My (extended) family does a White Elephant because it’s far cheaper than having to buy gifts for everyone and is much less pressure than a Secret Santa. It’s always a fun game, but yeah, effort is made to make the gifts decent. I got a bookshelf this year and stuck my cousin with a box of chocolate covered peanuts in exchange.

I’ve never heard of gifts having to be bad or that being the qualifier for making it a White Elephant. I thought it was more about the game aspect to gift giving.