Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

APRForReddit t1_j0z3tzt wrote

Reply to comment by chrissesky13 in I wrapped our white elephant gifts in the shape of toilet and a giant plunger. by LeftClique

That’s cool. But it’s not a white elephant.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant_gift_exchange

“A white elephant gift exchange,[1] Yankee swap[2] or Dirty Santa[3][nb 1] is a party game where amusing and impractical gifts are exchanged during festivities. The goal of a white elephant gift exchange is to entertain party-goers rather than to gain a genuinely valuable or highly sought-after item.”

3

dovahkiitten16 t1_j0zadb9 wrote

If you scroll down to the rules part you’ll see where the idea is that gifts can be swapped around and/or stolen. I would argue that the game part of it is what sets White Elephant apart from a traditional gift exchange or Secret Santa more than the quality of the gifts. So is there a word for it when you do that part of the game but make the gifts decent?

2

APRForReddit t1_j0zcrog wrote

It’s called a gift exchange….

White elephant refers to the story of the Thai king giving people he didn’t like white elephants. They weren’t allowed to decline or get rid of the gift, and taking care of an elephant would bankrupt them.

That’s why it’s called white elephant. It’s about shitty gifts

3

DoofusMagnus t1_j106fid wrote

Things can evolve beyond the origin of their names.

In the part you quoted you even demonstrate that the activity has names other than White Elephant. By your logic, can Yankee Swaps only be done by people in the northern US?

"Gift exchange" could describe any number of things, from a standard everyone-buys-soemthing-for-everyone-else, to Secret Santa, to White Elephant/Yankee Swap. Have you seen "gift exchange" used anywhere to specifically refer to a game of White Elephant done with non-shitty gifts?

0