychain and i got the rooster cookie jar...mind you, i'm afraid of the suckers!

After its all over and done is when you can try to talk someone into trading if you end up like me...hubby's uncle traded me and now we have a coke-a-cola clock.

You could always re-gift something...that's what wouldve happened next year to the rooster!!

Good luck. You'll have a ton of fun!!!

Nice bottles of wine or some special name brand liquor (ex Greygoose Vodka, Johnny Walker Black, etc) has always gone over very well at parties we regularly attend.

we dove into a container store last year on our way to a gift exchange...came out with a couple of trunk organizer things and a kitchen-y, white metal mesh set of stacking drawers. they were the 2 most-stolen gifts there - go figure!

Gift cards are also something that everyone loves to receive.

White elephant gifts are supposed to be something silly - stupid, even, like half used candles and a can of soup or something. I think the lotto tickets are an awesome idea.

S.

At the last family get together we did this as well and one of the neatest gifts (I thought) was a subscription to a magazine for the year. They did National Geographic but you can also do one of the things where you can give a gift card and then they can pick the subscription that you want. got to www.magazines.com!
Good luck and Happy Holidays!!

We usually do this every year at our small company's Christmas party. Limit $10. All kinds of things have surfaced. Last year's favorite steal was a patio lantern for a candle. Several years ago, the favorite steal was some kind of game. Every year my son takes the same $7 box of chocolates and most years he ends up taking it home and enjoying it. CDs have been popular.

The "most stupid" gift? Last year an odd coworker wrapped the empty box for the hat he bought that year. We all laughed about that and then scolded him for not spending any money on the "gift" It truly did not have any value!

I loved the idea of a movie night gift basket. very nice!

I would hate the lotto tickets myself.

Let us know what kind of gift you end up choosing!

A.

An XLG sweat shirt from your favoite football/basketball team.

$25.McDonald's gift certificates.

Movie theater gift card

Bus/subway tokens

Unisex hair salon haircut gift certificate

Blockbuster Card

Grocery or Gasoline Gift card

25 ($1) dollar bills taped together

Go to the Thrift Store. You can find all kinds of strange and bizarre things there. Ideas: a really large and ugly Christmas decoration, very tacky robe, strange gadget that no one can figure out. Brookstone has some unusual gadgets. Go to Sam's or Costco and buy a humongous amount of some item - like candy or toilet paper. Also, Spencer's Gifts has some great gag gifts. Many of them are adult only, so may not be appropriate if children are present. But they have some really silly stuff. If you have a shared inside joke with this family that you can exploit, that is always fun. Like if you had a bad experience at a certain restaurant, then give a gift certificate to the restaurant.

I looked up the definition of a White Elephant gift because I too thought it was supposed to be a 'lame' gift. Here is the definition, "Gifts are typically inexpensive, humorous items or used items from home and sometimes, they are just plain trash; the term white elephant refers to a gift whose cost exceeds its usefulness"

Personally, I love lotto tickets so I certainly wouldn't consider that a humorous gift. However, many would argue that the cost does indeed exceed its usefulness!!

To this day, I remember receiving a white elephant gift at an exchange when I was a child. The party was for my parents but I got to participate. I ended up with this ridiculous wind up beetle. It was an ugly brown beetle with pincers and you would wind it up and it would walk about 5 feet. Oddly enough, I kept it for as long as I can remember. I might actually still have it stashed somewhere. I wasn't happy about it at first, as a child, but ended up loving the memory for years to come. Sorry....I am rambling. But just thought I would share.

We have given or received the following great gifts at a white elephant gift exchange:

Taboo (fun game)
Fuel Gift Card (who couldn't use a free tank of gas?)
Cinemark Gift Card
Olive Garden Gift Card
Gravy Warmer
Liquor
Lotto Tickets
Quesadilla Maker